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Progressive Christian

2017-11-17T13:54:54+00:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Pastors: If You’re Not Speaking Up, It’s Time to Hand Off the Mic

Last updated on: November 17, 2017 at 1:54 pm By Jayson D. Bradley

I fear that churches in America are being run like corporations. And like many companies, they have to appease the shareholders who make their stock payment every Sunday morning. The collected funds from this offering maintain the facilities and keep the staff paid. But what happens when a church is full of people of similar race, economic position, and politics? What happens when many of them get their news and information from the same sources? What happens when their social views have... Read more

Social Issues

The Church

2017-11-15T06:29:03+00:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Sarcasm, Generation X, and Our Ironic Savior

Last updated on: November 15, 2017 at 6:29 am By Jayson D. Bradley

It always strikes me as funny when I hear Gen. Xers bad mouth Millennials (which seems to happen on the regular). My peers forget the early 90s when we were seen as the world’s entitled jerk generation. We’re just lucky that social media didn’t exist while we were the world’s scapegoats. The irony generation When angry boomers and their “greatest generation” elders talked about my generation, they’d always accuse us of caustic irony and cynicism—it seems we had ushered in... Read more

Social Issues

The Church

2018-04-09T22:11:14+00:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Rethinking Church Authority with the Iroquois

Last updated on: April 9, 2018 at 10:11 pm By Jayson D. Bradley

The first church I attended went through a huge split just before I arrived. Many were leaving because the church was pushing Gary Ezzo’s Growing Kids God’s Way curriculum. It was a parenting course that was heavy on discipline and scheduling the behavior of children until their naturally rebellious spirits were broken. The curriculum philosophy echoed John Robinson’s 16th-century advice to his pilgrim parishioners, “And surely there is in all children . . . a stubbornness, and a stoutness of mind arising... Read more

The Church

2018-04-09T22:17:24+00:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Church or Government: Whose Job Is It to Take Care of the Poor?

Last updated on: April 9, 2018 at 10:17 pm By Jayson D. Bradley

Whenever you see a left-leaning Christian talking to a conservative about poverty, it turns into a question of who should be taking care of the poor. I found myself in a debate about this the other day, and the gentleman I was talking to fell back on the argument that it was the church’s job to take care of the poor, and not the government. But is that really true? Whose “job” is it to take care of the poor? My first... Read more

Social Issues

The Church

2018-04-09T22:21:53+00:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

5 Things the Fundamentalists Forget about Jesus

Last updated on: April 9, 2018 at 10:21 pm By Jayson D. Bradley

We all know fundamentalists, but most of us would never admit to being one. The truth is, I’m a recovering fundie. I was baptized in a particularly conservative church and believed that somehow I’d been fortunate enough to be baptized into a congregation that was right about everything—lucky me. Someone recently asked me to define the word “Fundamentalist” because they’d heard it used so often, but she’d never heard a good definition. I came up with this: Fundamentalists reduce the complexity of... Read more

2018-04-09T22:25:17+00:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Dear Christian, Your Hope Isn’t in Politics

Last updated on: April 9, 2018 at 10:25 pm By Jayson D. Bradley

There’s a dangerous political subtext that runs through New Testament. When Herod slaughtered the children in Bethlehem, it was a political act. He was afraid that, when Israel found out its Messiah had been born, his power and influence would be usurped. To the magi who had traveled from the east to see the new king, he suggested that he wanted the Messiah’s location so that he could come and worship. In the end, he slaughtered every child under two-years-old.... Read more

2018-04-09T22:33:19+00:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

3 Reminders for Turning Conversation into True Communication

Last updated on: April 9, 2018 at 10:33 pm By Jayson D. Bradley

It’s incredible that communication is possible at all. Every one of us is one island in an archipelago—a profoundly complex world separated by an immense expanse. We’re all trapped in our own minds as we struggle and make sense of the world around us. It’s not easy to share our inner world with each other. We have to take all of these complex emotions, mental images, and bits of information and convert them into a language. This is no small task. It’s difficult enough to... Read more

2018-04-09T22:36:40+00:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

As a Christian, I Don’t Need a Christian President

Last updated on: April 9, 2018 at 10:36 pm By Jayson D. Bradley

“Do you renounce Satan and all his works?” “I do renounce them.” “. . . and all his works?” “I do renounce them.” In one of the most profound scenes in cinematic history, Michael Corleone stands in as Godfather for his nephew Micheal Francis Rizzi’s baptism. The movie intercuts the priest’s questions with scenes of the murder of the rival mafia heads. To give him an alibi, Corleone has planned the killings to coincide with the baptism. It’s a quizzical, emotionally... Read more

2018-04-09T22:50:43+00:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Coming to Grips with Christian Hypocrisy

Last updated on: April 9, 2018 at 10:50 pm By Jayson D. Bradley

It’s probably no surprise that many people associate the word “Christian” with the word “hypocrite.” Christians have developed a reputation for saying one thing and doing another. Anton LaVey, the founder of the church of Satan and the author of The Satanic Bible, attributes his philosophic origins to his early exposure to Christian duplicity. While playing the calliope for traveling carnivals and organ for subsequent tent-revival meetings, he watched it play out every weekend. “On Saturday night, I would see men lusting after half-naked girls dancing... Read more

2017-11-16T01:56:17+00:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Lessons the Church Could Learn from the Temptations of Christ

Last updated on: November 16, 2017 at 1:56 am By Jayson D. Bradley

Jesus sat in a shaded outcropping of rocks as the heat rose off the desert floor in distorted waves. After forty days of fasting, starvation was beginning to set in, and with it, a tired lethargy. It was in this desperate state that the tempter appeared. These tests of the devil are not the enticements we typically associate with “temptation;” they’re not related to leisure and diversion. Instead, they offer Jesus alternative routes to fulfill his legacy and calling. Like all temptations, they leverage... Read more

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