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August 2025

August 13, 2025

Injustice and a Negative Peace

Negative peace is created when we prioritize unity over speaking out and taking action for...

February 2025

February 19, 2025

Insights on Loving your Enemies

Enemy love means both not cooperating with, resisting or obstructing violence and injustice, and also...

February 18, 2025

Insights on Turning the Other Cheek

Too often turning the other cheek is interpreted as passive nonresitance rather than the cultural...

September 2022

September 20, 2022

Stories that Shape Us (Part 1 of 3)

Folk tales about reversing circumstances in the next life were a staple in Hellenistic, Roman,...

February 2022

February 16, 2022

Setting in Motion a Safe, Compassionate, Just Society (Part 2 of 3)

Jesus recommended nakedness in protest over returning violence with more violence.

February 15, 2022

Setting in Motion a Safe, Compassionate, Just Society (Part 1 of 3)

We reject any interpretation that demands we feel some kind of love or positive emotion...

August 2021

August 06, 2021

The Bread of Life (Part 3 of 3)

What is bread that is only temporary and what is bread that leads to life...

August 05, 2021

The Bread of Life (Part 2 of 3)

This would make much more sense if we define the bread of life as the...

August 04, 2021

The Bread of Life (Part 1 of 3)

Can we reclaim this passage in our lectionary reading for this week?

March 2021

March 19, 2021

Reinterpreting the Easter Story (Part 3)

Let’s not ask ourselves how we can die. Jesus doesn’t call a person do die,...

March 16, 2021

Reinterpreting the Easter Story (Part 1)

Certain interpretations of these passages have born destructive and even death-dealing fruit in these communities....

March 05, 2021

Jesus and Protest (Part 3)

Change for those being harmed never happens fast enough. But in each of our circles...

March 03, 2021

Jesus and Protest (Part 2)

Mark's version of the story is not speaking about Jesus' own death and resurrection as...

February 2021

February 26, 2021

Gaining the World, Losing One’s Humanity (Part 3)

Yet what’s at stake is larger than democracy. As Jesus called his followers, we’re called...

February 24, 2021

Gaining the World, Losing One’s Humanity (Part 2)

The concern is not partisan politics. The concern is humanity, the common good, the good...

February 23, 2021

Gaining the World, Losing One’s Humanity (Part 1)

That is the political or social context in which we must understand the above passage....

January 2021

January 12, 2021

Desecrating Sacred Spaces

We are witnessing a disparity of values, a disparity of treatment and response, and disparity...

November 2020

November 16, 2020

No More Sacrifice (Part 1 of 3)

The unity that comes through sacrificing a common enemy is temporary and must be continually...

July 2020

July 29, 2020

Three Paths Toward Change Rejected (Part 2 of 3)

As Katie Cannon sternly admonishes us, “Theologians need to think seriously about the real-life consequences...

April 2020

April 15, 2020

New Wine in Old Wineskins (Part 5 of 6)

The Jesus story’s new wine pushes us beyond the skins of a system that only...

March 2020

March 18, 2020

Using Violence to Shape Our World

It is up to the communities that face oppression to determine what methods they will...

March 16, 2020

Shaping a New World at the End of Our Present System

Will we be a source of genuine light in our world’s oppression and exploitation, or...

January 2020

January 31, 2020

The Ethic of Enemy Love (Part 2)

“This I believe is the genius of the ethic of enemy love that Jesus and...

January 24, 2020

The Ethic of Enemy Love (Part 1)

“First, this ethic does not mean that we should expect reconciliation without change or reparations...

December 2019

December 02, 2019

Stand Up Anyway

I don’t believe that we must pass through fire and sword to get to a...

November 2019

November 27, 2019

We Are All In This Together

We are all in this together. The choices we make affect us all. And although...

October 2019

October 30, 2019

The Worth of Those on the Margins

And remember to stop to consider how valuable you are. In a world that may...

October 28, 2019

Jesus’ Gehenna in the Context of Social Justice

We are to oppose injustice and resist oppression. Let’s do it together in a way...

October 11, 2019

A Primer on Self-Affirming Nonviolence (Part 10)

Jesus’ form of nonviolence was an act of self-affirmation in a society where one’s self...

October 04, 2019

A Primer on Self Affirming Nonviolence (Part 9)

“Self-defense, in and of itself, is not violence. Violation is violence. Oppression is violence. Injustice...