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December 2025

December 17, 2025

Good News for the Poor

A reliable litmus test for the gospel is whether it is truly good news to...

October 2025

October 22, 2025

Is Love That is Indifferent to Poverty Enough?

Interpreting one's religion through a lens of love while failing to confront systems of inequity...

August 2025

August 01, 2025

The Problematic Responsiblity of Wealth

Faith traditions, moral philosophies, and humanitarian values all speak to the sacred responsibility that comes...

July 2025

July 31, 2025

Each Other’s Fate

The dilemma is that we are each other’s fate. Society can become mutually supportive or...

July 30, 2025

Jesus as Prophet of the Poor

And in the gospel stories, Jesus emerged in Galilee as a prophet of the poor....

April 2025

April 03, 2025

Poverty is a By-product of the System

Poverty is a by-product of the system in which we live. It is man-made and...

April 02, 2025

Mary Magdalene Was Not a Prostitute

Characterizing Mary Magdalene as a prostitute advanced the goals of disparaging women as leaders in...

April 01, 2025

Mary, Patriarchy and the War on Women in Leadership

Our story this week involving Mary was used to disparage women leaders within Christianity toward...

January 2025

January 24, 2025

A Gospel of a New Social Order

So central was this call to create a new social order that the first generation...

January 22, 2025

A Gospel for Those in Poverty

Considering how many times Luke’s gospel mentions those living in poverty, it is no wonder...

September 2022

September 29, 2022

Faith and Political Harm (Part 3 of 3)

These stories cared about the concrete harm being done to the marginalized and exploited. Today,...

September 28, 2022

Faith and Political Harm (Part 2 of 3)

Peasants could not imagine a world without feudalism. We find it difficult to imagine a...

September 27, 2022

Faith and Political Harm (Part 1 of 3)

"To hear this parable, however, we must again remove some of the Christian theological wax...

September 22, 2022

Stories that Shape Us (Part 3 of 3)

It’s much more realistic to focus on the gains and losses we experience in this...

September 21, 2022

Stories that Shape Us (Part 2 of 3)

This is a retributive punishment to satisfy the person inflicting the suffering who feels the...

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,...

March 2022

March 31, 2022

Mary’s Perfume and No More Poverty (Part 3 of 3)

I don’t believe Jesus’ words in John about poor people should be interpreted as establishing...

March 30, 2022

Mary’s Perfume and No More Poverty (Part 2 of 3)

But this interpretation benefits those who are enriched by the status quo and don’t want...

March 29, 2022

Mary’s Perfume and No More Poverty (Part 1 of 3)

Mary’s act is one of gratitude . . . The story is not primarily that...

November 2021

November 11, 2021

Declaring War Against Poverty (Part 3 of 3)

I don’t want a post-pandemic world that looks like the pre-pandemic world. We can do...

November 10, 2021

Declaring War Against Poverty (Part 2 of 3)

Seeing the overthrowing of such economically exploitative systems not as “the end,” but as the...

November 09, 2021

Declaring War Against Poverty (Part 1 of 3)

Christians have long interpreted these events in ways that have proven deeply harmful to our...

October 2021

October 07, 2021

Getting Free from Fear and Facing the Future Together (Part 3 of 3)

Christians have always come up with ways around stories like these in the gospels. What...

October 06, 2021

Getting Free from Fear and Facing the Future Together (Part 2 of 3)

We read this story too individualistically in our culture today. Societal, systemic change begins with...

October 05, 2021

Getting Free from Fear and Facing the Future Together (Part 1 of 3)

The greater the wealth disparities within economic systems, the stronger the critique for those who...

March 2020

March 11, 2020

The “Kingdom of God” is within You

This individualistic interpretation makes the kingdom abstract. It does not address systemic injustice, oppression, or...

February 2020

February 03, 2020

Jesus’ More Unpopular Economic Teachings

"I agree with Robinson. Jesus' vision for the world was one where people took care...

November 2019

November 13, 2019

Complicit Christianity

If true, this calls for Christianity to wrest itself free of its historical failures, to...

July 2019

July 03, 2019

Movements Built on Rock or Sand

In both Matthew’s and Luke’s gospels we read this analogy: “Therefore everyone who hears these...

May 2019

May 14, 2019

The Beatitudes for the Poor, Hungry, and Mourning

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