Regularly, if somewhat spasmodically, I share a list of things I'm reading, watching and listening to with my congregation. If I remember to do so, I also post it here on my blog:
United Church of Christ
- "Religious leaders arrested in act of civil disobedience against Senate's 'immoral' health care bill"--including Rev. Traci Blackmon, Executive Minister for Justice Witness Ministries in the United Church of Christ
- "UCC pastors stand with young woman from Africa as she's granted asylum in U.S."
The Religious Right
- "Rev. Barber: An open letter to clergy who prayed with Donald Trump"--This is posted on a blatantly liberal site, but I would offer that Rev. Barber offers a stridently conservative position. He calls the clergy praying with Trump out for encouraging the President in his wrongdoing rather than calling him to account. He notes that these clergy who declare themselves Pro-Life do not care for the millions of lives affected by the elimination of the Affordable Care Act and the thousands of people who will die because of proposed cuts to Medicaid. In so many ways, Barber takes the Word of God which speaks through scripture much more seriously and faithfully than the clergy who abet Trump.
- "Revisiting Ayn Rand's anti-religious philosophy"--Much about conservative Christians and politics baffles me, but what perhaps baffles me the most are Christians of any stripe who espouse the philosophy of Ayn Rand. Rand's ideology and worldview--as she herself proclaimed--are not only adamantly anti-religious but especially anti-Christian. Eminent church historian Martin Marty adds his two cents here on the subject.
Racism
- "Why I'm Leaving the Southern Baptist Convention"--a Baptist African American minister decides he's had enough of the racism in the nation's largest Protestant denomination
LGBTQ
- "A Beloved Former Pastor Retracted His Support of Same-Sex Marriage. It Will Harm LGBTQ People More Than He May Know"--This week Eugene Peterson, a retired Presbyterian minister and a popular writer--including his bestselling paraphrase of the Bible The Message--said in an interview he would perform a same sex marriage. After critical reactions from evangelical fans and threats to stop selling his books by Christian retailers Peterson issued a statement that he opposed same sex marriage and supported a "biblical view of marriage. Here's a response by an advocate for LGBTQ equality in the church.
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