If Gallup is right, and 40% of Americans describe themselves as conservative (up from 37% in 2008), 36% as moderates and 20% as liberals and the rest in various forms of indecision, then some people had better learn to live like the majority and some like the minority. This week...

Is Consensus Possible between people of faith on immigration?
by Rev. Dr. Donna Schaper, Senior Pastor, Judson Memorial Church, NYC

On October 6, 2009, I attended a panel discussion entitled "Religious Perspectives on Immigration" at the National Press Club in Washington DC. It was sponsored by the Center...

My head aches with hate speech. My own speech against hate speech spews and sputters anger and is part of the head ache. Call my frustration illegal and undocumented hating. Or part of the stress inducing sick care system. As a religious and spiritual, even ordained person! I know that...

For many people, God is not still speaking. God is still spanking. Setting up too high a bar. Telling us we are bad. God is still sneering. You are bad. Racism... needs a spanking. People don't.

Fumbling a way beyond racism is a lot like fumbling for your keys....

Holy Spirt, I pray for an overflowing gratitude that becomes a generosity of living, even in stingy and tight times. Amen.

I am tired of hearing the word recession and so are most of the people I know. We live now with an uninvited less. We are pawns in someone...

Amnesty as Beautiful and Moral

Immigrants, even undocumented ones, are an economic asset, according to just about every government study and economist. Even if they are legalized and start using more of the services they now pay for in taxes, they remain an economic asset. Immigrants watch our children, pick...

The Easter Maybe Crowd on Easter Sunday, April 12, 2009

Before I tell you what I see in the Easter Maybe Crowd, I should tell you about my perch. I am minister at Judson Memorial Church on Washington Square. Judson is a post denominational, post Christian, doubt friendly, arts friendly,...

Practical Policies for Populist Economic Reform

There is nothing like a good solid catastrophe to drive us back to first principles.

Let me name four that could morally and usefully attach to any bail out or stimulus bill, as we go forward. One is to reduce the difference between...

The Morality of the Filibuster: Why Bi Partisanship Sounds Good and Isn't

Since when does it take 60 votes to pass something in Congress? I hear this everywhere as the higher morality or at least the higher reality. It may be the latter but it is not the...

The Depression Below the Depression

My people are shovel ready: they are ready to shovel the manure out of the barn and clean political and economic house.

When I gave the pastoral prayer on Sunday, I couldn't help myself. I had to pray to God that God stimulate congress. Stimulate...

New Year's Resolutions, Especially For The Recession.

Take Two Looks:

Take One

"As beautiful as the rim is, one must hike down into
the inner canyon to be grasped by the spirit and
mystery of this place."

Park Overlook Sign
The Grand Canyon

Grand...

Congratulations to my denomination (and Barack Obama's and Jeremiah Wright's), the United Church of Christ, for joining a lawsuit against the theological hypocrisy of Proposition 8 in California. While it is terribly hard for one church to engage in a bitter dialogue with another church, still and nonetheless, the debate...

I have learned to be cheap. You could call me frugal but the truth is I am cheap. I carry my own vodka in water bottles if I go out. I have a lovely if shabby wardrobe and haven't bought outside of a thrift store or a yard sale for...

First of all, don't go overboard. We imagine this will be your only wedding - so why not make it special? Special-ing an event takes money. Don't be stingy. Save in other places, if you can, thereby creating energy and resources for the big day. People "back in the day"...