Kingdom of God

If the church is to be faithful to Christ, then our political action should focus on what the kingdom of God is all about: sheep and goats, not gays.

The American Church is called to speak through the power of stories -- mirrored in bold and creative action -- to transform our sociopolitical context for the greater inclusion of all people in the American Dream.

We are building a new world in the shell of the old one. We see grass piercing concrete. We see a neighborhood coming back to life, rising from the dead.

How and whether the American Church is involved in shaping the American Dream story -- the American "Kingdom of God" story -- is noteworthy during the election season.

Worship is essential not only because we recognize who God is but also because it sets the agenda for whom we are called to be.

How could talking about Jesus directly be constructive at a peace-building conference with participants from numerous faith backgrounds -- Muslim, Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, atheist and agnostic?

The mistreatment of women is one of the longest-running forms of human wickedness in our history and culture, down to the present. But Christianity ought to be a wellspring of egalitarianism.

A larger view of life, as seen through the eyes of Jesus, informs us that the life of a homeless person begging on the street corner is just as sacred as the life of a president of the state.

No religious idea has greater potential for shaping global politics in profoundly negative ways than "the new world order," which has gained fresh currency in the midst of today's revolutions.

The "Christian America" vision pushed by the Christian Right stands in stark contrast with the biblical vision of the kingdom of God.

By the 1960s, the world was out of joint again, prompting the rise of the Christian Right.

The Second Great Awakening and the Fundamentalist Movement sought to transform the United States into a distinctly Christian nation and, in that way, paved the way for the Christian Right of our own time.

The Christian Right has claimed from its inception that others -- liberals, secularists and humanists -- were eroding the values of the nation that they sought to affirm and protect. In that claim we find the seeds of the current American crisis.

On a spring day in the year 30, two processions entered Jerusalem. It was the beginning of the week of Passover, the most sacred week of the Jewish year. In centuries past, Christians have celebrated this day as Palm Sunday.

Jesus said that we should love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. I invited Beck to a civil and respectful conversation about the issues at stake here, but he has chosen a different path.

Why do so many Christians -- especially fundamentalists and evangelicals -- so often fail to discern the themes of peace and justice that are so central to the biblical vision of the kingdom of God?

Speaking as a Christian ethicist, in flippantly attacking the concept of social justice, Glenn Beck inadvertently poked a finger in the eye of every person who takes the Bible as God's revealed Word.

Why do so many evangelical and fundamentalist Christians so often disregard two requirements that are central to the bible and to the teachings of Jesus: peacemaking and justice for the poor?

Celebrating MLK day without acknowledging religion is like admiring the exterior of the car without understanding the fuel and engine that makes it go.