Teachings of Jesus

The would-be prophet cowers before the throne and whimpers, "Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips." No posturing. No preachiness. No self-righteousness.

A violent, rushing wind. Fiery tongues. Foreign languages. The spectacle of apparent drunkenness. Peter's successful debut. These are the accouterments of Pentecost that leave most of us out of this story.

Christians have often hoped for a time when our racial and economic differences would cease, when in Christ we would all be indistinguishable. Such impulses are earnest but fundamentally misguided.

Most of the people in my Sunday school class are immigrants -- they know very well what it is like to be living in a land where everything around you is foreign to you, and you're foreign to the people around you.

Jesus was more interested in love than he was in rules. That was what got him into so much trouble with the fundamentalists of his day

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.

After a resurrected Jesus leaves the scene for good, the first disciples are hanging out, waiting for God-knows-what. What, exactly, does one wait for after you've just seen your dead friend come back to life and eat a piece of fish?

The story of Jesus is vastly more beautiful without the baggage of killing and bloodshed. It is time for a new reading of the redemption story. It is time the church allow the old story of Jesus to die.

What would Jesus do at the Masters? For Luke, the story of Mary and Martha is the answer to that question. While the reception history of this text has relegated it to the kitchen, the original intent of Luke was much more revolutionary.

Jesus, if you are truly divine, all knowing and omnipotent, please do something about these so-called Christians. I know it's a bit presumptuous of me to be petitioning you this way, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

This past week Chuck Colson passed from this life to reach the destination of his faith, to be embraced by Jesus who redeemed him from pride and prejudice and the pit of prison. He will be greatly missed.

Much like the many portraits of Jesus over the centuries, we should never underestimate the ability of human beings to rewrite Jesus' words into their own ideologies.

Eight hundred years ago, 18-year-old Chiara Favorone, whom we now know as Clare of Assisi, went to church in the morning with her family. It was a Sunday, but not just any Sunday.

How has Christianity come to be understood as the harbinger of traditional family values? Why do political parties still invoke Jesus as leader of these traditional ideas, when He, Paul and the other apostles never embraced them?

As the election season heats up, let's stop pretending our ideology comes straight from what the Bible says. The reality is, "what the Bible says" comes straight from our ideology.

Social Gospel Christians have been replaced by an extreme right-wing obsessed with obliterating women's medical and reproductive rights, denying equal treatment for gays, demonizing scientific findings, and otherwise attempting to impose their fundamentalist beliefs on everyone.

For some Christians, the radical accessibility of God in all arenas of life is consistent with an expectation that politicians wear religious commitments on their sleeves. For others, membership in a pluralistic society demands more humility and tolerance.

Instead of giving something up for Lent, do something positive: Be kind.

It's simple. A Christian sounds like someone who has converted to the religion called Christianity. But Jesus wasn't a Christian and he didn't start a religion.

Although the campaign launched just recently, the movement for full LGBT inclusion and equality within the United Methodist Church (UMC) has been building for decades.

It is not easy, nor simple for churches to "preach brotherhood and make it a reality within its own body." But the church is the place and our faith is the source with which we may be instruments of change.

The first presidential candidate to face attack for his religious beliefs was Thomas Jefferson, in the campaign against incumbent John Adams in 1800. ...

t's easy to forget that we are up against something bigger than flesh and blood people. And it's particularly easy to forget that people are not the enemy when people are shooting pepper spray in your face.

As Christians, we cannot demand that everyone share our beliefs. But we can demand that everyone share our freedom. For where this freedom exists, we can be sure that Christ will be lifted up.