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By calling ourselves progressive, we mean we are Christians who...

Have found an approach to God through the life and teachings of Jesus.

Progressive Christianity: Reconstructing Our Theological Witness
By Delwin Brown

Progressive Christianity has been seriously hampered by at least two illusions.  One is that the triumph of progressive ideas is pretty much inevitable. The other is that progressive ideas are inherently persuasively. Neither is true. The progressive Christian witness will not triumph inevitably triumph or under its own power. Convictions prevail when they are part of social movements. Progressive ideas may be intrinsically credible, but they are actually believed only when they are effectively stated and lived, and embedded in alliances of people who act together with informed intentionality.

So You Think You're Not Religious
By James Rowe Adams
"Many educated people shy away from the church because they cannot believe in these and other aspects of Christian tradition. And yet many of these same people search for what the church can offer: a caring community, supportive during people of grief and times of joy. James Adams reminds us that religious faith is not a matter of the mind, but of the heart."...
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A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose- progressive Christian Study Guide
Dr. Polly Moore of College Heights UCC, San Mateo, CA, offers a list of the biblical references in "A NEW EARTH" by Eckhart Tolle, used by the church for its study group focusing on the book....
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Jesus: The Way That is Open to Other Ways
By Paul Knitter
I am one of those Christians whose faith has been uncomfortably challenged by a reality that has been with us since the dawning of humanity but has become even clearer and more pressing over the last century: that there are many ways to be religious. There are many religions; there always have been; and, despite two millennia of Christian missionary work, it sure seems like there always will be. The manyness, the diversity, of religions is here to stay....
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Myth-Busting the Christian Right
By Terri Murray
The Christian right's pundits present this set of abstract concepts - moral "values," sanctity of life, and Christianity - as their core values. Over and over again they have successfully framed complex issues as oppositions between these core values and their opponent's position. This has worked partly because, instead of engaging in an analysis of these concepts, they equate them with a set of public policies that are assumed to meet the conditions that define them. Thus it would appear that if you do not support their policies, you cannot support moral values, the sanctity of life, or Christianity. A closer examination of the fallacious reasoning underpinning each of the Christian right's core myths will follow....
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A New Reformation
By Matthew Fox
In Fox's new book called "A New Reformation!" he proclaims that we are in fact confronted with two churches: one expressed by the image of the Punitive Father, personified by a rigidly hierarchical church structure, repression of the feminine, spreading of homophobia and the elimination of internal dissent; and the other expressed by the feminine figure of Wisdom, personified by a Mother/Father God of justice and compassion. It is time for Christians to choose whom it will follow: an angry exclusionary god or the loving open path of wisdom....
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Souls in the Hands of a Tender God: Stories of the Search for Home and Healing on the Streets
By Craig Rennebohm
Written with David Paul. Souls in the Hands of a Tender God follows the path of healing and the way of companionship to build communities of caring that welcome and include our most fragile and troubled neighbors. With gentleness and grace, solid knowledge and wisdom, Rennebohm lays down the foundations of healing communities in which all may have a home, safely rest, and be well....
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The First Liberal, A secular look at Jesus' socio-political ideas and how they became the basis of Modern Liberalism
By Dennis Martin Altman
This book traces the development of the Liberal tradition that began with "Love Thy Neighbor". Although pronouncements attributed to Jesus are the philosophical building blocks of this progression, the book does not deal with the reverential aspects of the subject. Indeed, it is felt that the absence of piety permits an objectivity that transcends parochial interests, and thus may qualify for acceptance by all people, regardless of religious inclinations....
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Calm and Compassionate Children
By Susan Usha Dermond
Using her expertise and experience as an educator, yoga and meditation practitioner, and 30 years of working with children, Dermond brought so many new and profound tools to the table that I at once felt compelled to adopt within my own life. While giving practical steps on how to integrate her theories into daily life, with each section Dermond gently reminds readers of the most direct and meaningful way to build on inherent qualities that children have like openheartedness and trust- by starting with ourselves. It may sound simple, but how many of us who work or live with children really feel calm and compassionate most of the time? And how can we possibly expect our children to behave in or feel such a way that we rarely do?...
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Eckhart Tolle and the Christian Tradition
By Richard Rohr
Although Tolle is not a Christian teacher, we must not assume that makes him
an anti-Christian teacher. Today we need whatever methods or help we can receive
to allow the Christian message to take us to a deeper level of transformation. Our
history, and our guidance of Western history, shows this has clearly not been
happening on any broad scale. This is an opportunity for us to understand our own
message at deeper levels. It would be a shame if we required him to speak our
language and vocabulary before we could critically hear what he is saying-that is true and helpful to our own message....
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Abundance and a New Earth
By Ian Lawton
Consider what it means to be rich towards God during a recession. What does it mean to live with abundance when so many people are feeling anxious and fearful about the future?...
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The Historical Jesus for Beginners: A Primer of Contemporary Biblical Scholarship
By William Linden
After the life of Jesus, his followers began to develop their memory of his sayings and actions. Then, year after year, and century after century, the tradition grew until it became Christianity as it is known in the twenty-first century. What if we could go back in time and delve under all the layers to find what Christianity would be if it were based upon the historical Jesus? If you are a person who would like to begin to be informed, this book is for you....
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I Learned About God There
By Fred Plumer
After a couple of weeks of this thrashing, I finally calmed down enough to begin to ask myself what could I learn from this young man. What was missing in our approach to Christian teaching? What were we really teaching our children? What did this young man want that he did not find at our progressive church? What was the pedagogical model we had created, or more importantly what model did we need to create?...
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Teaching Progressive Christianity Using the 8 Points, A Guide
I understand Progressive Christianity is for individuals who find Jesus intriguing but suspicious of institutional church. Like minimalist interior decorating that remove tchotchkes within a space, the Progressive Christian movement strips out the tchotchkes of church and tradition. The tchotchkes of ideas and practices out of date or uphold orthodoxy and exclusion. I offer to my congregation of about 120 people a 4 week plunge into the American Eight Points material honed by Fred Plumer and others.  I manage to engage those who would never sign up for Bible study in a church! This article explains the outline I use, bearing in mind several factors. ...
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Looking Around for God
By James Autry
Autry, writer and poet, business executive, and son and grandson of Mississippi Baptist ministers, thinks that the true message of the old spiritual is not just that God has an eye on the sparrow. It's that God is demonstrating that if these details are worth God's attention, they are certainly worth ours. It may be that we will more readily find God in the details of this world, and of our own lives, than anywhere else. Looking Around for God, Autry's tenth book, is in many ways his most personal, as he considers his unique life of faith and belief in a God often clouded by church convention. In assembling these personal essays, stories and poems, Autry shares how God has been revealed in many different circumstances of his life, and he offers a few ideas for how the Christian church might better serve in making God's love and presence manifest in the world....
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Birdlike and Barnless
By Jim Burklo
Ready for a humble, hard-working Christian religion that is progressive, pro-justice, and pro-peace? Ready for faith that takes the Bible seriously because it doesn't take it literally? Ready for a soulful expression of this kind of Christianity in meditative prose, poetry, ritual, and song? Ready to empty the barn of dusty dogma, and take wing with soulful celebration? Birdlike and Barnless is a rich devotional resource for individuals, and a treasure-trove of fresh material for churches to use in worship and programming. His personal reflections lead the reader on a spiritual path from the contemplative to the comic, from tender moments to prophetic exhortations, from analysis to inspiration....
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The Gospel According to Jesus
Jesus proclaimed an astonishing Gospel! But, isn't it strange that his harshest criticisms were directed at those within the religious community? He said, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut up the kingdom of heaven from men, for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in" (Matt. 23:13)....
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The Jesus Puzzle- Did Christianity Begin with a Mythical Christ
By Earl Doherty
Did early Christians like Paul believe in an entirely spiritual Son of God, and was the Gospel Jesus of Nazareth a later fictional character and faith symbol? Every religion throughout history has developed a mythology about what is supposed to have happened at its beginning, and in most cases it's just that-mythology. Find out why Christianity's longstanding view of its origin in an historical Jesus is also a myth, and why the history of western religion needs to be rewritten....
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When Faith Meets Reason
What happens to faith when the creeds and confessions can no longer be squared with historical and empirical evidence? Most critical scholars have wrestled with this question. Some have found ways to reconcile their personal religious belief with the scholarship they practice. Others have chosen to reconstruct their view of religious meaning in light of what they have learned. But most have tended not to share those views in a public forum. And that brings up a second question: at what point does the discrepancy between what I know, or think I know, and what I am willing to say publicly become so acute that my personal integrity is at stake?...
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An Epic Change
By Fred Plumer
Have you noticed what an amazing time in history we are all living? I think we are a very lucky group of people to be witnessing and even participating in such incredible changes in our country and in the world. I am not referring here just to the fact that we elected our first non-Caucasian individual to the office of Presidency, although I do think that is a reflection of the shift. (Personally I am more excited about this man's character than I am about his mixed ethnic roots.) No, I am referring here to what I believe is a seismic change of epic proportions. I hope that I will be around long enough to be able to a have conversation with my grandchildren about this shift....
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The Birth of the Third Jesus
By Ian Lawton
Whatever you believe about the first and second Jesus, don't let it distract you from your essential humanity and life purpose. Something magical is taking place in your life. Your inner star is guiding you to a new consciousness. It might look rough like an old farm shed, and it might not be very grand, but it is a miracle none the less. Wise ones will gather around. They might not bow down and worship you as the Messiah, but they will nurture the birth of this new consciousness that you are part of them and they are part of you....
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Jesus and His Friends of Little Faith
By James Rowe Adams
Then Je­sus says to them: "You of little faith, why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not perceive?" He appears to be irritated because the disciples fail to understand that he is speaking in metaphors and not referring to the fact that they forgot bring any bread to eat on another boat trip. People of little faith need constant reminding that they are not to take religious teaching literally but to look for the symbolic meaning, but they can learn. In fact, Matthew seems to suggest that the people of little faith are the only ones worth teaching....
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The Wisdom Jesus- Transforming Heart and Mind, a New Perspective on Christ and His Message
By Cynthia Bourgeault
If you put aside what you think you know about Jesus and approach the Gospels as though for the first time, something remarkable happens: Jesus emerges as a teacher of the transformation of consciousness. Cynthia Bourgeault is a masterful guide to Jesus's vision and to the traditional contemplative practices you can use to experience the heart of his teachings for yourself....
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Prayer Given by the Right Reverend V. Gene Robinson at the Opening Inaugural Event
As many of you know, the Right Rev. Gene Robinson, the openly Gay Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire , gave the opening prayer at yesterday's Lincoln Memorial event. It was the first event in the inaugural festivities this year. HBO, which had paid for exclusive rights to the event chose not to broadcast Bishop Robinson's prayer. So if you watched there you wouldn't have caught it or even known that it occurred. NPR didn't air it either. There's no record of it in images placed on the sites of Getty Images, New York Times and the Washington Post. It's a complete erasure of his ever having delivered the prayer.  Such is the continuing policy of silence and erasure we have to live with from people who should know better. We are used to this. If you know your Gay history this has happened again and again. In fact this little list-serve is really about recovering the truth in our history and celebrating it. So we're going to celebrate it by providing here the full text of Bishop Robinson's prayer....
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Are We Progressing?
By Fred Plumer
About ten years ago, I attended a two day conference that garnered a lot of anticipation and excitement about the topics, which were: a new way of communicating our religious beliefs and the discussion of postmodern theology. Near the end of the conference, I was ready for it to be over. It had been a good conference. The keynote speakers were well respected and leaders in their fields....
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Remarks of President Barak Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast

But no matter what we choose to believe, let us remember that there is no religion whose central tenet is hate. There is no God who condones taking the life of an innocent human being. This much we know.

The Times They Are A-Changin’
By Fred Plumer
Two weeks ago I experienced a change I could not have imagined any time in the past. I attended the Earl Lectures at Pacific School of Religion. I have been doing this for over twenty-five years. The lectures were established in 1901 to bring prominent religious leaders to Berkeley's university community. These lectures have featured such internationally known figures as Theodore Roosevelt, Elie Wiesel, Howard Thurman, Maya Angelou, Paul Tillich, Walter Brueggemann, and Alice Walker....
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Coping With Change
By Jerry Stinson
I don't think of God as a supernatural being with a plan for this planet or with the ability to bring difficult times to an end. God for me is that loving eternal presence
underlying and pervading all of life, but not fixing things. So I can't offer you that kind of hope.  Some of you radically disagree with me about that; you do believe in an intervening God, and for you perhaps faith in that God's continuing benevolence is the answer for coping with change.  But what does my faith, without that sense of a supernatural being, say to change? Let me suggest five things my faith calls me to do when I'm in the wilderness, and I hope these five things also speak to those of you with more traditional theological understandings....
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The Phoenix Affirmations Full version
Phoenix Affirmations full version from CrossWalk America...
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Why I Left Christianity
By Steven Locks
I remember feeling that what happened to Jesus was unfair as (so I thought) he just wanted people to be good and to love each other. So he had my support. This was basically my attitude until my late teens. Very simplistic, and not so far particularly damaging! What I believed in from the start and what attracted me to Christianity was a message of love. It was the desire for this that was primal and would become the driving force that took me out later....
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From the Third Floor of the Gargage- The Story of TheOOZE
By Spencer Burke
I used to be a pastor. More than that, I was a pastor at Mariners Church in Irvine, California-a bona fide mega church with a 25-acre property and a $7.8 million dollar budget.  For years, I played by the rules and tried hard not to think too much about the lingering questions in my soul. Doubt, after all, was dangerous. Who knew where it might lead?...
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A Heretics Guide to Eternity
By Spencer Burke
"If Spencer Burke is a heretic, it's not because he's teaching dangerous doctrine, but because he asks the questions about faith that today's sensibilities naturally raise. Spencer is a winsome walking companion for those who find traditional dogma too narrow. It's a thoughtful conversation."  -Marshall Shelley,...
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Integral Life Presents: The Future of Christianity. Featuring Ken Wilber and Father Thomas Keating
Here is an exciting new resource for churches and individuals that are trying to sort out where they are in relationship to their understanding of the Christian faith in a post-modern world....
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The Bible and Homosexuality- A Faithful Look
By Lea Mathieu

Too many Christians blindly accept that the Bible condemns homosexuality, but rarely are the few verses that do so discussed in their textual and cultural settings. The author, a United Church of Christ minister, investigates the small print and finds no support for oppression and bigotry in the name of faith.  This article was prompted by protests against the ordination of openly gay clergy in her husband's Lutheran congregation.

Saving Jesus From The Church - How To Stop Worshiping Christ and Start Following Jesus
By Robin Meyers
"In his least political and most thoughtful book to date, Dr. Robin Meyers finds the common ground in the world of Jesus and lays out a call to action that unites us under a banner of hope and reconciliation." ~Erick Ebama.  This is not a call to the church to move to the far left or to try something brand new. Rather, it is the recovery of something very old. Saving Jesus from the Church shows us what it means to be a Christian and how to follow Jesus' teachings today....
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Jesus Was A Liberal: Reclaiming Christianity for All
For the millions of people who identify as liberal Christians. In McLennan's bold call to reclaim ownership of Christianity, he advocates a sense of religion based not on doctrinal readings of scripture but on the humanity behind Christ's teachings. He addresses such topics as intelligent design, abortion, same sex marriage, war. torture and much, much more. As he says in the Preface, "We liberal Christians know in our hearts that there is much more to life than seems to meet the rational eye of atheists; yet we find it hard to support supernatural claims about religion that fly in the face of scientific evidence."...
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Always A Seeker
By Fred Plumer
Certainly the most influential and helpful reading I had done over the years was in the various Buddhist traditions. It is true that on the surface there are significant differences from the teachings of Jesus and the Buddha. And it seems important to note that the historical Jesus had only three or four years to formulate and articulate his teachings, while the Buddha's teachings evolved over several decades. And certainly these two great teachers were coming out of very different cultures and social settings....
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Mind In The Balance-Meditation in Science, Buddhism, and Christianity
By B. Alan Wallace
By establishing a dialogue in which the meditative practices of Buddhism and Christianity speak to the theories of modern philosophy and science, B. Alan Wallace reveals the theoretical similarities underlying these disparate disciplines and their unified approach to making sense of the objective world.  "This work is replete with lucid argument and wonderful, (nearly breathtaking) detailed explanation as to the congruencies and parallels between Eastern & Western contemplative traditions and modern, that is to say: quantum physics. Mind in the Balance is now in my top three favorites of all time, easily a must read 5 plus star effort," reviews Matthew J. Schimpf.

Sermon for Memorial Day 2009- "Service"
By: Richard N. Taliaferro, Jr.  In Chapter 4 of Luke's gospel, [pause] Luke quotes Jesus as saying, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free." And Jesus adds, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." Note what is being described here: actions, not just thoughts or principles. And note also the kind of actions these are: actions that serve others. Thus the theme of this Memorial Day sermon: service....
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A Voice from the Ocean Depths
By David Anderson
America's problems extend beyond these obvious structural weaknesses. An intellectual depravity that avoids lasting solutions has settled over large segments of the body politic. As a result, congress is often divided on critical issues between far right and left. Important legislation often turns into polarized partisan battle. Compromise to find passage demeans the rigor of clear hard fought thought leaving only a flaccid attempt to solve the problem at hand. TV and radio talk shows become no more than dumb shouting matches. Petty issues fill the country with days of useless discussion....
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Environment in Relgion

From: http://www.religioustolerance.org/envreligion.htm    Destruction of nature, whether quick and immediate, like the slash-and-burn agricultural practices, or gradual, such as the destruction of the ozone layer, dulls our sensitivity to the presence of God in the natural world. Religions need to get involved with the development of a more comprehensive worldview and ethics to assist in reversing this trend. Such ideas have been accepted, but apparently without much effect.

Hope - An Action of Creative Transformation
By Fred Plumer
Today, it is very clear to me that "hope" is not wishful thinking for the weak. It is a positive action that will affect the course of our lives. It is for the strong who are willing to embrace change. For hope is a doorway to positive creative transformation....
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Prayer for Authenticity
By Bob Kleinheksel
In these quieter moments, may optimism's glow creep in and then pervade our spirits and countenance. May hope, possibility and inward smile (at least) abide side by side with any worries, fears and the rest of our human repertoire and jumble of thoughts and emotions...
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"God Needs You To Get Out of the Bubble": Riverside Controversy Exposes Theological, Racial Fault Lines of the Christian Progressive Movement
By Peter Laarman
From: religiondispatches.org What does it mean that Rhodes Scholar and Progressive Evangelical Brad Braxton resigned as senior pastor of the influential Riverside Church? In this discussion over the implications, a reverend and a scholar ask whether multiracial churches require making white people comfortable, why God needs liberal protestants to get out of the bubble, and what the future holds for the mainline church as a whole.  The following conversation between the Rev. Peter Laarman, executive director of Progressive Christians Uniting and Dr. Jonathan Walton, assistant professor of Religious Studies at the University of California, Riverside, took place via a series of lively emails over the course of two days. It has been edited for grammar and clarity, but it more or less appears as written....
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Dimensions of Faith
By: Philip Sudworth.  Considers the different dimensions of faith and the implications for how we respond to the faith of others....
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A People's History of Christianity- The Other Side of the Story
By Diana Butler Bass
This is the book that progressives and liberals have been waiting for - a deeply researched history of Christianity that sheds new light on the underreported personalities and movements of the faith.  In the same spirit as Howard Zinn's groundbreaking work The People's History of the United States, Diana Butler Bass reveals the under-reported movements, personalities, and spiritual practices that continue to inform and ignite contemporary Christian worship, activism, and social justice reforms in the name of Jesus. The book will offer up a much-needed "other side of the story" for progressive Christians, drawing from examples of alternative practices in every period of Christian history, including......
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First Light: Jesus and the Kingdom
Featuring John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg  Why did Jesus happen when he happened? Why the confluence of the Baptism movement of John and the Kingdom movement of Jesus? Why the tiny villages around the Lake? Why the confrontations in Jerusalem? Why then? Why there?  
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First Light: Jesus and the Kingdom
Featuring John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg   Why did Jesus happen when he happened? Why the confluence of the Baptism movement of John and the Kingdom movement of Jesus? Why the tiny villages around the Lake? Why the confrontations in Jerusalem? Why then? Why there?...
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Lots Of Hope
By Gary A. Wilburn
"Lots of Hope is a discourse on the powerful role that hope plays in the lives of individuals and communities, particularly his own. "God is not just ‘out there' somewhere; God is ‘in here' with us, in the makeup of every cell, every motor neuron, every thought, every emotion. That is why I titled my newest book ‘Lots of Hope.' There never was a night or a problem that could defeat the sunrise... or hope." "In my book, ‘Lots of Hope,' I not only talk about how we can be more hopeful on the personal level, but how we can be more hopeful in our families, our citizenship, our businesses, and our international relations, because ‘hope' is the force that gives our lives meaning," he said." ~By: Rip Empson...
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Who Is Your Jesus?- Musings
By Jim Burklo
By current standards of journalism and historical analysis, we know hardly anything about Jesus. The stories in the New Testament were written by people who belonged to the religion that followed him. They had "axes to grind" - they were hardly impartial observers, and it is obvious from the four gospels that much of what they wrote about him was mythological. The only roughly contemporary non-Christian writer who mentioned Jesus was Josephus, a Jewish historian of the first century. One short reference to Jesus in the "Antiquities of the Jews" appears to have been inserted by later Christian editors of Josephus' work, and the other brief reference is to a Jesus who may not have been Jesus of Nazareth at all....
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Not God’s People: Insiders and Outsiders in the Biblical World
Using an array of biblical texts from both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, Not God's People explores how ancient Jews and Christians created their own identity in relation to others. The book analyzes how biblical texts define 'us' and 'them,' how these texts differ in the way they define group identity, and how this process continues to be re-created by Jews and Christians today....
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Blinded by Belief
By Joseph Mattioli
Humans are wondrous creatures. Even the very thought that we are conscious at all is enough to baffle the most intelligent of people. Yet it is even more amazing that this wondrous creature we call human, which has been mysteriously endowed with mind and reason, will voluntarily give up these faculties rather than use them. How? They give it up to have a book they can believe in that has all the answers spelled out for them. Then the attribute this book they know was written by humans, to the divine creator....
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The Study of Life, Part 5. My Search for the Meaning of Life as I Walked in Darwin's Footsteps
By John Shelby Spong

In the preparation required to write my new book on eternal life, I soon discovered that this subject raised all of the contemporary theological issues that threaten to destroy Christianity as we have known it. It was clear that I would have to turn the traditional religious approach around. I had to read the modern critics for whom the religious concepts of the past make no sense. I also had to come to a new understanding of what life itself means. Life after death cannot possibly be contemplated until one understands the wondrous and even mysterious dimensions of life before death.

A Progressive Christian Faces Death
By Jack Good

Without an omnipotent God, and without a clear vision of an afterlife, what do I, as a progressive Christian, have for support when death draws near? The answer is simple: I find support in the same realities that have sustained me through life.

Why I am a Progressive Christian (Part 2)
By C. Drew Smith

In my last column, I told briefly my story of being a progressive Christian by first describing why I am a Christian and why I continue to choose to be a Christian. The thing that has been my saving grace, that which has kept me from abandoning my faith, is that I have chosen to identify myself as a progressive Christian.

Why I am a Progressive Christian
By C. Drew Smith

Many of the evolutionary changes that have taken place for me over the years are those related to what I believe about God and religious faith. Growing up in a fundamentalist Christian environment in the Bible Belt, I rarely encountered diversity. If I did, I was probably too ingrained in the approved way of thinking that I did not even recognize another point of view, and I certainly would not have recognized it as valid. Yet, at this point in my life, as I look back, I am far removed from who I was and what I believed then.

Will The Real Progressive Christians Please Speak Up?
By Deshna Ubeda

We began with determining what we aren't.  We are not fundamentals, we are not exclusive, we are not dogmatic, we are not bible thumpers, we are not ignorant, we are not brainwashed, we are not afraid, we are not haters, we are not closed minded.  Slowly, we are letting go of the comparison and becoming, birthing, and re-birthing who we are separate from that negative association.  We are compassionate, we are inclusive, we are educated, we are open, we are searchers, we are peaceful, we are earth friendly, we are social justice supporters, we are Jesus' students, we are walkers...but NOT, at least not yet, talkers.  Yes, there are a handful of scholars and theologians who have helped birth this movement that are continuing to talk about it and there are even a few of those that are women but far too many of us, pastors especially, do NOT talk about it.  They, we, are afraid.  Afraid of being misunderstood, afraid of losing friends, afraid of losing church members, afraid of being associated with all that we aren't.

Slaves To Faith

Based upon the author's twenty years of classroom and clinical study, Slaves of Faith explores and explains the emotionally laden dynamic at work in the fundamentalist mind. As Dr. Mercer posits, the fundamentalist is fundamentally driven by anxiety layered over a fragile sense of self-identity constructed upon a system of beliefs that is both logically inconsistent and highly suspect in light of modern science. As a result, the fundamentalist completely rejects modernity while battling mightily in the arena of national politics and culture to bring about a world that aligns more closely with the fundamentalist worldview.

My Politico-Religious Journey

The Christianity I knew had nothing to do with today’s moral judging from the religious right. It didn’t depend upon a church hierarchy throwing around its weight in the name of ecclesiastical authority. It wasn’t defined by the drama of today’s fights over gay rights or attempts to sneak creationism into the schools. There was no political grandstanding. It was a deeply humble, self-emptying, other-serving Christianity.

Authenticity – Don’t Hide Your Light
By Ian Lawton

The way to be all that you can be is to be more yourself. I mean you right now, not after some spiritual makeover; but as you are now, without any pretence and with the layers of conditioned thinking stripped bare. When you hear an inner voice say, “Yes, I am fully myself and authentic in this moment”, then follow that voice. I’m talking about the sort of moments when your skin tingles with the goodness of life and your place in it. sbnr.org

On Using Religious Language in Public, Right and Left

That is why I've gone on at such length on the subject. It occurs to me that using religious language as a gloss to indicate moral seriousness doesn't take faith seriously. For that matter, it doesn't take seriously the idea that there are competing worldviews at work in our political discourse, let alone offer a meaningful alternative.

God Concepts
By Joseph Mattioli

It seems to me we can best say what God is not and leave it at that which will leave that which God is but cannot be said remaining. Although God can not be proven in the physical sense alone to someone else, God can be and is subjectively experienced by being the substrate of existence/Life itself.

Spirit Thinking

Get an inside look at heaven through the eyes of Dr. Reece Manley, and see for yourself how lovable and loved you really are! See that you can become whole now, get beyond your nemesis now, be all that you were meant to be in the Spirit--NOW. I highly recommend the Spirit Thinking workbook for anyone who desires real and lasting change from the inside out." ...Freda Chaney, D.D.

ButterflyFish Music CD

Butterflyfish is a rootsy blend of American folk, gospel, blues, country, and bluegrass, cooked down and spiced up into fresh takes on the spiritual themes so characteristic of old American music.

Religion is Not about Belief: Karen Armstrong’s The Case for God

“Until well into the modern period,” Armstrong contends, “Jews and Christians both insisted that it was neither possible nor desirable to read the Bible literally, that it gives us no single, orthodox message and demands constant reinterpretation.” Myths were symbolic, often therapeutic, teaching stories and were never understood literally or historically. But that all changed with the advent of modernity.

To Serve God and Wal-Mart

By: Bethany Moreton To Serve God and Wal-Mart is one account of the anointing of free enterprise, the unlikely legitimation of neoliberal economics through evangelical religion. It tells this story through the twinned biographies of the world's largest company and the ideological apparatus it nurtured. It is not intended to blur the harsh picture of 21st-century political economy offered by a Naomi Klein or a David Harvey; their facts speak for themselves. Rather, it is meant to populate that picture with three-dimensional historical actors who support a purportedly irrational worldview. This move reveals the triumph of that vision as even more clearly the outcome of human effort and corporate resources, not of historical inevitability

Thank God for Evolution
By Michael Dowd

"The science vs. religion debate is over! A path forward emerges! Michael Dowd masterfully unites rationality and spirituality in a world view that celebrates the mysteries of existence and inspires each human being to achieve a higher purpose in life. A powerful book! A must read for all, including scientists." - Craig Mello, 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine

The Leap of Advent

By: Chuck Queen,  The “Advent” of God in the person of Jesus not only challenged old ways of thinking about God and old patterns of relating to God, Jesus’ Advent marked the beginning of a spiritual revolution, a conspiracy of love.

Lots of Love
By Gary A. Wilburn

Gary's third and final book - Lots Of Love - is an urgent and loving testimonial to the simple but fundamental building blocks of our human and spiritual DNA - that "love is the beginning and the end of our journey." Each day physical life may conspire to ebb out of Gary's body but his spirit flows through his pen and his glorious fight to bring us all a message of hope at the holiday season. Lots of Love is an ornament to be hung on every tree, a candle to be lit on the last night of Hanukkah, an Eid prayer at Ramadan and a strand of lights at the new moon of Diwali.

What Gift Will You Give?
By Tom Hall

I trust it will come as news to very few that the canonical gospels offer us two Christmas stories, and to those who have actually read the accounts it is clear that the two bear little resemblance to one another.  To be sure, the names of the infant, his mother, his nominal father, and the place of birth are the same; but nearly all the other details stand in striking and irreconcilable conflict.  Does this mean that Matthew’s narrative or Luke’s—or both—are simply to be rejected as wildly unreliable? Not if we adopt the strategy of understanding the two tales not as failed attempts at history, but as brilliantly conceived and wonderfully effective parables.

The Ordinary God: Notes from the Far West of Ireland
By Hilary Wakeman

That is what this book is about. The ordinary, everyday God. The ‘God’ that comes instinctively to most of us. If we’ve had a religious education, from schools or parents, we may need to drop a lot of stuff that has been drilled into us. If what we think we know about God doesn’t feel right, or doesn’t feel true, then it probably isn’t right and isn’t true. Like love, this is a subject where we do better to trust our gut feelings.

Progressive Christians and God Talk
By Michael Morwood

But we keep pruning away, and as we prune, domino after domino falls, whether it be connected with revelation, the person and role of Jesus, the meaning of salvation, doctrine, worship, prayer, death and afterlife.  So “progressive Christians” find themselves almost aching with questions and issues such as: Who or what is God? What is worship for or about? What is prayer about? How do we talk to children about “God” in ways that respect the pruning we have done?

Children Praying a New Story- A Resource for Parents, Grandparents, and Teachers
By Michael Morwood

Morwood's books have been especially insightful and helpful to adults struggling with prayer and ritual while radically reconstructing their Christian faith.  This book is for adult Christians engaged in this shift, now asking the vital questions: How do we educate children into this new faith perspective?  How do we pray with them if prayer is not about addressing an external, listening Deity?

God Talk
By Fred Plumer

Over the last few weeks I have had the opportunity and the privilege to meet with two different groups made up of people who are all in their own way searching for new ways to tell the Christian story.  More than once, while I was participating in one of these gatherings, I was almost overwhelmed with a sense of gratitude.  I wondered, “How did I get so lucky to be involved with such bright, informed, caring people who really are dedicated to making a positive change in their lives and in the world?” Interestingly, although each group had a slightly different focus, at some point in both of these gatherings, we found ourselves trying to decide what we mean when we use a word or metaphor for that which we commonly call “God.” 

Christmas
By Scott Robinson

Christmas both mutes and heightens this impression that something under the sun is ferhoodled.  On the one hand, people are often more civil and decent to each other.  On the other, anything painful or ugly stands out more glaringly against the festive background, even taking on a tint of moral injustice.  If people die in June, it’s sad; if they die in late December, it’s “a shame.”  One especially wants the season to be magical for children, and this desire for things to be a certain way intensifies the disappointment when the world just goes on being itself.

Christmas Liturgy

Good morning…I am ___________ of this Community of Love…and on this 4^th Sunday of Advent, we welcome you all to this inclusive spiritual community that invites and supports ALL people to know God’s love…and we join together with UNITY churches all around the world to proclaim our commitment…

The Need for an Inclusive Faith

When I was more dualistic in my faith the key question was: Are my beliefs correct and how do I get others to believe the right things? Now that I am more inclusive in my thinking the key question is: How can I fall in love with an unconditionally loving God and share this love with others?

From The Backporch Of The Church

A Jungian psychoanalyst and former Presbyterian minister offers a perspective on Christianity and the Church from a Jungian psychological perspective. After more than a half century within the walls of the institutional Church, half of those as an ordained Presbyterian minister, I now find myself on the back-porch of the Church.  Here I sit in my rocking chair, listening, chatting, and watching.  I look out and scan the horizon for new life-giving images which the deep unconscious may be offering the growing number of people who no longer look to the Church for their primary soul sustenance.

The Way Forward
By Chuck Queen

There can be no peace, their can be no beloved community, the kingdom of God will not be realized on earth until we are all convinced that every person, whatever one’s faith or religious affiliation, whatever one’s ethnic origin, culture, or social state, whatever one’s mental or physical abilities or disabilities, is a child of God, precious and loved, and that every person—wherever they live, or whatever they believe—has access to God. 

Praying A New Story
By Michael Morwood

In this invigorating, poetic and imaginative paperback, Morwood shares prayers that can be used in small groups that reflect a fresh and bold reframing of Christian views of God, the universe, Jesus, the Spirit, and holidays such as Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, and Pentecost. Here you will read about an everywhere God instead of an elsewhere God, who is present and active in every corner of the universe and in every dimension of our everyday life.

What About Sin?

Obviously how we think about sin changes how we think about repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation.  If we understand sin to be primarily personal… the burden is on us individually to change our behavior. Change in personal behavior is always good when we identify behaviors and thoughts that we know we need to change.  But personal change does not adequately deal with destruction and hurt and evil that can come from the corporate, communal sin. For example: we might know that we have to change our attitudes toward homeless persons…and be more generous in our personal charity.  And it is good to do so.  But that still does not change the structural economic and political situations that will continue to result in more and more homeless people.  Or we might become aware that we personally need to be more open minded to those who are different from us.  So personal transformation is good.  But that does not change the systems of racism, sexism or homophobia. That infuses much of our cultural landscape.

A Voice in the Wilderness
By Sea Raven

The underlying assumption in this study of Luke (and eventually Acts and the authentic letters of Paul) is that Luke wrote his gospel and his account of the Acts of the Apostles as a subversive counter to Roman oppression, and the Roman imperial theology that proclaimed Cesar (whether Augustus or Tiberias) as the son of God.  The voice of John the Baptist screamed from the edges of civilization about “repentance” until Herod Antipas had had enough.

Servant or Sucker? Wise and Compassionate Ways to Help the Poor, A DVD

No one wants to be a sucker in these situations but at the same time Jesus’ call to help the poor echoes in our hearts and minds. Servant or Sucker? Wise and Compassionate Ways to Help the Poor helps viewers discern appropriate, Christ-centered actions when it comes to addressing poverty on a personal or organizational level.

Not the Easy Way
By Fred Plumer

The ultimate problem for most of the early theologians was their need to identify Jesus as a divine messiah sent by an intervening God to save humanity from humanity’s God-given nature.  Rather than accepting  Jesus as a profound teacher of another way to experience reality (The Kingdom of God), all the emphasis has been on an outside force, (being), going through some horrible heroic act on our poor behalf, and then only if we repent. 

Drop The Stone
By Scott Robinson

There is a kind of moral rigidity that is the province of youth.  The less experience one has of the slings and arrows, the easier it is to see the world in primary colors; a sense of moral nuance, like an eye for tints and shades, takes time and experience to develop.

Two Kinds of Evangelism
By Chuck Queen

There are two vastly different Christian approaches to evangelism being practiced today. One can be described as inclusive and invitational; the other is dualistic and confrontational.

Christianity isn't News
By Adalynn Siemens

How Christianity not being news is actually a large portion of its very strength.  The truth is... Christianity isn't news.  I don't mean in modern terms either; I mean in ancient terms. Christianity isn't news, and it never really was. When Christianity came along, it was literally nothing new. The amount of parallels between Christianity and various other religions around the world (the oldest of course dating back to Ancient Egypt or even earlier) is astonishing. Nothing in the Bible was original. Almost every last item attributed exclusively to Jesus, for example, including the things he said or did (or anything that happened to him), can be readily traced back to another source far more ancient than Christianity or the birth of Christ.

The Path of Jesus Means Inclusion of All
By Ronald Sparks

Jesus, obviously, saw everyone as "being created in The Imagio Dei" ("The Image and Likeness of God"). He saw everyone as having worth and dignity before God. He proclaimed that we possess these attributes not because of who we are, or what we do, but rather because of Who God is: Our Divine Parent and the One in Whose "demut" and "selem" (Hebrew Words in Genesis for "Image" and "Resemblance") we were created. When we defame, demean, devaluate, dehumanize,demonize, and discriminate against any human being we denigrate God's "Image" and "Likeness" in them and, ultimately, in ourselves.

New Report: More Sex in the Pulpit

From religiondispatches.org.  By Jeanne Carstensen.  While religious conservatives are vocal on issues of sexuality—from pre-marital sex to masturbation to abortion—progressive religious leaders have largely ‘abstained’ from discussing these matters in the pulpit. A new report urges more clergy education and openness on sexuality issues.

Sexual Liberation-The Scandal of Christendom
By Raymond J. Lawrence

Raymond J. Lawrence Jr.  This is powerful book if you want to get an overview of the Christian influence on today’s sexual ethics and sexuality. Sexual Liberation is mostly an account of how wrong Christianity has been about sex over the centuries. Raymond Lawrence is the Director of Pastoral Care at New York Presbyterian Hospital at the Columbia University Medical Center. He brings years of scholarly and life experience to his writing.

A Sample Lesson on Humility from the TCPC Children's Curriculum
By Lorna Knox

This is a lesson on Humility from our Children's Curriculum that we are creating!  You can find more information here. 

From History To Mystery, The Life And Teachings Of The Historical Jesus
By Lisa A Morris

This book explores the quest for the Historical Jesus and seeks to discover the original meanings of his teachings, in particular his kingdom of God teachings. You will learn about the last 200 years of Jesus research, including the Jesus Seminar. The author discusses Gnosticism, The Gospel of Thomas, The Secret Gospel of Mark, The Gospel of Mary Magdalene along with the four canonical gospels; Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The author spends much of her time investigating the Parables of Jesus. In the parables, Jesus preaches about "the kingdom of God." This concept is taught by Jesus on two levels. One for the masses and one for his inner circle. The uncovering the "secret teachings" of the parables is very illuminating and inspirational. Whether you are a seminary student, pastor, educator, or layperson; this is a must read on the subject of the historical teachings of Jesus! The book was written by a respected scholar in Historical Christianity, Dr. Lisa Morris.

What Have We Done?
By Fred Plumer

I do not think that very many people believe that we have a very healthy attitude towards human sexuality in the Western World today, especially in the USA. Twenty minutes of television will generally demonstrate that sad truth.  The great irony of all of this is that while many of the causes of this unhealthy sexuality can be traced back to the church, the teachings from Jesus--that we can learn to experience all Creation as Divine, including women and men--has been lost in the process.  Our continued subtle, and not so subtle, patriarchal bias has been a road block for us learning to see and experience all creation as One or Sacred Unity, through our practice of radical egalitarianism. We all lose in the process, especially our children.

Is That You God?
By Jim Burklo

(This will appear this week on the www.patheos.com interfaith website - as my response to a challenge to bloggers to answer the question "Who/What Is God?" in 100 words or less.  I'd love to see your responses to this challenge!)

Mojados
By Jim Burklo

 “Mojados in the Promised Land”: words by Jim Burklo and Lisa Atkinson, music by Lisa Atkinson and George Kincheloe, on “Connie’s Songbird”, CD by Lisa Atkinson, www.atkinsonkincheloe.com, reprinted with permission.

Reading Jesus; A Writers Encounter with the Gospels
By Mary Gordon

In this impassioned and eye-opening book, Gordon takes us through all the fundamental stories—the Prodigal Son, the Temptation in the Desert, the parable of Lazarus, the Agony in the Garden—pondering the intense strangeness of a deity in human form, the unresolved more ambiguities, the problem posed to her as an enlightened reader by the miracle of the Resurrection. What she rediscovers—and reinterprets with her signature candor, intelligence, and straightforwardness—is a rich store of overlapping, sometimes conflicting teachings that feel both familiar and tantalizingly elusive.

It is this unsolvable conundrum that rests at the heart of Reading Jesus and with which Gordon keeps us in thrall on every page.

Sacred Marriage, Sacred Sex, Sacred Text- the Song of Solomon
By Sea Raven

The Song of Solomon would never have become sacred scripture if it had not been interpreted as allegory. In the traditional Jewish understanding, the Song recounts God’s love for Israel and the history of their relationship. For Christians...
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Is God A Delusion?: A Reply To Religion's Cultured Despisers
By Eric Reitan

"Is God a Delusion?" addresses the philosophical underpinnings of the recent proliferation of popular books attacking religious beliefs. Focuses primarily on charges leveled by recent critics that belief in God is irrational and that its nature ferments violence Balances philosophical rigor and scholarly care with an engaging, accessible style Offers a direct response to the crop of recent anti-religion bestsellers currently generating considerable public discussion.

Religionless Religion: Beyond Belief to Understanding

In these perilous times when the very survival of the human species is at stake, there is a desperate need for wisdom to provide guidance. The sacred literature of the world's major religious traditions is a source for such wisdom, but it has largely been misinterpreted and misunderstood, and, thus, instead of being a source for wisdom, it has been a source for confusion and conflict. The ancient scriptures, for the most part, were written in a language which is quite different from ordinary language. It is a mythological language, which is symbolic, and therefore its meaning is hidden. In the Bible, for example, there are many narratives that appear to be historical, but they are history that has been mythologized, and therefore their surface meaning is not their real meaning. Clyde Edward Brown clearly illustrates that the correct interpretation of the world's religious texts would lead to a different concept of religion. Instead of belief in the literal truth of texts that have been misinterpreted, the emphasis would be on having those religious values, such as social and economic justice, which are common to all religions.

Setting Jesus Free
By John Churcher

The Bible and the Church have become more or less irrelevant to the contemporary world. Sadly the message of Jesus, totally relevant to all times, has been ignored and lost because it is seen as being part of the Church that is now rejected with nothing important to say to present-day life.  This book deals with the need to move away from structures of traditional beliefs, creeds and doctrines that are outmoded in our contemporary world. It encourages a move into a Church-based environment, living by a set of Jesus values that include compassion, sacrifice and acceptance of difference without having to believe the unbelievable and the unscientific.

I Want to be Left Behind: Finding Rapture Here on Earth
By Brenda Peterson

In Brenda Peterson’s unusual memoir, fundamentalism meets deep ecology. The author’s childhood in the high Sierra with her forest ranger father led her to embrace the entire natural world, while her Southern Baptist relatives prepared eagerly and busily to leave this world. Peterson survived fierce “sword drill” competitions demanding total recall of the Scriptures and awkward dinner table questions (“Will Rapture take the cat, too?”) only to find that environmentalists with prophecies of doom can also be Endtimers. Peterson paints such a hilarious, loving portrait of each world that the reader, too, may want to be Left Behind. Her clever take on the "Left Behind" phenomenon in the book's title isn't just a gentle refutation of an escapist religious prophecy. It's an appeal for something more inclusive than the idea that true believers will one day be swept up midair and whisked off to an eternal paradise, leaving the rest of us to fend for ourselves.

Living in Two Kingdoms
By Jim Burklo

I live in two kingdoms.  They occupy the same space and time, but they are very different places.  One might think that these two kingdoms would be so at odds with each other that one or another would have prevailed by now.  But they remain in an ongoing, dynamic tension in the same fabric of space-time.

I Met God in Bermuda, Faith in the 21st Century
By Steven Ogden

It is time to challenge traditional understandings of God in order to create a twenty-first century faith. We have to say goodbye to the Sunday school God and find new ways of thinking about God.

This is not an exercise in theory, but an effort to take the practice of life seriously. In fact, a twenty-first century faith is an open, dynamic and courageous attitude toward life. It presumes that God is found not in the sky, but in the midst of life. It begins with experience, our shared experience. While experience is not everything, it is a good starting point. It is what we know.

Uncertainty is Trust's Shadow
By Andrew Furlong

Catholics and other Christians misunderstand and misrepresent Jesus, as will be explained, if they believe he "happens to be God" and to be literally human and divine. They should renounce such ideas, because only in a mythological story can Christ be presented as divine. Such myths are not factual or historical, but were written to express convictions about the commitment of a transcendent God. ?

What Is the Redemptive Meaning of Jesus' Death?
By Chuck Queen

What does Jesus do on the cross? He forgives. He bears the wrath and the hostility of the worldly powers—without lashing out, without vengeance, without returning evil for evil, without projecting fear or hate or evil back onto his persecutors and killers.  

The Path to the New Creation (2 Cor. 5:14-21): An Easter Sermon
By Chuck Queen

The power of the new creation, the power of forgiveness and restoring love, the power to redeem and atone for all the evil that is at work in our lives and in our world is available to us if we will by faith claim it and live it.  

Patience With God: Faith For People Who Don't Like Religion (or Atheism)
By Frank Schaeffer

Author Schaeffer (Keeping Faith) adopts a feisty tone in this essay about evangelical Christianity and aggressive atheism. In the first half of the book, he rebuts justifications from both sides, taking aim at the ideas of such celebrity atheists as Richard Dawkins as well as religious leaders like Rick Warren. Schaeffer asks each side to allow for an evolving religion in which allegory takes precedence over literalism. In the second half, he gives space for his own memories, recalling moments that led him to a middle path of “hopeful uncertainty.”

Interview of Brian McLaren On His New Book

Interview of Brian McLaren on Patheos.com  Challenging the traditional assumptions around core Christian beliefs and advocating a dynamic discipleship that is more about the questions than the answers, this evangelical pastor-turned-author is preaching a compelling message for the future of Christianity that is building bridges across religious divides within the Church and beyond.

What is Evolutionary Christianity
By Michael Dowd

Evolutionary Christianity values big history -- the 14-billion-year epic of physical, biological, and cultural evolution -- as divine revelation and as our common creation story. Here are four core tenets of Evolutionary Christianity

Evolution: The Next Step

As a Christian who is centred on the spiritual aspect rather than on literal doctrinal interpretations, I see no conflict between evolution and my faith. In fact a realisation about how humanity is evolving shows me an inspiring path ahead. I personally see the evolutionary process as an expression of God. (In saying this I am not assuming anything about the nature of God which I personally have come to understand in a mystical sense.) But before considering the moral and spiritual implications let us consider briefly how this evolutionary process has developed. There seems to be a large consensus on four distinctive steps.

Jesus: Magician or Liberator?– The Choice for Progressive Christians
By Sea Raven

For 21st Century Christianity, the question is, which interpretation makes the most sense?  Magic and miracle, or liberation from injustice?

Awakening to the Sacred Dimension of Creation
By Bruce Sanguin

We are facing a planetary crisis that is unparalleled in human history. There is overwhelming scientific evidence that we are at a tipping point. Species extinction is accelerating, global warming is melting the polar icecaps at a rate that exceeds...
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The Great Story
By Michael Dowd

The four tenets of The Great Story.  By Michael Dowd, Author of Thank God for Evolution.

The Salvation of Religion: From Beliefs to Knowledge
By Michael Dowd

The primary cause of the Church’s decline in size and influence in Europe, and now also in America, is this: valuing the Bible as the only scripture while failing to see that today's science, interpreted meaningfully and mythically, reveals God's nature, God’s ways, and God’s guidance in many ways far more accurately than anything the biblical writers could have accessed millennia ago.

With or Without God
By Gretta Vosper

Invisioning a future in which the Christian church plays a viable and transformative role in shaping society, Gretta Vosper argues that if the church is to survive at all, the heart of faith must undergo a radical change. Vosper, founder of the Canadian Centre for Progressive Christianity and a minister in Toronto, believes that what will save the church is an emphasis on just and compassionate living-a new and wholly humanistic approach to religion. Without this reform, the church as we know it faces extinction.

Converting Christians to the Way of Jesus
By Chuck Queen

Renewing the institutional church that has settled for some lesser version of Christianity shaped by our Western/American sense of comfort and security, governed by rewards and punishments, fixated on getting beliefs correct, and oriented around feel-good, self-glorifying, God wants you to be happy and prosperous teaching, is a very difficult and slow process.

Correcting Jesus: 2000 Years of Changing The Story
By Brian Griffith

In Correcting Jesus, Brian Griffith patiently and clearly untangles the many strands of the story of Christianity, and the many changes made over the centuries to the original story of Jesus and his message. For any reader who’s wondered, “Where did that rule come from?” and “Was it always this way?” Brian’s book is the one you’ve waited for. He’s always passionate but direct in his thesis that the original words of Jesus were meant as a basis for a society based on partnership and equity, not the one of domination and hierarchy they’re used so often to justify.

Western Christianity Must Change or Remain Irrelevant
By Chuck Queen

I believe that the current state of traditional western Christianity may be comparable to the state of first century Judaism (as it is depicted in the Gospels). And now, as then, critique, deconstruction, and renovation are needed. Jesus’ continuity and discontinuity within his faith tradition, his deconstruction for the purpose of reconstruction, are paradigmatic for emerging, progressive Christianity.

God in a Bottle

How our attempts to define God and present him within terms of our own understanding are bottling up the power of God.

Homodoxuals and Heterodoxuals in the Church
By Jim Burklo

Lately I've seen many uses of the term "heterodoxy" in my reading about current trends in religion in America, referring to people who mix a variety of religious traditions and beliefs in their spirituality.  That got me to thinking about what its opposite would be: "homodoxy".  This struck me as an ironic twist in language, since so many "homodoxual" people oppose homosexuality, and so many "heterodoxual" people are open and affirming towards gays and lesbians.  This musing resulted from these observations.

Coming Back to Earth From gods, to God, to Gaia
By Lloyd Geering

The mainline churches in the Western world are declining, concludes Lloyd Geering, because they are “all out of step” with the modern secular world. This is not so much a result of the supposed renegade behavior of the secular world as the failure of the church to take the next steps in its path of faith. Abraham left his idols behind to go out into the unknown. In contrast, the churches reveal a lack of faith by insisting on an infallible Bible and a set of unchangeable doctrines tailored to an obsolete worldview. In Coming Back to Earth, Geering calls upon us to complete the work of the Second Axial Age by bringing the sacred—banished to an imaginary heavenly realm in the wake of the First Axial Age—back to earth.

Amy’s Light

by:  Robert Nutt

From under her bedcovers on a warm summer’s night, Amy peers at dark shadows on the wall that seem at least twenty feet tall. Suddenly...

Dandelion Seed

Author: Joseph Anthony
Illustrator: Cris Arbo

The humble dandelion. By roadside or mountainside, it flowers every month of the year throughout the world, a fitting symbol of life.

Web at Dragonfly Pond

Author: Brian ‘Fox’ Ellis
Illustrator: Michael S. Maydak

Storyteller Brian ‘Fox’ Ellis draws from his memories of fishing with his father to tell this true tale of a fish, a frog, a dragonfly, a mosquito, and Fox himself – “like invisible strands in a spider’s web...

Because Brian Hugged His Mother

Author: David Rice
Illustrator: K. Dyble Thompson

A simple, small act of kindness may go much farther than you think. Brian wasn’t looking for anything in return when he gave his mother a great big hug.

Born With A Bang: The Universe Tells Our Cosmic Story

Author: Jennifer Morgan
Illustrator: Dana Lynne Andersen

In this first of a trilogy, the Universe tells its own life story of chaos and creativity, science and struggle.

The Sun In My Belly

By Sister Susan, Illustrated by Sister Rain

The Sun In My Belly, introduces young readers to the Buddhist idea of interbeing that everything is connected. It is also the story of a valuable friendship and the joys of forgiveness.

Excerpts from Fred's Presentation at the Common Dreams 2 Conference- Are We Living the Progressive Faith or Are We Just Dreaming?
By Fred Plumer

I have hope that something very special is happening in our world and I would like the Christian tradition to be part of that positive, evolutionary change. But I believe there are things that progressive leaders, progressive teachers and progressive Churches, have to do immediately, if that we are going to have a chance to make it work.

Fred's Full Presentation from the Common Dreams 2 Conference- Are We Living the Progressive Faith, or Are We Just Dreaming? Part 1
By Fred Plumer

I have hope that something very special is happening in our world and I would like the Christian tradition to be part of that positive, evolutionary change. But I believe there are things that progressive leaders, progressive teachers and progressive Churches, have to do immediately, if that we are going to have a chance to make it work.

Imagining a future for the Bible in tomorrow’s churches and a post-Christian world
By Gregory C. Jenks

Are We Living the Progressive Faith, or Are We Just Dreaming? Part 2
By Fred Plumer

Part 2 of the Full Presentation by Fred Plumer, given at the Common Dreams 2 Conference in Melbourne, Australia.

Stepping Out with the Sacred: Progressive Engaging the Divine, Part 1
By Val Webb

In progressive religious thinking, old images of God have been retired and new metaphors for the Divine within the universe, whether Energy, Presence, Spirit, Sacred, Ground of Being, Life, have become more authentic for a scientific world. Yet, in a multi-faith world, we cannot speak of the Sacred infusing the universe without recognizing It as that sought and described in all religions. How do we engage this Divine within the world, or the Divine engage us, if at all, in a multi-faith world? How do human beings step out with the Sacred in everyday life across countries, cultures, and religious persuasions?

Stepping out with the Sacred: Progressive engaging the Divine, Part 2
By Val Webb

Part 2 of the Presentation given by Val Webb at the Common Dreams 2, Melbourne Australia.  In progressive religious thinking, old images of God have been retired and new metaphors for the Divine within the universe, whether Energy, Presence, Spirit, Sacred, Ground of Being, Life, have become more authentic for a scientific world. Yet, in a multi-faith world, we cannot speak of the Sacred infusing the universe without recognizing It as that sought and described in all religions. How do we engage this Divine within the world, or the Divine engage us, if at all, in a multi-faith world? How do human beings step out with the Sacred in everyday life across countries, cultures, and religious persuasions?

The Challenge Progressive Thinking Is Making to the Church
By Gretta Vosper

We come to this moment in time, called by a very long list of voices, and it has been many, many years, decades, even centuries, that those voices have been calling us.
Over the course of the next years, we must find again that inspiration that was the spark for what has been an incredible journey toward wholeness but one that has, ironically, continued to fragment and judge, to deny rights and oppress.

Creation

by: Alexandra Sangster

This children's story explores the different worldviews of creation.

Going Home

by: Alexandra Sangster

‘Going Home’ simply and powerfully walks with the child as they grapple with the experience of loss and the mystery of ‘what happens, what happens when we die’.

Uncommon Gratitude Alleluia For All That is
By Sister Joan Chittister, Rowan Williams

'This book... is an alleluia view of every present moment, a view that welcomes its complexity and subjects it to the more lasting view, the long view, of life. To that, alleluia (p. x1).'?

Who Are the "Lost"?

At the recent Southern Baptist Convention which met in Orlando, a theme reiterated throughout the meeting was the “lostness” of the world. Consider the following quotes, taken from an article in the Western Recorder by Editor Todd Deaton titled: SBC takes ‘fresh look’ at nation’s lostness: 

Anne Rice Quits Christianity

By: Michael Rowe (For the Huffington Post)Ironically, author Anne Rice may have been more of a Christian yesterday than she ever was, when she announced, on Facebook, that she was quitting Christianity and renouncing any claim to the title "Christian."

What Do We Mean When We Say, "I am Christian?"
By Fred Plumer

Over the last fifteen years I listened to a growing number of troubled clergy who are in conflicted and or dying churches. (I believe there is a connection.) Sometimes the battles are over “LBGT” issues and other times it may be about politics. But far more often, the conflict is rooted in theology, Christology and ideology. Frankly, with rare exceptions, clergy cannot freely teach what they learned in seminary or more importantly, what they have come to believe about their own understanding of the Christian religion, the Bible or their faith.  The resultant message is often mixed or muddled and almost always without passion. Maybe that is why, according to several recent polls, mainline churches continue to decline at an increasing rate and maybe that is why the number of people who consider themselves spiritual but not religious appears to be growing exponentially. Sadly, more and more of these individuals are leaving organized religion and are finding other ways to satisfy their spiritual needs.

Show Us God
By Gary A. Wilburn

          One of the primary issues which separates progressive churches from those which are not is our understanding of salvation.  We do not believe that we, as Jesus’ followers, have a better access to God than other people - or that our way is right and theirs is wrong.  For us, Jesus is the essential definition of God.  Jesus fully reveals God to us.  We have found in Jesus Christ the highest definition of what it means to be human, and of what it means to be divine.  We see in him what all of us were created to be.

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