The difference between being Religious and being Christian

There is a growing chasm between Religion and Christianity, whereby Christians in America and elsewhere stray from the light and life of Christianity, while descending deeper into the darkness and death of Religion. For example, a Pew survey of mostly white evangelical Protestants revealed that more than six in 10 believe that torture is often […]

Attaching the Christian label

It is an unfortunate truth that various organizations may all co-opt the term “Christian,” and many use the term without, apparently, knowing what it means. It has reached a point where even serious Christians cringe when they hear the word in political commentary. It might now be worthwhile to appeal to the Bible, to see, […]

Passing on a form of “mutant” Christianity

Kenda Creasy Dean, a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, says more American teenagers are embracing what she calls “moralistic therapeutic deism.” Translation: It’s a watered-down faith that portrays God as a “divine therapist” whose chief goal is to boost people’s self-esteem. Dean says that many parents and pastors are unwittingly passing on this self-serving strain […]

The ironies of Christian conscience

The Rev. William P. Mahedy, a chaplain in Vietnam, tells of a soldier he encountered on the field of battle. The soldier approaches the chaplain and asks: ‘Hey, Chaplain … how come it’s a sin to hop into bed with a mama-san but it’s okay to blow away gooks out in the bush?’ Mahedy later wrote […]

Why Are So Many Christians Conservative? Part 1

Conservatives believe that the rich and powerful got that way because they deserve to be, that society owes its prosperity to the prosperous, and that government’s job when they have to make choices is to side with those businesspeople who are doing well, because all good things trickle down from them. Progressives, on the other […]

Why Are So Many Christians Conservative? Part 2

The Jesus of the New Testament spent his public career preaching about the nature of God and our relationship to God, but also about how we should deal with each other. He repeatedly blessed mercy, gentleness, peacemaking, community, and taking care of each other. He lifted up the poor and oppressed, and spoke poorly of […]

On Christian America’s support of Israel

America and Israel are two separate nations, with two distinct sets of interests. Most obviously, Israel lives on the front-lines of the Arab and Muslim world, while Americans do not. But if the feeling is that the U.S. has a religious duty to help Israel, then there is no way for our two nations to […]

The universal and timeless Golden Rule

Oh, if we could all simply live the universal and timeless Golden Rule: Christianity: All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.: Matthew 7:12 Islam: No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother what which he desires for himself. Sunnah Judaism: […]

America Land of the Free Surveillance

Political spying is nearly as bad now as it was during the Cold War. The ACLU reports that Americans are harrassed and under surveillance for exercising their First Amendment rights. One ACLU report, Policing Free Speech: Police Surveillance and Obstruction of First Amendment-Protected Activity (.pdf), reveals that, in recent years, Americans have been put under surveillance […]

Wikileaks, CIA and the US as an exporter of terrorism

Wikileaks has released a classified CIA document noting that a number of Americans have travelled overseas to commit violent acts, like David Headley, the Pakistani-American man who helped the Mumbai attackers in 2008; and Baruch Goldstein, the Jewish extremist who killed dozens of Palestinians in Hebron in 1994. US citizens also provided “financial and material support” […]