by Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons
Most Americans, including religious ones, support LGBTQ people’s right to nondiscriminatory treatment. So conservative fearmongers switched tactics. https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/conservatives-opposing-equality-act-don-t-speak-most-people-faith-ncna1258910
God, through the angel Gabriel, called on Mary to do what, in the world’s eyes is impossible, and instead of saying, “I can’t,” she replied immediately, “Be it unto me according to thy word.”
God is always calling on us to do the impossible. It helps me to remember that anything Jesus did during his life here on earth is something we should be able to do, too.
When spring-fed Dog Pond warms up enough for swimming, which usually isn’t until June, I often go there in the late afternoon. Sometimes I will sit on a sun-warmed rock to dry, and think of Peter walking across the water to meet Jesus. As long as he didn’t remember that we human beings have forgotten how to walk on water, he was able to do it.
If Jesus of Nazareth was God become truly man for us, as I believe he was, then we should be able to walk on water, to heal the sick, even to accept the Father’s answer to our prayers when it is not the answer that we hope for, when it is no. Jesus begged in anguish that he be spared the bitter cup and then humbly added, “but not as I will, Father; as you will.”
In art, either as creators or as participators, we are helped to remember some of the glorious things we have forgotten, and some of the terrible things we are asked to endure, we who are children of God by adoption and grace.
From “Walking on Water” by Madeleine L’Engle
I won’t be torching my Harry Potter books or throwing my Buffy DVDs on a bonfire. I’d have to throw my Bible to the flames as well.
by Jana Riess https://religionnews.com/2021/02/25/on-joss-whedon-cancel-culture-and-the-bible/
Zacchaeus thought that gratitude was a political structure of benefactors and beneficiaries that he could manipulate for his own benefit. Then Jesus called him down from that tree and invited him to a table. “Stop climbing, Zacchaeus. Come and sit.” Whereas Rome practiced gratitude as a hierarchy of political and economic obligation, of debt and duty, Jesus envisioned gratitude as hospitality of mutuality and relationship, of gift and response. Jesus opened the door for Zacchaeus to “come down” from his old life, to stop participating in a corrupt system of gratitude that oppressed his own people.
From “Grateful” by Diana Butler Bass – HarperOne
Renegades: Born in the USA is a series of conversations between President Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen about their lives, music, and enduring love of America—despite all its challenges. https://open.spotify.com/show/42xagXCUDsFO6a0lcHoTlv
from Religion News Service – A significant percentage of Black church attendees — 69% — agree that pastors of Black congregations are the African American community’s most important leaders. https://religionnews.com/2021/02/19/want-to-understand-black-experience-learn-about-african-american-faith-survey-finds/
by Andre Henry – The refusal to confront the white supremacy at the Capitol is a refusal to reconcile America’s lofty democratic rhetoric with the state of its floundering institutions. https://religionnews.com/2021/02/19/the-other-impeachment-trial-that-black-americans-saw/
“Our Bible App” launched a Kickstarter campaign earlier this month to raise money to create a devotional book for not only deconstructing faith but also reconstructing and ‘liberating’ it. https://religionnews.com/2021/02/15/the-deconstructionists-playbook-outlines-ways-forward-for-questioning-christians/