Rev. John Churcher: More thoughts on Easter, 2011

Reposted from the Progressive Christian Alliance. American motivational speaker Denis Waitley said, “There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept responsibility for changing them.”

Christian Reflections on Easter

Here are some reflections from Christian thinkers on Easter From Rev. Brian McLaren’s blog (Rev. McLaren is one of the most exciting contemporary Christian theologians):

Holy Week: Meditation 7 … Easter
Fr. Richard Rohr celebrates the holy resurrection of the Lord like this:
Christ Crucified is all of the hidden, private, tragic pain of history made public and given over to God. Christ Resurrected is all of that private, ungrieved, unnoted suffering received, loved, and transformed by an All-Caring God. How else could we believe in God at all?

Toward a Counter-Imperial Faith

Christians in Egypt joined with Muslims during the February 2011 protests that drove U.S.-backed Hosni Mubarak from power. Will U.S. Christians now find the courage to follow their lead and stand with the pro-democracy movements in Egypt, Libya, and beyond?

Peacebuilding

edited by Robert J. Schreiter, R. Scott Appleby, and Gerard F. Powers

The Nature of Evil

So why is evil so sexy, and so profoundly glamorous? And why does virtue seem so boring? Why is it that when I told my thirteen-year-old son I was writing a book on evil, he replied “Wicked!”?

The Coming of Grace

Literature and literary criticism, by bringing to light lost, silenced voices, makes their existence known, thus enabling that ethical caring attention be paid to them. In recent years I have focused on retrieving the silenced existence of nonhuman animals as beings worthy of such attention.

When Love Trumps Right Belief

Each of us has directives we live by. The directive to love is at the very heart of most faith traditions, along with being the first and foremost standard to live by for many who do not profess a specific religious belief.

Tikkun and Red-Letter Christians

We Catholics, on the other hand, get steeped in the Gospels and then eventually get around to studying Paul’s writings. Not that there are contradictions between them, but you’ll have to admit that there’s a different ‘feel’ if you understand Jesus with Pauline theology rather than coming to Paul’s writings steeped in the lifestyle and values prescribed by Jesus.” When I asked the consequences of these differing emphases, he answered, “You Evangelicals turn out television evangelists, whereas we turn out Mother Teresa.”

A Christian Realist’s Lament

For someone who interprets the course of events from a Christian realist perspective, the prospects for healing and repairing the world appear less than promising. That defines the position I happen to occupy. Although my admiration for those who insist otherwise knows no bounds, I find myself unable to enlist under their banner: over the course of many centuries, evil has proven to be too persistent; humankind’s penchant for folly too great; the allure of mammon too insidious; and power in all its variegated forms too corrupting.

My Minimalist Jesus

Here I tell you what little I know. I have studied Jesus and preached Jesus and misunderstood Jesus and re-understood Jesus. I have demythologized Jesus and applied “critical theory” to his words.