This may owe to my context, and even to some extent my generation, but I don’t always find it easy to hold on to the label Christian. I’ve not for one second been embarrassed by following the way of Jesus—but I have been mortified and horrified by the ways other professing followers espouse nationalism, White supremacy, misogyny, transphobia (the list goes on).
Yet my faith—not everything under the sun called Christian, but the spiritual path I discern, create, and walk with my church community—continues to offer hope and resilience. There is plenty of new Century content about the riches of liberative faith. Brian Bantum shares how theological reflection provides grounding in these troubling times. In an interview with Alejandra Oliva, Martin Dickinson describes how faith helps establish a framework of dignity for migrant families suffering in the US. Jason Mahn recounts how time in nature develops gratitude and healthy eco-spiritual practices in his students’ lives.
Plus scroll down for more great new content, including our video of the week: a chat with scholar Randall Balmer about the personality, faith tradition, and reevaluated legacy of Jimmy Carter.
“‘Who is God?’ has become somewhat of a daily question for me, a kind of centering I’ve needed as God and Christianity and the Bible are invoked alongside policies of death and confinement and deportation and exclusion.”
“We need to speak out. We need to say, for example, that mass deportation is against our gospel values and our baptismal covenant. We need to not shrink back or worry.”
“To trace human work through gratitude to grace is pretty standard Lutheran fare. Many at Holden Village add a critical third piece: the gift of God’s creation and in return our care for this gift.”
