Church and Social Movements « Heatherhope Farm

Heatherhope Believes In A Dynamic Church

Easter morning listening to the radio. National Public Radio represents the best of broadcast journalism. But I heard exactly two references to the great Christian Festival Day of Easter. One was an offhand comment, just before the segment with “puzzle master Will Shorts,” in which the host noted that many listeners would possibly be away […]

More "Us" and Less World in Prayers

Of course, we all know it is a travesty for prayers and sermons to chant on about this and that abstraction. We heap up metaphors but cannot, for the life of us, speak in an apposite way or about practical truths. Saved by the blood of the cross? We explain it using ten more abstractions, and in […]

Advent People during Anxious Times

I returned to the congregation I served as pastor for a dozen years and was refreshed by the community of Christ and a service of Lessons and Carols for Advent.

I was thirsty for Advent. I don’t buy into the paranoia pitched by Fox News about a so-called “war on Christmas,” but I do lament a […]

Ferguson Is Bigger than Any Grand Jury Decision

All this fuss over waiting for a grand jury decision!

But there is more to the story than Michael Brown lying dead and Darren Wilson having pulled the trigger. Of course the tragedy of that single death is immense. Of course the agony that Michael Brown’s family and friends are going through is unfathomable. So is […]

Jesus, Save Us From Your Followers!

I take the title of this post from a bumper sticker I saw years ago. It should make a comeback.

The 2012 election has made many cultural shifts in America obvious. Not least of these is the diminishment of the influence of the politically organized so-called Christian evangelicals and the Roman Catholic hierarchy. A front-page article […]

Things That Should Matter For Christians This Election

This Presidential election campaign has surfaced several things that I believe committed Christians should be alarmed about.

First is the wholesale bearing of false witness.

Our household has received via e-mails a number of forwarded messages about the Obama administration that are full of lies. One asserts that “Obamacare” is designed to cut seniors off from life-saving […]

Who Told You That You Were Naked?

This Sunday’s first reading is the familiar story of Adam and Eve and the “first sin” in Genesis 3.

The central verse is when God asks Adam, who, with Eve, is hiding from God, where he is. Adam explains that he is fearful and hiding from God because he is naked. Then comes that profound […]

Reflections: Transfiguration Sunday

Reflections on Transfiguration, Year C
2 Kings 2:1-12 “Elijah ascended into heaven in a whirlwind.”

No one likes being caught in a storm.

The severe tornadoes of last summer, including the one that devastated Joplin, Missouri, surely give us a case in point. If the storm that hit Joplin would have occurred just a few […]

Picking Winners and Losers

The slogan de jour in the defense of right wing ideology is “it’s wrong for government to pick winners and losers.” This has been employed to decry affirmative action in hiring or scholarships and government investment in green energy, for instance.

But does it mean anything?

We can assume that it means that […]

NY Times Article On Christianity and Animals

The October 15 edition of the NY Times has a wonderful article by Mark Oppenheimer on the fascinating of the love of animals and the Christian faith. We urge our friends to check it out. Here is a link which I hope will get you there: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/15/us/pet-ministries-are-growing-in-churches.html

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