Spiritual formation that disturbs you
“May the Spirit of God disturb you” sounds like a bit of ire at first. Perhaps it is the word of blessing we need most.
Harvard adopting the IHRA definition of antisemitism is a harbinger of what’s to come
We should see this move for what it really is: a nakedly opportunistic attempt to advance an authoritarian agenda and restrict our First Amendment rights.
Learning to risk in ‘Paddington in Peru’
In these times, churches have to be like Mr. Brown – they have to embrace risk for the sake of something greater. We know that success is not guaranteed, and we cannot know what repercussions might manifest from opposing naked cruelty.
Weekly religion news roundup (February 14-20, 2025)
Each Friday in The Christian Citizen, we publish a Religion News Roundup with summaries of religion news stories and links for those who want to read more.
Holding hope
Perhaps God can use us to help hold hope for others, to sing, to pray, to equip, to rest some more as we hold on knowing the robin will return and Sunday will come.
The politics of mercy
We receive grace from God – it cannot be bought, earned, deserved, or demanded, but can only be received as a gift. Wouldn’t you think that when a person is conscious of being given grace by God, that person would want to turn around and offer the gift of grace to others?
Ambassadorship
The apostle Paul writes that since we have been reconciled with Christ, we are to become ambassadors for Christ in the world. In Christ, let us also be ambassadors of peace and love in the world in such a time as today.
Faith of our fathers: Presidents and their theologies
This country would be wise to study the presidents’ work and morals, attend to their memory and legacy with honest and frank assessments as to their failings and faults, and seek a more perfect union in our time. This indeed, is holy and prophetic work in the public square as we parcel out truth from untruth. This is important and nuanced work as we fight for the soul of our democracy.
Prayer and the news
Consider developing a “rule of life” in relation to news. How might you bring a practice of prayer into your engagement with the media?
‘If thou shalt confess’: A nonbinary testimony of faith
Why should persons like myself who have received the same gift of saving faith – who pray, read the Bible, come to worship and who are active members in religious and civil society – why should we be condemned by some of our kin in the Church and by fellow citizens in our nation?
The remarkable, less told story of ‘The Six Triple Eight’
How do we tell a fuller swath of history to the next generation, without falling into the habit of downsizing U.S. history into ever simplified narratives around heroism and achievement? What happens when those in power and dominant places in culture and politics become allergic to or threatened by the desire to respect history with nuance and complexity?
Building an intergenerational church
Building an intergenerational church requires a shift in mindset. It requires a commitment to creating an inclusive environment where everyone, regardless of age, feels they have a place and a voice.
Journey with Jesus through Black history
Just as Luke felt compelled to offer a trustworthy narrative of his experience with Christ, so did Carter G. Woodson as it related to the rich history of African Americans.
Dismantling U.S. foreign aid hurts Americans – and the world
In a globalized world where a disease outbreak in one country can turn into a pandemic, where natural disasters, conflicts, and the people displaced by them cross borders, does withdrawing U.S. aid and collaboration with other nations in addressing these risks make America safer? Does reneging on commitments we have already made to other nations, damaging trust and credibility in the United States abroad, make us stronger? Does abruptly cutting thousands of American jobs related to international aid make America more prosperous?
Predisposed to forgive
Perhaps the Amish are unique in their inclination to be predisposed to forgiveness. And yet, their examples cause us to reexamine our beliefs about forgiveness.
Are there simple acts of violence?
We’ve grown cynical about solutions to acts of violence, but there actually may be some things the church is uniquely positioned to provide.
Who do you believe deserves all the rights and privileges of American citizenship?
Who do you believe deserves all the rights and privileges of American citizenship? Who do you think should be able to “secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity”? The future of the United States of America hangs on how the majority of its citizens answer these two questions.
Our collective failure to truly honor the victims of the Holocaust
The shadow of the Holocaust, a genocide that happened in the middle of a supposedly civilized world, while that so-called civilized world refused to believe in the barbarism despite repeated reports and pleas, is never far for me as someone who grew up in Poland, even though I was born forty years after it happened and its memorialization was neatly limited to official places with plaques. These memories are everywhere, it just takes a bit of unearthing.
Beautiful, you speak!
I invite us to open our eyes and the eyes of our hearts not only to humanity’s beauty, but how God gently nudges us every day to be Christ-like in our neighborhoods.
Learning to dance
If the Incarnation teaches us anything, it teaches that God blesses and uses the body. Today, some churches incorporate dance and movement of the body into worship itself.
Nostalgia and the Church
There is a healthy kind of nostalgia that can show us that our place is a room of remembrance, but we dare not allow unhealthy nostalgia to turn that room into an idolatrous space that will never grow, change, or adapt.
King’s vision was never meant to comfort the comfortable
Recovering King’s legacy also means confronting our own complicity in systems of injustice. King’s critique of the “white moderate”— those more devoted to order than justice — remains painfully relevant.
Ultimate allegiance
So, Church—what shall we do next? The we is imperative because if we are to truly be one nation under God, if we are to truly be incorporated in the body of Christ, if we are to truly embody our ultimate allegiance to the empire of eternity, our next moves must be different.
Two different kinds of men
Some analysts claim that without the support of Baptists and other evangelicals, neither Donald Trump nor Jimmy Carter would have ever lived in the White House. They have that in common but in almost every other way, they are very different.
Standing for the Kingdom in Georgia
How can we serve the people of Georgia – our brothers, sisters, and siblings in Christ and in the wider human race – as the country of Egypt once served the Holy Family as they fled Bethlehem and the tyrant Herod?
Cruelty is coming. Brush up on nonviolent resistance
Nonviolent resistance is about peacefully but decidedly disrupting oppressive tactics. Although it sometimes puts the person engaged in it at risk of things like arrest or violence themselves, when done well, it uses creativity, self-sacrifice, and solidarity to affirm the humanity of the vulnerable.
Love anyway
Love as described by Jesus is not morally disengaged. It is, and always has been, countercultural. It is also a challenge, particularly when people, including ourselves, are often not lovable.
What day is it?
As we start 2025, I invite all of us to go back in history, to go to our roots, go to what anchors us, go and rediscover what our hearts hold, so that we can grasp it again and let it inform our future steps.
Jimmy Carter was there when my congregation needed him: Remembering a president
President Carter knew that those who lack housing or food are not merely political pawns, but the real presence of God in our midst. What we do, or don’t do, to serve them reveals everything about what we value in our world and in our congregations.
Peace in Israel/Palestine: a “naive” solution
A lifetime of trying to think “rationally” has me conditioned to see mutual empathy as heartwarming but naive. I am ready now to say, however, that it offers the only hope for stable peace in the Middle East (or anywhere).
In ‘Gladiator II,’ the gods are a joke, but belief isn’t
As the Colosseum was a monument to ancient Roman power, shopping malls, political rallies, and sporting events are monuments to America’s present moment. All are important, even replacing religion in many instances, because they are the embodiment of victory, something that Americans are willing to pursue to dangerous ends, even if it threatens our country’s continued viability.
Letter from the editor
Thank you for your role in this ongoing work. Whether through reading, sharing, or providing feedback, your support sustains us. You remind us that we are not alone in our efforts to be a voice for justice and peace. Your participation helps build bridges where there are divides and fosters a spirit of unity in times when the world sorely needs it.
Isa means Jesus in Arabic: Exploring the story of Jesus in Islam
It is important as humans to concentrate on what unites us in our striving for peace, kindness and justice: all qualities that Isa or Jesus embodied.
Jesus’ birthplace: An act of radical hospitality
God’s invitation and welcome do not cost us our seat at the table but beg us to make room for others as well. This is the heart of Christmas; when there was no room, God still made a way.
An angelic Christmas Eve
Over the years, I learned more fully that people need to connect with worship emotionally. That means leaders must include words, rituals, and practices people recognize – on Christmas Eve and all year long.
John the Baptist’s message for then and now: Think differently
That was the key message of John the Baptist and of Jesus of Nazareth: to encourage people to think differently about their relationship with and their love for God. To think differently about what you put first and seek first.
This Advent, repent
By avoiding or denying our need to repent, we continue ways leading to sadness and despair, no matter how we might tell ourselves otherwise. To repent is to turn things around, to let your life find balance, to welcome grace into your life.
Waiting amid the magic
I have come to see the rituals I have in my life as doors. They can be open and invite me to pass through and, in turn, be closed and left to mark the passing of the former as I move into the future.
In ‘Moana 2,’ the stories make us
We do not make the stories; the stories make us. We are products of stories of longing, finding, losing, and things made whole that have no reason to be.
Through a door or down a hole
However chaotic the current global situation becomes, make a habit of encountering the sacred every day. View life through spiritual lenses and allow that to transform how you see things.
Welcoming the stranger: How are we doing?
As people of God, we must continually ask ourselves, “How am I doing welcoming the stranger? What steps can I take as an individual, community member, church member, and person of God to help those who are desiring a better life, running from the ‘Herods’ of many forms?”
Carroñeros
Es importante que como iglesia identifiquemos si estas acciones ocurren en nuestras comunidades y nos unamos a los esfuerzos de hacer justicia en favor de los más vulnerables. A eso fuimos llamados y llamadas.
Scavengers
It is important that we, as a church, identify whether exploitation of those affected by catastrophes happens in our communities and join in efforts to do justice for the most vulnerable. That is what we are called to do.
Stand up
May we find our rest, our sitting with community in the lamenting. We have waded in the waters, we have parted seas, our North Stars have journeyed to freedom. We have stood up to many Goliaths in this world.
In ‘A Real Pain,’ everybody suffers
“A Real Pain” isn’t an in-depth analysis of the Holocaust. Rather, it is a character study that points to a central fact that we all know – to be human is to suffer, and that suffering can be great or small.
Hand-me-down robes and the Kingdom of God
While today there are debates of the accessibility and efficacy of Christian vestments, to me they show the magnitude and imperative of the message we offer. They also are a great equalizer by which we see that God’s kingdom is not a meritocracy.
Remembering Dr. Anthony Campolo
Dr. Campolo forced you to think about what Jesus would do. He showed that simple ideas don’t always apply in every situation or solve every problem, but they change things. Simple choices can change your life.
Advent is the pregnancy of Christmas
God is working in disruption to bring about surprising transformation. Like pregnancy, the process can be painful, but it births new life.
This is who I am
In early adulthood, I was struck with an epiphany about my identity and heritage. If I believed God to be an intentional God, who has a hand in my very creation and being knit together, then God has an intention in making me who I am in my Chinese Americanness.
Against serving alcohol at church events: Beyond pietism and toward best practice
As we consider how to best serve those around us, going alcohol-free may well be one of the most profound gestures of hospitality we can make. Rather than asking people to fit themselves around established norms, we build events that are genuinely welcoming for all.
Do we value Christian publishing?
If ministries that are expected to be self-sustaining through sales of curriculum and books are no longer sustainable, what does that say about our buying habits? As Matthew 6:21 reminds us, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Faith and love
When was the last time you attended a wedding service where cultures and languages were honored equally? When was the last time you attended a wedding service where all were invited to partake at Jesus’ communion table in two languages? My God reminds me that officiating such a blessed wedding is possible, even if we are surrounded by global racial polarization.
On the anniversary of the Pittsburgh Platform, let us reflect on the cost of assimilation
In a culture that demands conformity, and where conformity is often equaled with Christianity, what remains the price of acceptance?
Why pastors should know how much people give
Stewardship is not simply about raising money for ministry. It includes helping people see all they have as a gift from God.
Después de la tormenta
Me encantaría poder decir que después de la tormenta viene la calma, pero no siempre es así. A veces, después de la tormenta, hace falta que denunciemos las estructuras y los sistemas que nos oprimen a tal grado que detienen u obstaculizan la recuperación.
After the storm
I would love to be able to say that after the storm comes calm, but that is not always the case. Sometimes, after the storm, we need to denounce the structures and systems that oppress us to the point that they stop or hinder recovery.
Today I ask you to choose faith
What we really need is faith. Faith in that arc and its bending, faith that what we do counts for something, faith that we can be the friends that God needs now.
Our church signs need work
Planet Fitness, the real-life Average Joe’s, come-as-you-are establishment, beat every church sign I knew with its slogan, The World Judges, We Don’t.
What then shall we say? A Christian response to election anxiety
In this moment, all eyes rest on this moment in our history. It’s my hope that we are both worthy of that weight and can show the rest of the country that we can hold all this in tension for the sake of something better.
Remembering saints still witnessing
The witness of Dorothy Day is furthered by a new graphic novel retelling of her life and work. The graphic novel provides a thoughtful and informative introduction to Day’s life and development of her staunchly faith-driven way of serving neighbors in need and questioning the inequities of social and economic systems.
Weathering Advent
I have been imagining this Advent as a time during which I will hold my breath for a season. But I do not want to just hold my breath. I’d prefer to breathe. So I’m investing some time now asking myself a very basic question: how do I want to live while the unknown is coming? I cannot control the weather, but I can weather it.
Life and death in a time of secularism: What faith communities can learn from secularism about euthanasia, agency, and “natural death”
What is a “natural” death in our time? With modern medicine, it has become increasingly difficult to avoid life-prolonging treatments. Is it natural to undergo surgery after surgery, or endure multiple rounds of treatments? Is it natural to be kept on life support?
Anger eats the container that holds it
Anger is dangerous to your health, to your spirit, and to the quality of your life – not to mention the impact it has on others. It eats the container that holds it.
Through faith: guiding communities through the 2024 election
Voting is an action we ultimately take as individuals, but we do so surrounded by community. And it requires our belief that our system will work. Belief that our values will prevail. Belief that our country and our world can be better.
The joy of book stacks: curating stories and wisdom for the soul
Gather the books that are feeding your soul, the ones that make you think or laugh or cry. Share them with friends, online or in person. Reading is a communal activity as much as it is a solitary one, and there’s so much joy to be found in the shared love of a good story.
Being a woman should not be a death sentence
We must do more than lament, we must act. We must shore up the courage to not look away when our sisters, mothers, aunties, cousins, friends experience domestic violence.
Building a movement for dignity: A conversation with Tim Shriver
Christian Citizen editor Curtis Ramsey-Lucas speaks with Tim Shriver, founder and CEO of Unite and host of “Need a Lift?” about his efforts to encourage dignity in politics and provide an alternative for people who are hungry for belonging, purpose, and the belief that we can all somehow work together.
‘Nothing Half as Lonesome as the Sound’: The theology of Kris Kristofferson
Many of Kris Kristofferson’s lesser-known compositions depict the intent of God and Christ in prophetic ways. The country music legend lamented that Christ’s endowment of grace, love, compassion, and justice was rejected, certainly by those in power, and to some degree by us all.
Can a robot be a saint? A review of ‘The Wild Robot’
Can a robot be a saint? Put another way, as we enter the AI age, can the intelligence we create achieve holiness?
Everything is connected
“All things are connected, and whatever man does to the web of life, he does to himself.” These are haunting words as we consider the human causes of climate change and wonder what are we doing to ourselves and to our own web?
End of an era: the Oakland A’s and church closings
Both baseball and the Church are more extensive than any one moment, season, or location. They are about people, tradition, and a shared sense of purpose. They call us into their stories of hope, heartbreak, resilience, and renewal.
How many dead children does it take?
Our Lord and Savior Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me.” (Matthew 19:14) If Jesus has truly freed us, if he is the head of the Body, then Christian individuals and churches must live as if every single child matters. The Jewish child. The American child. The Christian child. The Israeli child. The Muslim child. The Palestinian child.
Revenge is killing us
In today’s world, revenge is killing us. It is killing some much more quickly than others. It kills us, thousands of miles away from a conflict spiritually, making us unwilling collaborators in a genocidal scheme that robs children of their parents, their lives, and a future.
Greatness with a grain of salt
As we observe World Communion Sunday, may we remember with due humility, the circle is always open. The Church is bigger than we think. The table of the Lord is open to all who call upon the name of Jesus and follow his gospel.
Being loved in a strange land
For the Latino community of faith, offering others the sense of belonging “not for what I can do but for who I am” is one of the greatest principles we can have, not only because it comes from our culture, but also from our faith.
Giving thanks is an essential part of stewardship
Give thanks more. Find ways to appreciate your givers. For pastors and stewardship leaders, giving thanks will make the work easier and more joyful for you and for givers.
Living intentionally as Job’s brother
What the metaphor of Job’s brother offers us is the responsibility to use our position to recognize that all human life is sacred. Our distance from Job’s pain comes with an obligation to continue to hold our communities to account while working separately in broader movements to end the war and achieve justice in Israel/Palestine.
Friluftsliv: On going outside as a spiritual practice of homecoming
In conceiving of going outside as a way of going home, friluftsliv invites us back to our most basic and essential way of being on this planet, as belonging here.
Work needs boundaries
Work expands to fill the time allotted. I recommend that the clergy I coach set an ending time for their working day. If you are always working longer than you plan, you will wear yourself out.
A moonshine faith
Mass-marketed prosperity and nationalistic forms of Christianity are anything but genuine. Anything but real and authentic. Anything but a radical Gospel for all. This revelation hit me like a shot of poteen.
Is it a trusted path?
In this season of constant divisiveness, I wonder how we recognize divine light in hearts of all nations to guide us all towards intentional co-creation for peace. Are the paths to freedom which were formed by faith by so many footprints still trusted paths in current strained national and global relationships?
September is National Suicide Prevention Month
Therapists, chaplains, but also clergy serving in congregational ministry are uniquely positioned to reduce stigma around suicide. Through preaching explicitly compassionate messages and being open about their own mental health struggles, clergy can authoritatively dispel myths around suicide that stem from toxic theologies.
Nothing wrong with DEI
From their diverse backgrounds, the early church discovered inclusion in Christ that led them to equitably share everything that they had among them. Nothing wrong with DEI at Pentecost!
Remembering 9/11: A Muslim perspective
When we say, “Never forget,” we must ask: Who are we remembering? Who gets counted as American enough to deserve justice? Until we, as a country, live up to the values of love, unity, and equality that are supposed to bind us together, justice will remain an unfulfilled promise.
Living and listening amid a spiritual crisis
You and I are survivor trees, too. To whom are we giving shade and rest? Where are we planting our roots? To what stars are we stretching out our branches?
In “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” church’s proclamations of “all are welcome” are played for laughs
Jesus had no barriers, but churches certainly do, and that fact is well-known in our society. So well-known that it can be played for laughs.
We must make better worlds
For that dedicated, regular time away to be respected and honored, we must develop grace-filled, compassionate cultures within our churches that destigmatizes mental health and emphasize self-care for both congregants and clergy.
What are parables about? A review of Proclaiming the Parables: Preaching and Teaching the Kingdom of God
The parables of Jesus are embedded in the life of the hearers, even as they are at the ready to lift up the Reign of God as the work of God, not humanity, in breaking into the mundane and sin-fractured world we know all too well.
Take a breath
Jesus took time to sit, to breathe, to eat, to grieve, to lament, to pray, to be silent. Why is it so hard for us all to follow the model set before us?
Labor Day and the Elaine Massacre
Clearly the massacre in Elaine, Arkansas in 1919 had a racial component, one for which all of us should repent and work for reparations. But Elaine, and Memphis, and so many other moments in our history, are also and just as much about the violent repression of workers as they are about race.
The demon is a liar
It falls upon the listener to be able to discern truth from lies – to listen as a critical thinker.
Glacial faith
While the glacier’s till looks like the dirty snow piles a snowplow leaves behind in suburban parking lots or along the berms of interstate highways, the till may become a moraine, a rich soil with potential for new growth. This is also part of glacial faith — when what has been pushed aside becomes fertilizer for whatever new thing God may be doing in the world.
Communal redemption is calling us
So much of our personal flourishing—a sense of connection and belonging, feeling seen and heard, having genuine opportunity in life—is a function of our shared project called community. We need each other to pursue a more just, inclusive, and hopeful society.
Happier family reunions
When the world has increasingly become digital and isolated from human communities, planning a family reunion can lead to deeper family life—and truth be told, potentially family conflicts too. But the benefits and rewards of a more meaningful and engaged family life are all worth it.
An ode to Vacation Bible School
When we had to cooperate on a VBS with other denominations, we were reminded that we were not the only Christians in the community, an illness to which Christians are prone. Underlying suspicions would begin to melt, as we worked side by side on a common goal.
Baptists confronting the climate crisis
The psychological, technological, moral and spiritual capacities associated with the imago Dei – the image and likeness of God in humanity — and the original and permanent centrality of our particular role as God´s gardeners and caretakers (Genesis 1:26-30) should not move us to pride and assertions of privilege.
Maybe people living with disabilities don’t need help
Jesus affirmed the imago Dei in all people, even and especially those discarded or ostracized; Christ even ignited the Pharisees’ anger by healing on the Sabbath. Our embodied Savior noticed and ministered to physical needs, while acknowledging that spiritual needs — the ones we all hold in common — remain eternally important.
Harris’ faith is a game-changer for abortion rights
Harris meets the conversation around abortion where it is most fertile — at the intersection of differing religious communities. It is only through interfaith dialogues that the limiting binary thinking around abortion and faith is interrogated.
Finding inner peace in Kung Fu Panda 4
I was delighted to see a clear representation of just what it looks like to meditate in a kids’ movie. Meditation is hard work, and it is rare to be successful the first time one practices it. But, if like me and like Po in the Kung Fu Panda series, you’re seeking a way to find inner peace, you should probably give it a try.
Lessons from X-Men ’97 on the priesthood of all believers
What we can learn from Nightcrawler is how to identify the gifts of all people around us, regardless of their background, as necessary for the greater community, and how we might also minister among others.