Listen for a few moments to US media (at least some US media) and you are likely to hear the bashing of something called “identity politics.” Why, some ask, do you want to force . . . well . . . everything from race to gender to sexual orientation . . . on the rest of us? The “us” being, well .… Read More »The Identity Politics of Right-Wing Religion
“God is love.” Yes, I know that the phrase is biblical. The words appear in 1 John 4:8, to be precise. I had those three words underlined in a pocket New Testament (plus Psalms) I carried everywhere as a kid. Leather cover. I also know the rest of the verse: “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”… Read More »But Who Is Hate?
Many of us of a liberal theological bent consider religions in the category of stuff human beings in our communal groupings have made up over the millennia in order to survive and thrive on this planet. Human ideas are socially and historically “conditioned.” Philosophies and religions — and the truths and gods they claim — are “true” because they have… Read More »Historicism: On Knowing That We Are Making It Up
Observing nature.
The American philosopher John Dewey was one of the signers of Humanist Manifesto I back in 1933. Most people know a little something about Dewey because of his theories of education. Like the nowadays more famous Maria Montessori, Dewey was a constructivist. Constructivism is complex idea that boils down to a fairly simple formula. As Maria Montessori put it, “the mind remembers what the… Read More »Constructing Democracy (Calmly)
Critical race theory has become a football in the US culture wars. Here’s what critical theory is about.
The question became what position the most protesting of Protestants would look like, and . . . there was no general consensus on that theological point. Many thought the logical candidate for the far left was Humanism.
I have loved what are called “the liberal arts” for most of my life. I can truthfully say that I moved from biblical fundamentalism to a lover of literary Modernism in the wink of an eye. I took one look at T.S. Eliot’s poetry and Allen Ginsberg’s poetry and I was hooked on what I saw that could be communicated… Read More »Decolonizing the Mind: The First Step is Knowing You’re Caught
“ . . . courage shall fail the king and the officials; the priests shall be appalled and the prophets astounded” (Jeremiah 4:9 NRSV). I don’t remember how I ran across those lines from the Hebrew prophet Jeremiah, but they ring true—fearful, appalled, astounded . . . kings, officials, priests, prophets. Sounds like the headlines, though prime ministers and presidents… Read More »Priests, Prophets, and Process
In order to be spiritually and mentally healthy, it is absolutely imperative that each of us not forget to exist.
