The gospel according to Aretha Franklin says: “R-E-S-P-E-C-T find out what it means to me.”
Biblical wisdom teaches: “Give everyone what you owe him. If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then…
There comes a moment when we can say a word or speak a concept so often that it loses meaning and simply becomes sound. The concept becomes exhausted, thin, one-dimensional. Such was the case with the word and the concept…
In the wake of Tuesday’s elections where the Democrats lost governor’s races in New Jersey and in Virginia, some observers are advising President Obama to scale back his agenda. Health care and energy and education and banking reform and war…
We continue the roller coaster ride that we hope will end with universal or near universal coverage for health care in the United States. Those of us who favor, at the very least, a public option had reason to be…
Just peace theory proceeds from the premise that peace is a day by day effort. It is a process that requires vision, skill, and courage. The Nobel Committee awarded its 2009 Prize for Peace to President Barack Obama. He had…
There is a conservative project to translate the Bible to reflect a conservative ideology. Among other things, it wants to end inclusive language and put more emphasis on the existence of the devil and of hell. Why? We do not…
Is it a human right, civil right, privilege or market commodity? Is it a public good, moral obligation, government obligation, job benefit, or individual responsibility? Ought it be subject to the profit motive and or to government…
Every dawning day we wake to the news of human violence against humanity. We see images of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan who’ve traveled a long way from home to fight terrorists. We hear the news of a roadside bomb…
Just peace theory is the middle way between pacifism and just war theory. It recognizes the moral force of nonviolence and the goal of a world that solves its disputes through nonviolent means. At the same time, just peace theory…
Thus, to follow Jesus means to live a faith that takes us beyond our anxieties, beyond our deepest fears and troubles to a place of perfect trust. To follow the Prince of Peace is to commit to the…
I love my fellow citizens who have taken to the street against President Obama and his plans for health-care reform. I love those who carry signs that compare him to Hitler and depict him as the Joker in Batman. I…
There was much in President Obama’s speech on health care that I appreciated. He has taken us a long way toward getting to a better health-care system. However, I wanted more. He spoke about regulations on…
The United States is the richest nation on earth. It has some of the best-trained physicians and best medical facilities on earth. It is a leader in medical innovation and medical education. However, when the World Health Organization studied the…
Yesterday, I heard a Christian leader say that the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 25 is not a reason for Christians to support universal health care guaranteed by their government. His argument was that this text is Jesus’ instruction to…
I woke up this morning planning an essay for God’s Politics about love and fear. It will be another essay in support of health-care reform. This issue has commandeered my pen.
We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness –…
The rich ruler comes to Jesus and asks what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus tells him to keep the commandments. The ruler says that he has kept the commandments since his…
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), article 25 paragraph 1 says: “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care,…
The hyper-media — the 24/7 cable television added to the blogosphere added to the mainstream media, with time to fill during the summer doldrums — has misread a sentence and used it to pump up the volume…
Just peace theory recognizes that there is more than one kind of violence. There is subjective violence that individual persons commit and there is structural violence, the violence that political, economic, social, cultural, and religion systems commit against individuals. America…
The gospel according to Aretha Franklin says: “R-E-S-P-E-C-T find out what it means to me.”
