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CSA’s free weekly publication, a carefully curated collection of original articles at the intersection of spiritual formation and social action.
By Bill White and Brenna Rubio
Dear Pastor Conflicted about LGBTQ+ Inclusion, we have been in your shoes. You’ve started to wonder whether the church – YOUR church – needs to become more inclusive, especially of LGBTQ people, and you feel conflicted. Your heart is torn, your mind is spinning.
Howard Thurman, born on November 18, 1899, in Daytona Beach, Florida, stands as a towering figure in American history, leaving an indelible mark as an author, philosopher, theologian, and civil rights leader.
By Brian Zahnd
The cross is many things. One of the revelations of the cross is the divine repudiation of systems that seek to dominate a minority population through lethal force. When the powers that be justify their actions with empty euphemisms like “appropriate use of force,” the cross calls them to account.
I ask to hear his story and then try to truly listen—without interrupting. I have tried to discern his heart.
By Mars Adema
If Christ is our model as Christians, then why don’t our lives look like his?
I was spiritually formed in my Christian faith within the lap of luxury, but I was unaware of it at the time.
By Andre Henry
Originally published January 21, 2019
Today, Americans celebrate the legacy and work of one of the most prominent figures of the Civil Rights Movement: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Yes, Dr.
By Liz Cooledge Jenkins
When we become aware that there is tension between our political views and what love requires of us, we can change our political views. We “love our neighbors well” not only by caring for them directly but also by caring about the policies that impact their lives, often in devastating ways. Love and our politics do not have to exist in tension. We can let love shape our politics.
By Irwyn Ince
Growing up in a city like New York, you get used to a hustle. You might even end up doing a little hustling yourself. The hustler offers someone something of value, or something another person may desire.
By J. Mark Bowers
When the newborn King arrived on the margins, economically and physically on the wrong side of power, His agenda was larger than just rescuing me or you. He had the entire cosmos in mind. While Jesus came to save us from our personal sins, His work on the cross put all things right again, including the systems of the world (Colossians 1:19-20).
By Elrena Evans
God, we are weary. We have traveled for many miles, and we still aren’t home.
By Michael Stalcup
We were almost used
to living in the dark,
to being powerless,
that day you quietly
pulled the lid off the sky
of a world below
By Kelley Nikondeha
The Spirit is moving farther and farther from the centers of power and propriety toward those most victimized by the empire.
And then God reaches deep into the social fray, stretching all the way to a band of shepherds. The whole of society is embraced by Emmanuel—God with all of us, right down to the lowliest shepherd!
By David Michaux
The Magnificat is not a prayer from the quiet and timid girl we see in Renaissance paintings. The Magnificat is a prayer for social and political upheaval. The Magnificat has revolutionary teeth. The Magnificat is about the powerful deeds of the Mighty God.
By Scott Bessenecker
The empires of this world exploit the vulnerable. Its economics reward those who plunder the environment. Money gravitates to the center while some people are pushed to the margins. In contrast, the economics in the land of God are centrifugal, pushing resources out to the edges. The social forces are magnetic, drawing the excluded into the center.
By John Dear
The gospels portray Jesus of Nazareth as the most active person of nonviolence in the history of the world. He taught a glorious vision of nonviolence: “Love your enemies. Blessed are the peacemakers. Put down your sword. Be as compassionate as God. Hunger and thirst for justice. Seek first God’s reign and God’s justice.” As his followers, we are forbidden to support war, killings, executions, nuclear weapons, corporate greed, environmental destruction, or violence of any kind. More, we are sent into the culture of violence and war on a mission of prophetic peacemaking and active nonviolent resistance to evil.
By Lisa Sharon Harper
Patriarchal interpretations of Scripture fail to start at the beginning. They started after the Fall, in genesis 3. As a result, they present observations of a fallen world as if the current state is in line with God’s good intentions. That is far from the truth. What God called very good was before the Fall!
By Carol R. Cool
The biblical perspective is for us to live in wholeness, which includes a generous sufficiency of things. Poverty is a bad thing; God wants us to have all we need for a joyous life. God wants no one to be poor.
CSA is a group of Christian scholar-activists, stirring the imagination for a fuller expression of Christian faithfulness and a more just society.
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