God’s Invitation to Welcome: Practicing Hospitality in a Divided World
By Nikki Toyama-Szeto
Welcoming immigrants and refugees isn’t just an act of kindness—it’s an act of faith, revealing Jesus in the process.
Subscribe to the CSA Newsletter
CSA’s free weekly publication, a carefully curated collection of original articles at the intersection of spiritual formation and social action.
By Nikki Toyama-Szeto
Welcoming immigrants and refugees isn’t just an act of kindness—it’s an act of faith, revealing Jesus in the process.
By Jon Carlson
Most of us get our news from outlets that generally confirm our way of thinking. Today, try to actively seek out sources of information beyond your “bubble.” And, as much as possible, try to withhold judgment…even if you think it to be in error. Ask God to reveal truth in surprising ways.
By Sarah Withrow King
From Genesis to Revelation, and from the early church to the present day, there are vivid examples of God’s—and the church’s—love of, care for, and delight in animal creatures.
By Jemar Tisby
Be sure to catch the recording of CSA’s Facebook Live with Jemar Tisby at the end of this piece!
While many Christian traditions and other religions have varied and valuable narratives, Protestants, especially evangelicals, have written some of the most well-known narratives of racism in the United States.
From Oriented to Love
As our friend Krista Tippett says, “A good question is a gift.”
Asking open-ended, non-leading questions is an essential part of engaging in loving dialogue. Crafting these kinds of questions is a skill that can be learned, and, for most of us, must be practiced over time before it becomes a more natural instinct.
By Christie Purifoy
When President Trump announced the end of DACA, another battleground in his ongoing fight against immigrants and immigration, I observed my blonde, blue-eyed, non-Spanish-speaking child with alarm. His biological link to Mexico is well hidden, but will actions such as Trump’s make it easy for him to learn to hate a part of himself?
By Jon Carlson
Today, try to reach out to someone who disagrees with your politics. Schedule a time to get together for lunch or coffee. As you prepare to meet, ask God to give you the grace to be “quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry” (James 1:19).
By Jeremy K. Everett
The calling of the faithful is clear: feed the hungry and you will live.
For the past twenty years, I have traveled the United States and other parts of the world observing, researching, and addressing hunger and poverty.
By Jon Carlson
What we believe about life after death shapes our actions, priorities, and choices in the here and now.
“You’re OK, Eleanor. You’re in the Good Place,” the celestial being Michael (Ted Danson) gently intones to Eleanor (Kristen Bell) in the opening scene of NBC’s sitcom The Good Place.
By Jon Carlson
Today, try to avoid devoting attention to the news media. Skip your typical sources of news (print media, television, radio, websites, social media, etc.) and try to commit to praying for peace during the time you would normally be following the 24-hour news cycle. Ask God to reveals ways you may be distracted from the “divine and necessary service” (Origen) to which you have been called.
By C.S. Lewis
The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid “dens of crime” that Dickens loved to paint. It is not done even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result.
By Jon Carlson
Today, ask God to bring to mind a journalist, commentator, or leading thinker who doesn’t share your views. Pray God’s blessing on them. Repent of times you have used “warlike and arrogant swords of argument” (Origen) when trying to prove a point. Ask God to reveal ways to seek mutual understanding—or even mutual edification—with those who don’t agree with you.
By M. Daniel Carroll Rodas
The issues surrounding the immigration debate are complex and ongoing. The United States was founded by immigrants, and many can point to ancestors from Europe, Asia, or Africa who reached these shores in the last 250 years.
By Jon Carlson
It started the way these things often do—a routine announcement from the pilot that they had a warning light in the cockpit. We couldn’t take off yet. So we sat on the tarmac in Quito, surrounded by the Andes mountains, and we waited.
By Matthew Jeung and Russell Jeung
We’ve been told that when the government separated my grand-uncle from his mother and sisters in 1941, he waited at a bus stop for his father to pick him up.
By Jon Carlson
Today, pray for an international enemy. Invite God to bring to mind a nation, ethnic group, or organization often identified as an “enemy” (such as Iran, North Korea, Russia, ISIS, etc.) Ask God to bless them, and bring them greater knowledge of the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. Pray for God to soften your own heart and eliminate any hatred you may harbor. Ask for a deeper awareness of our
By Craig Keener
My wife and kids are legal immigrants from Africa. All came from very dangerous situations, but given the limited number of refugees brought into the U.S. each year, probably none of them could have come as refugees.
CSA is a group of Christian scholar-activists, stirring the imagination for a fuller expression of Christian faithfulness and a more just society.
Copyright Christians for Social Action at the Sider Center of Eastern University Privacy Policy
1300 Eagle Road, St. Davids, PA 19087 csa@eastern.edu
Web Design by Dayspring