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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.

The Necessity of Nearness: A Review of the Documentary “Leap of Faith”

By Kristyn Komarnicki

Love in the midst of discomfort

Love your God, love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets rest on these two commands…

Leap of Faith is a full-length documentary from Nicholas Ma and Morgan Neville (Won’t You Be My Neighbor?) featuring pastors who commit to meeting for a year to look for a path to unity in the midst of polarized times.

What Does Christianity Have to Do With Animals?

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.

Color of Compromise cover

Christian Complicity With Racism

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.

Building a Better Question

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.

Still Hiding

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?

A Seat at the Table

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).

Skipping the News?

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.

The Greatest Evil

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.

What If We Don’t Agree?

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.

The Immigration Debate: Can the Bible Help?

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.

We Won’t Let You Go Home, but You Can’t Stay Here

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.

Our Shared Humanity

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

On Border Fences and the Fabric of Our Nation

By Leslie Harrison

I have always been a proponent for the rights of immigrants, based on the image I have of America according to the picture painted by our history. I am disappointed and ashamed that some Americans have such a short memory and refuse to look at the pages of history, which brings to life the importance of immigration.