This pandemic has taken a heavy toll, world wide, in lives, to be sure, but also it has closed businesses, terminated jobs, set millions of students back a year or two years in learning, while it has shifted wealth around the world. As we have focused on lost jobs and shuttered businesses, the world's super rich have managed to used the pandemic panic spending to make themselves much more wealthy, some billionaires have even doubled their enormous wealth in just the past year.

As horrible as the pandemic has been for so many of us, we do find ourselves in the fortunate position of being able to change the world for the better, not simply to return to "normal" which wasn't that great for most people, but to redesign our economy, our healthcare system, our education and penal systems, to be more of what we have dreamed of. A time of great social chaos is also an opportunity for meaningful reform.

This pandemic has taken a heavy toll, world wide, in lives, to be sure, but also it has closed businesses, terminated jobs, set millions of students back a year or two years in learning, while it has shifted wealth around the world. As we have focused on lost jobs and shuttered businesses, the world's super rich have managed to used the pandemic panic spending to make themselves much more wealthy, some billionaires have even doubled their enormous wealth in just the past year.

As horrible as the pandemic has been for so many of us, we do find ourselves in the fortunate position of being able to change the world for the better, not simply to return to "normal" which wasn't that great for most people, but to redesign our economy, our healthcare system, our education and penal systems, to be more of what we have dreamed of. A time of great social chaos is also an opportunity for meaningful reform.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness of Month and, unfortunately, it is as necessary as ever. A look at how domestic violence was normalized and accepted until relatively recently helps us understand the vital importance of transforming attitudes and cultures about gender, violence, and love. Together, we can work together to support lasting and healthy change, until everyone has a home that is safe and full of love.

Please join us at 4 p.m. central every Sunday to discuss that morning's message at: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83410382821?pwd=RjA4enlmelkwbm5XQ3J2My9jaE1tZz09

In one of my favorite stories in the gospels, Jesus disappoints a rich man. The encounter invites us to consider the tension between the rich man, who wants to be moral while also hoarding wealth, and Jesus’ insistence that economic justice is a prerequisite to healthy community (the kingdom of God). In the 21st century, we still wrestle with huge and growing economic and social disparities, despite overwhelming evidence that Jesus’ vision of economic justice is actually better for everyone. Changing our relationships to wealth, consumption, possessions, and one another to align with equity and justice are vital spiritual and ethical practices needed to heal ourselves, communities, and the earth.

Ironically, though we have talked a lot about learning to be sensitive to matters of race, gender, sexual identity, and class, somehow, in most of society, "fat-shaming" is still allowed. Those of us who have struggled with weight for all kinds of psychological, physiological, medical, or work reasons know that losing weight and being more healthy is complicated, difficult and sometimes, virtually impossible.

Still, when comedian Bill Maher has insisted over the past year that losing weight, exercising, and eating a more healthy diet is crucial to protecting ourselves from dying with a case of Covid-19, he is not wrong. And if this is true, why are we hearing it repeatedly from a comedian and not from the CDC? Why hasn't Anthony Fauci included it along with wearing a mask, washing our hands, and keeping a safe distance from others? Strangely, we sometimes need a court jester to be the one with the courage to tell us the honest truth.

For most of us, our lives are dominated with messages that reduce our worth to productivity, exhaust us with constant comparisons and competitions, and trap us in a ruthless cycle of praise and blame. This simple chant from the Buddhist tradition - ‘My very life is sustained through the gifts of others’ - invites us to reflect on how we relate to life, one another, and the earth with more gratitude, open-heartedness, and joy.

Whistle blowers are modern prophets. You don’t have to be a minister or a famous politician to do the work of a prophet, you just have to be willing to speak truth to power. Just don’t expect to have a statue raised in your honor. Most whistle blowers are shunned in public in their own time, if they are lucky enough to not be put in prison or murdered. Still, progress is made by being the unreasonable person in the mix who refuses to go along in silence in the face of great injustice.

This week marks the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in the USA, and the violent response that has shaped so much of the world during the last twenty years. With outrage over the tragedies accompanying the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, we also take time to reflect on the world we have created during two decades of occupation and war. And we remember the words of Daniel Berrigan, who, along with countless others through the centuries, taught us to insist that another way is possible and to do the work to bring it into existence: “One is called to live nonviolently, even if the change one works for seems impossible. It may or may not be possible to turn the U.S. around through nonviolent revolution. But one thing favors such an attempt: the total inability of violence to change anything for the better.”

The owners of Purdue Pharma have been released from any liability in the deaths of a half a million people in the opioid crisis because they were willing to give a fraction of their ill-gotten gain to the victims of the opioid crisis that they helped to create. When did you ever hear of a drug dealer getting a suspended sentence for giving a donation to an addiction treatment program? We see billionaires spending the wealth earned by low waged employees for a joy ride in space while the wealth gap in America grows. On this Labor Day weekend we need a wakeup call, a reminder that the disproportionate amount of wealth going to the top of the income ladder is making more and more Americans poor for no good reason and eroding any claim we ever had to being a democracy.

Though most public school history classes are silent about it, there was a serious insurrection attempt made in 1932 to overthrow the administration of Franklin Roosevelt and install a fascist leader who would reverse the New Deal legislation in favor of a wealthy ruling class. Although the coups was stopped, none of the finances and planners of the coups were charged or tried…. familiar names like DuPont, J. P. Morgan, William Randolph Hurst, and the father of George H. W. Bush, Prescott Bush, were among those fans of Hitler and Mussolini who wanted to see Roosevelt removed. Do you hear echoes of today?

The oldest known written story is the Gilgamesh Epic, the four-thousand-year-old tale of an ancient king who becomes obsessed with finding the secret to eternal life. From the dawn of civilization, humans have tried to grapple with the awareness that we are mortal, some turning to entirely unsubstantiated religious promises of life after death but some, like Gilgamesh, discover that eternity is beyond our grasp and that we must finding meaning and purpose in a life that is, by definition, limited and yet has the potential for great joy.

As Dr. Ray turns 65, he and David Ketchum will begin to share the preaching load equally. On this special Sunday, Dr. Ray reflects back on his 43 years in the pulpit (so far) with some important observations on the nature of parish ministry with all of the wonders and horrors that come with trying to break out of merely being a priest and striving to become a prophet, leading the community of faith to speak truth to power.

The history of forced assimilation of Indigenous peoples, such as residential schools, has often been hidden or excused in popular memory. By looking at the historical context that brought about these institutions, we can understand how a cultural shift is needed to move away from the attitudes and ideas that were prominent in the history of colonization and continue to be embedded in our collective consciousness. Especially for White folx, our work of the present moment is to heal and transform our collective consciousness, honoring the great web of life and finding our place within it. And to do that, we must part ways with the sins of superiority, forced assimilation, and greed, learning that our own well-being cannot be separated from the well-being of the diversity of humans and human cultures, or from the earth itself.

The realities of residential schools and the tragedies of forced assimilation have filled the news this summer, to our grief, rage, and shame. So while we welcome Secretary Haaland's investigation into these schools and their impacts on Native children and their families, we also recognize our own work that needs to be done. All of us who are not Indigenous, especially White Christians, need to honor and participate in the process of accountability: to own up to injustice when we are confronted with our own complicity, and to speak out and act to help heal the harm.

While many of us long for greater social equality, moving past the identity politics that emphasizes race, gender, and sexual orientation, often times at the expense of discussing ideas, budgets, policies, and infrastructure development, we cannot pretend that such divisions do not exist or that they do not matter. Perhaps one of the most lethal expressions of white, male, hetero dominance is to claim that it does not exist. So, how do we intelligently move past either being afraid of our differences or feeling compelled to “check all of the boxes” towards a more meaningful and way to create a unified society that cherishes its diversity, while affirming the equal worth of all?

Capitalism is here to stay but that might not be a bad thing if we could put up the kind of guardrails that can harness the greed that drives it in a way that does not allow for the abuses it also engenders. Progressive communities of faith can be a part of the “fifth estate” providing alternatives to corporate media and the propaganda spewed by corporations and the politicians they own.

The way that we have settled into minimum wage laws is not simply an exploitation of the labor of the poor and, in fact, in many ways looks like a reconfiguring of slavery. Slave owners provided housing, food, clothing, and basic care of slaves. Does $7.25 an hour provide even that for minimum wage workers anywhere in America, particularly in LA, NYC or Boston? We are not suffering from a lack of resources in our country but we do have an apparent lack of both imagination and compassion. We can fix this.

For many of us, July 4th is a time to forget about history and indulge in nostalgic and sentimental celebrations of freedom. But the holiday can provide us with more than just an opportunity for barbecue cookouts and firework displays, if we are willing to look beyond the romantic notions of popular nationalism. The recent controversies over the 1619 Project and Critical Race Theory invite us to re-examine how we relate to history and how to provide a "true civic education." By doing so, we find that history can become the honest study of human experience, giving us humility in the face of our mistakes (from the most laughable to the most cruel) and hope in the face of our greatest challenges. It is an opportunity to remember that we are making history right now, and we can make a better, freer future not only possible, but something real.

People often have passionate beliefs about things for which they have no evidence or, even worse, they believe in spite of contradictory evidence. In religion, such baseless convictions often masquerade as a virtue but isn’t blind belief just a narcissistic projection of personal preferences? Karen Armstrong, the late Marcus Borg, and Bishop John Shelby Spong have argued that faith has more to do with courage and commitment than it does with belief in a literal set of creedal statements. This sermon takes the position that presenting sacred stories as being literal historical accounts actually robs them of their intended meaning and purpose. A faith community’s sacred stories are the myths they use to bind them to one another and by which they define themselves and their purpose. Perhaps progressives can once again renew their love for their faith community if they cease trying to force themselves to believe in the absurd and the obviously false claims of creedal faith. The major world religions are always the most healthy when they focus on right behaviors rather than right beliefs!

Let’s be honest, most of the truth claims made by traditional forms of almost all religions are not just beyond anyone’s ability to prove, they are, by and large obvious absurd to any critical thinker. It wasn’t just Voltaire and Bertrand Russell who clearly articulated deep skepticism about religion, most of us have in less articulate ways. But the choice is not between either total atheism or assassinating our brains to pretend to believe silly things. There is a way of being intensely spiritual within the mystery and wonder of existence. The way of the mystic promotes love rather than division, and joy rather than fear. We can live beyond the guilt and manipulation of our former religious lives into a much more honest and happy existence.

Overcoming Religious Trauma - Tuesday June 22 at 7:00 PM Central Time

Events of the past few years have brought the issue of race much more clearly into focus, especially for the dominant white culture that has been willing to learn about the ways in which race has affected wealth disparity, policing, the judicial system, the penal system, as well as housing and employment. We recently discovered that most white people had never even heard of the Tulsa Race Massacre until the city was marking the 100th anniversary of this most violent attack on the black population in America’s history. Even still, there are public protests in many states against teaching Critical Race Theory even when what is basically at stake is making our history lesson more factual and less dishonestly “white washing” America’s history of discrimination. How we think shapes our culture and when it comes to race, it is time for us to prophetically embrace truth and reject propaganda.

In addition to today’s sermon, we will be hosting an online event via Zoom on June 22 discussing “Overcoming Religious Trauma.” Despite our growing understanding of religious and spiritual abuse, many people continue to suffer. And despite the public record of this harm, too many religious individuals and institutions refuse to take these issues seriously. We need to reflect on our own experiences in light of 1) historical and sociological analysis of religious institutions and 2) with our best psychological modalities for addressing religious trauma. By doing so, we can continue to move ourselves and our communities toward relationships that are not built around delusions and threats, but around reason, curiosity, wisdom, compassion, and love.

This Memorial Day weekend we mark the passing of 600,000 Americans in the Covid-19 pandemic and we are similarly aware of the many ways in which millions of lives have been impacted in lost jobs, damaged health, and in the closure of many vital and familiar businesses and institutions. We also acknowledge that churches, synagogues, and mosques have suffered from the pandemic, many will never re-open for in-person community services. As our Emerging Church, which has been a hybrid of on-line and “seated” congregations for 13 years now becomes an almost exclusively on-line resource, we acknowledge the grief that comes with change but we double down in hope of being a meaningful force for social justice for many years to come.

Childhood poverty in many American communities now exceeds 50% of school aged children. A part of the proposed stimulus bill addresses this problem in the most direct way possible, offering a monthly stipend paid to parents as well as support in child care and education. If this bill is passed it will be the most transformative correction to poverty since FDR's "New Deal." It may be too much to hope for but if we don't all speak up in support of this, what does that say about how we really value our children?

The word “socialism” has been, through media and political manipulation, turned into a term that means little more than “pure evil.” That’s just crazy. The belief that economic resources should be owned and controlled by the few rather than the many is contrary to all world religions and fundamentally favors slavery over freedom. Christian Socialism was a very strong movement in the late 19th and early 20th century and was undermined only by associating socialism with fascist dictators. What we really need to do in our sharply partisan country, is to set aside the name calling and talk about the most effective and compassionate way that we can share resources.

We often think of the great moral leaders of history as if they just fell from the sky in our hour of need. The truth is that people like Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and even Ruby Bridges had courageous mothers who taught them, inspired them, and even held their hand while facing a culture in desperate need of change. It often seems to be "reasonable" to adapt to the status quo but, as George Bernard Shaw pointed out, progress depends on the unreasonable person who demands change.

One of the lessons we have continually been reminded of throughout the pandemic is how interconnected we are all, whether we like it or not. Similarly, both social and ecological justice issues remind us that our worlds are intimately connected, even if we create artificial boundaries that give the illusion that harmful actions don't have consequences. The last year has been terrifying in so many ways, but we've also witnessed wonderful acts of creativity, compassion, wisdom, and community. We carry both that pain and that joy with us as we take tentative steps toward creating communities of care in a post-pandemic world.

This live event is taking place on Monday evening, May 10, at 7 p.m. central. It will involve about 30 minutes of conversation between me and Jay Thomlinson (of Best of the Left fame) and then we open the floor for participant conversations with us and with one another. This is a huge experiment for both of us. Please click on this link to register (it is free but signing up with get you reminders and invitations to the event) https://www.airmeet.com/e/e7617ed0-a228-11eb-adb3-57581f4a41d1

The death of George Floyd at the hands of the police has finally resulted in a guilty verdict in the murder charges against the responsible officer(s). What have we learned from the highly publicized cases of unarmed black men (and women) being killed by the police in relatively minor cases? Beyond even the call for massive reform in how policing is carried out, this message is concerned with the undeniable fact that it is common for police to try to hide their own crimes under a smokescreen of press releases and media propaganda. While we want to show respect and support for public servants generally, such respect must also be met, especially now, with a willingness to question authority and to challenge the racism and classism that is so deeply embedded in policing.

While many are uncomfortable with calling for defunding the police, there is no way around the need for massive reform of our nation’s police force (and military) to root out the systemic racism that makes encounters between white police and black citizens turn out to be so very tragic, so very often. Clearly, there are too many guns on the street. We are sending heavily armed police out to make mental health calls and way too many traffic stops that are nothing but a pretense for cops to stop drivers whom they have profiled as being suspicious, what many call “driving while black.” Police shoot and kill nearly 1000 people every year while, in the United Kingdom, police shoot and kill between 0 and 6 people per year. Something is dramatically wrong with American policing and we cannot turn a blind eye to it any longer.

As we emerge from our covid isolation into increasing social contact, we realize that during these months of spending too much time on social media and watching conflicting news reports, our stress and anxiety has inevitably damaged some of our relationships. Do we need to be generously forgiving and reconciling, or do we need to evaluate which relationships really are toxic to us and erect boundaries to protect ourselves in a post pandemic world? Or, obviously, some of both?

The list of the suffering in this world could go on indefinitely, and this week has been no exception. From the courtroom where Derek Chauvin is being tried to the growing refugee crisis in Ethiopia, we find ourselves asking: how do we grieve the oppression and violence, while we also celebrate the moments of joy and justice that we encounter along the way, and encourage each other to live like another world is actually possible? On this Easter Sunday, we reflect on how spiritual practice can help us continually find new life as we dismantle supremacy and claim our dignity and joy.

In most western nations, the penal system is designed to reform convicted criminals so that they can return to a productive life in society. In the USA, where we have two million people in prison and nine million on parole, a far greater percentage of our population than any other western democracy, prison terms are more likely to be used for a kind of social revenge than they are for reform. Sex crimes are typically considered to be the most heinous, but in a penal system bent on putting more people in prison for longer sentences, have we lost our way in imprisoning those who have not committed rape, assault, or even sexual harassment but who have viewed illegal pornography in their own homes? A teenager with the impulse control issues that often accompany autism or bi-polar disorders who watches child porn in private may not be "innocent" but is their crime on the scale of murder? If not, then why do we punish them more severely than we do murderers? Have they, somehow, committed the unforgivable sin?

The question that echoes from the primeval pages of Genesis demands a new answer in this era of a global pandemic, "Am I my brother's (sister's) keeper?" We all know that the right answer is "yes" but fear sure can make us a lot more selfish than in our more relaxed moments. Some of us are afraid of either getting or spreading the virus, others are afraid of being manipulated by what they see as public hysteria. On either side of the fence, fear doesn't bring out our best qualities. But, in spite of the way the pandemic has been made into a partisan issue, we have a common though invisible enemy, Covid-19. And in the midst of the pandemic, we have myriad opportunities to find and express our better selves by being mindful of the needs of our sisters and brothers.

When injustice and oppression become normal in a society, it often requires persistent and even outrageous actions to unveil, resist, and ultimately transform it. Like Jesus turning over tables in the temple, we must continually braid our own whip of cords by learning and applying creative tactics that help us both unveil the evil of injustice and live our way into another world.

This year’s conservative Republican gathering, CPAC, included the surprising presence of a golden statue of Donald Trump. It is surprising that the gathering of largely Evangelical Christians did not immediately see the easily drawn analogy to the golden calf idol from Exodus. But, it is a fitting symbol of the idol the former president’s supporters have bowed down to worship: greed, racism, oppression, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia, and more. The statue represents in a very real way the “id” of our culture but, as an idol, it is slated to be destroyed. The liberation of America from the shadow of our heritage of white supremacy and economic oppression must end.

This talk has been prepared for a group of progressive clergy in the United Kingdom who posed this question: What must be done to rebuild America after Trump. This message proposes 4 key responses: Massive campaign finance reform. A restoration of the FCC's Fairness Doctrine. A renewed commitment to education. An emphasis on vital but achievable goals around which we can unite.

In the novel, Love in the Time of Cholera, two young lovers are thwarted in their desire to be together, only to be given a second chance at love when they are old. Still, though about half of us now live alone, that does not mean that we have to give up on hope that we, even in our later years, might not have, at long last, a real opportunity for a meaningful connection. This sermon speaks to the stresses we are feeling, a year into our pandemic, that might tear at the fabric of existing relationships and dash hopes for single people of ever making a meaningful connection. Regardless of the challenges, as the poet Marty McConnell has written, “You deserve a lover who takes away the lies and brings you hope, coffee, and poetry.”

It's now common for us to hear false accusations that social justice movements are just "ideological poison" and honest treatments of the more difficult aspects of US history are just "toxic propaganda." Activists and historians alike have come under increasing attacks, especially when it comes to racial justice, while so-called "patriotic education" programs have inspired conspiratorial beliefs and Capitol riots. Over the last year, the 1619 Project and the 1776 Commission have become symbols of these two approaches, reminding us that how we remember the past impacts how we deal with the present. And how we deal with the present shapes the possibilities of creating a better, more just, more compassionate, and more livable future.

The laudable stated goal of the new Biden administration to bring unity to the red and the blue factions of America is obviously necessary, but it is a steep hill to climb. For the most part, the Jan. 6 insurrection was the product of a constant diet of lies and propaganda. Certainly, the first step of reuniting the United States calls for a renewed commitment to the truth, from politicians, in the media, and from the pulpit! Secondly, the huge gulf in how justice is applied to the rich and powerful and how it is applied to the rest of us must be closed. It is not just those who desecrated the Capitol Building who should be arrested and criminally charged, we must treat those who incited the insurrection in the same way. It will be simultaneously internationally embarrassing and a source of reassurance that democracy prevails to see a former president and several members of the Senate and Congress on trial, facing almost certain jail time, but it is necessary.

A Haitian proverb declares, "No one listens to the cry of the poor or the sound of a wooden bell." That seems like a sad resignation to the way that things are but what we realize about Martin Luther King, Jr. is that his peculiar genius was to amplify the voices of the poor, to make the injustice of racism visible, on the evening news, to people who had been covering their ears and looking the other way for a century. Honoring King's memory is more than a mere exercise of reciting history. It really should be finding a way to continue his work in the 21st century. The Voters' Rights Act that King fought to get passed has been gutted. Voter suppression, especially in southern states, is back again. How can we amplify the cry of the poor in our day? (and, seriously, shouldn't our pulpits be on the front line of that project?)

America is horrified and embarrassed but not many of us are shocked. The failed insurrection that took place on Wednesday, January 6th, was planned, orchestrated, inspired, and incited by our president who recently lost re-election and who has been desperate to hold onto power even if he had to destroy democracy to do so. We have witnessed the embodiment of Voltaire’s prophetic declaration that those who can make believe in absurdities can make you commit atrocities. Having blown the dog-whistles of racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, and Islamophobia for five years, the president’s minions desecrated our Capitol building, the seat of Democracy. The next ten days may contain even greater atrocities but with hope and determination, we must resolve to overcome lies with the truth, irrational conspiracies with evidence and critical thinking, and fearmongering with disciplined love and community.

Video mentioned in sermon: Trump family watching crowds/rioters

Changes are coming that give us reason for substantial hope. We will have a change in administrations in early 2021 and an amelioration of the pandemic later in the year followed by a huge economic recovery. But looking past this new year, very soon, electric cars will replace gas burning cars and sustainable energy will end carbon pollution from generating electricity. Artificial Intelligence will not only drive our cars for us, AI will largely build our cars. People will be liberated from mundane repetitive labor but they may also be liberated from an income. The promise of new technologies is huge but the risk of lapsing into a world dominated by the few who are wealthy while most are relegated to a peasant class similar to the Dark Ages is very real. We can use this new technology to design an economy that gives us a kind of heaven on earth, or unrestrained capitalism can consign most of us to a living hell of poverty and want. Now is the time for persons of conscience to become in

Mary’s song, the Magnificat, has been a favorite text from the Christian tradition for millennia. The exhilaration of hope and the certainty that “the arc of the moral universe” really does “bend toward justice" continue to inspire both faith and activism, especially in the face of all the terrible, and terribly unnecessary, suffering that fills our world. With a long road still ahead of us, it can be hard to keep up with the injustices that fill the news, let alone act on them. Sometimes, the best we can do is keep singing, insisting that justice and mercy have a place. And the more of us who are singing it out, with our words and with our lives, the easier it will be to listen, and change the world.

In her brilliant new book, Caste, Isabel Wilkerson speaks of racism in America as a caste system that is like the studs that form the frame of our house. We rarely see them or think of them, but they are there, holding the whole house up and if termites or mold get to them, the house will collapse. Racism establishes the social order so that even after the end of slavery, Jim Crow laws, lynching, segregated schools, restrictive real estate covenants, discrimination in hiring, and voter suppression kept much of our black population in the ranks of the “untouchables.” Ending racism will take a lot of work with many complicated steps but it must include closing the wealth gap, the employment gap, making education accessible, and dealing with the unequal distribution of healthcare, and correcting the current trends towards minority voter suppression.

I have two points to make today. The first is very practical and the second is deeply philosophical. The first is that by paying attention to science, especially in forest management, we can increase the profitability of our natural resources while sustaining our old growth forests which is good both for people in the construction business as well as for people who breath air. The philosophical point is more complicated but it questions our assumption that a Darwinian competition in nature and economics, which pits individuals and species in a life-or-death competition for resources that allows the victors to survive by killing off rivals, is not only not entirely true but is undermining the survival of both forests and civilizations.

The late Marcus Borg is credited with describing the historical Jesus as being the teacher of radical compassion. In this time when it appears, as Paul Krugman has recently published, our culture of selfishness is killing us, it is vital that we take up that mission of teaching radical compassion. We are all connected and our innate instincts validate our natural desire to care about the welfare of others. We just need to be reminded of the fact that we all really want to be good people.

Economists are predicting that one in six restaurants will be permanently closed as a result of the pandemic. Sadly, when progressive congregations emerge from our current sabbatical or at least our retreat to online only services, the casualty rate may be much higher than what has hit the restaurant business. Still, the progressive church was already changing, and this nightmare virus may have simply accelerated our transformation. When our congregations attempt to again open their doors to seated church services, what will those services look like? Will there be choirs? Congregational singing? Passing the Peace? Communion? This is a sad time but it may also be an opportunity for thoughtful and meaningful change so that when we do return to church, the church we return to will be much more meaningful than the one we put into mothballs.

How did wearing a mask to avoid spreading the Covid virus become a politically partisan issue? It has become apparent that one of the most difficult tasks ahead of the USA is learning again how to disagree without dividing the nation. For many of us, this isn't about politics, it is about ethics and being honest about both economics and science. It is hard to bridge the gap to those who seemed to have denied reality but the stakes are too high not to try to hold out an olive branch and try to reconcile our deeply divided nation.

At the end of World War I, there was a hope that this had been the “war to end all wars.” Armistice Day was established to celebrate the agreements that they hoped would lead to an eternity of peace on the planet earth. It was only 30 years before the world was plunged into another global conflict that claimed even more lives. As horrific as wars are, there is a tendency to glorify wars and those who survived fighting in them, so that Armistice Day became Veterans Day so that rather than honoring world peace, we were back to, ipso facto, honoring the hellscape of war. Veterans for Peace are asking us to take the focus off of them and to put it back where it belongs, on a deep and passionate commitment to peace. We can honor the courage and sacrifice of soldiers while demanding, in the 21st century, that there be no more wars.

Despite Tuesday’s election results, Donald Trump received widespread support across the USA, signaling a tolerance for, and, in many cases, a celebration of, Trump’s performative fascism and a growing normalization of White nationalism. Understanding that the popularity of Trump is a symptom of these deeper problems in our society, we realize that we still have vital work to do to close up the vulnerabilities that make fascism possible. Now is not only a moment to celebrate, but a moment to rededicate ourselves to creating a future where kindness and compassion, justice and wisdom, are not only possible, but real.

President Kennedy’s speech he was set to deliver on the very day when he was tragically assassinated included this plea to the nation, “let us not be petty when our cause is so great. Let us not quarrel amongst ourselves when our Nation’s future is at stake.” Every presidential election is important, but it is not an exaggeration to say that both global and domestic issues are at stake this week in unprecedented ways. No matter who wins the election, a huge portion of the country will be deeply disappointed, and it is not unrealistic to fear more than vitriolic language as there are those who literally want to start a civil war. So let’s strive to be the good people who will go high when others go low so that we can shepherd our nation through the coming tumult towards a better 2021.

The directors of the FBI and DHS have warned Congress that white supremacist, anarchist, and other armed militias pose a significant threat to American security. Our nation, unlike our peers in western democracies, has been held hostage to the gun industry which appears to be motivated by profits to the exclusion of concern about human life. It is up to us to reverse that priority and stem the accelerating rate of gun deaths in America.

Power begets power and institutions that are rife with power will increasingly resist change, reform, or moral responsibility. An excellent example of this is the perception that protesting police killings and violence as being inherently “anti-police” just as protesting the Catholic Church’s history of hiding pedophilia as well as the rape and forced abortions common among nuns in their relationships with priests is decried as being “anti-Catholic.” Can we imagine legitimate policing without shooting unarmed black men? Can we imagine a Catholic Church which teaches compassion and care for the poor without rape, forced abortions, or pedophilia? If we are not allowed to even discuss such reforms then, clearly, both the church and the police have become too powerful.

We're not dead yet, but we need your help. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to sell our church building, but we are still online and plan to return to an in-person presence once it is safe to do so. Making that happen requires your help. Please consider donating by visiting http://spfccc.org or mailing a check to:

Community Christian Church
PO Box 10062
Springfield, MO 65808

A civilization’s shared myths account for why things are the way they are. They can bolster loyalty to a religion or a nation, and they can excuse class and race privilege. Ancient Hebrew scriptures claim that God gave them a land where other nations were already living just as America’s “manifest destiny” excused genocide and pathological land theft. But myth’s don’t have to be toxic, in fact, they could be quite useful in uniting a people around a common goal of actually becoming a great nation that, for example, eradicates poverty and racism, ends militarism and environmental exploitation. We need to be able to purge the myths that support religious or racial superiority and replace them with a vision of compassion and peace.

Faith is typically based on “belief” and science is based on objective research and analysis. In this address, written for the Malvern (United Kingdom) Science and Faith conference, Dr. Ray discusses the concept of “evidence based faith,” attempting to rank our beliefs based on Bayes’ Theorem of probability analysis. This invites communities of faith to put the majority of their energy into what they can know (indeed, what they can hardly avoid knowing from the news!) rather than stressing the unknowable truth claims of traditional religion. We have no real evidence of heaven and hell but we have lots of evidence of racism, poverty, violence, and illness.

The late Congressman John Lewis wrote what could be his own eulogy in the essay he wrote to be published posthumously in the New York Times. He called on “ordinary people” to be willing to get into “good trouble.” Of course, the sins of racism, oppression, and enslavement were not creations of black culture. These were white inventions and as such, we must acknowledge that the end of racism in America demands that white people choose to stop being racists. Visionaries like Lewis, King, Parks, Malcolm X, and many more gave voice to the vision of a post racist America but bringing that reality to life calls for ordinary people to, in extraordinary ways, rise above their racism to be more intentionally anti-racist and inclusive people.

Politics and profit have tremendous influence over which foods we eat, especially the poor because almost all government agricultural subsidies go to beef, dairy, and grain production and less than 1% supports growing green vegetables and fruits. The biblical narrative about the birthday party given for Herod concludes with the head of John the Baptist being brought out on a platter as if his very life was the main course at the feast of the wealthy and powerful. Our out of control capitalist and subsidy driven food supply is causing diabetes and heart disease among the poor who are trapped into eating the most lethal food imaginable. The good news is that in a democracy we can change this. People over profits!

While protests verge on becoming riots in our city streets in response to multiple murders of unarmed black men at the hands of our cities' police, we must focus on how to pull racism out of our culture by the roots. Many of us find the common placement of Confederate monuments and the names of leading Confederates and KKK members on universities and public structures to be a part of making racism appear to be a normal part of our culture. While it is far from being the only answer, surely cleaning up the common vision of this tribute to our slave owning (and raping) racist past is a part of the answer.

Labor Day is an American substitute for the International Workers Day, celebrated on May 1. Americans of the early 20th century associated organize labor with communism and sought to suppress union organizing while applauding the contributions of laborers to our country. Of course, what labor really deserves is a living wage, safe working conditions, health care, retirement, vacations and a shorter work week, along with well-deserved praise. A Universal Basic Income is a step in the direction of a more just nation and a fairer economy.

Fear provokes prejudice and makes people willing to sacrifice their rights in favor of an authoritarian government that promises protection from the “others.” But shouldn’t faith offer some cure for fear? Can’t we see other races and nationalities as sisters and brothers rather than a threat? We are on the verge of an election and, hopefully, substantive social progress.

170 Danish scholars from 5 universities came together to consider how the world needs to change post covid-19. They make five crucial suggestions: 1) Move away from ‘development’ focused on aggregate GDP growth. 2) Develop an economic framework focused on redistribution. 3) Develop a form of agriculture that is regenerative. 4) Reduce consumption and travel. And finally, 5) debt cancellation. This sermon acknowledges the seriousness of the current pandemic but also seeks to honestly articulate how messed up the world was before covid-19 to imagine a better world when the pandemic is over.

Self-care has become a buzz phrase in recent years, and we’re (necessarily) hearing about it even more during this pandemic. In a healthy, functioning society, self and community care is integrated into its habits, relationships, organizations, and culture. Special actions would not be required except in times like these, and preparations to meet such a crisis would have been carefully made. Although we have known for some time that this is not the case in the United States, the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed just how unprepared we were. Moreover, it has reminded us in very public and painful ways that unhealthy, unsustainable, and unjust work and life conditions serve to perpetuate oppressive systems and cultures. It leaves those most impacted with the least access to time, resources, safety, and energy to devote to personal and social healing, as well as movement building. We must insist that all people, especially essential workers and vulnerable populations, have access to the care they need.

Anthropologist, Margaret Mead, said that the first sign of human civilization was the discovery of a 15,000 year old skeleton of a man who had a broken femur. She speculated that such an injury could only mean that others had cared for this man for several weeks while the broken bone mended, something that was not seen among our ancestors prior to that time. The issue is, however, that we have to make similar decisions every day to keep human evolution from slipping backwards. Especially, in the midst of this pandemic, we have to make choices to be more “human” as we care for those who are physically at risk, those who are unemployed, impoverished, and without either shelter or access to healthcare. Evolution didn’t happen once thousands of years ago, it is something that must be renewed daily or we are in danger of slipping back into more primitive if not reptilian ways of thinking.

We really are not in the same boat but we surely are in the same storm. The pandemic is very inconvenient for the people who get to keep their jobs, income, health insurance, and home. But those who are now unemployed, uninsured, evicted or facing foreclosure are in another kind of boat and it is in danger of sinking. Refusing to wear a mask, resisting “stay home” orders or social distancing rules, and certainly, refusing to get the vaccine when it is available is a luxury of the secure that the poor can not afford for us to choose. Basic human compassion demands that we set politics and personal preference aside and all work together to reach the goal of “herd immunity” so that going to work or visiting neighbors is not a life threatening proposition.

Opioid overdoses increased by 18% in March, 29% in April, and 42% in May making addiction and overdose deaths a silent pandemic within the viral pandemic. To respond to this crisis, today’s message is a panel presentation from our pastor, a physician who is an addiction specialist, and a psychologist who specializes in suicide prevention and addiction. Even if you are not personally in danger of drug or alcohol abuse, you can be assured that someone you know well is and this information may be very helpful to you as you reach out to those who are in danger.

When we begin to give up the formal, creedal faith of our youth, accepting that no religion is entirely true and no sacred text was actually written by God, many people will abandon the journey of faith entirely. But for those of us who find value in a spiritual life, we are inclined to turn away from the false certainty of formal religion and turn towards the more honest uncertainty of a mystical faith in which we accept the “isness” of God, as Meister Eckhart said, “God is a word unspoken, a thought not thought, a belief unbelieved.” For those of us raised in a formal church, the mental prison of belief is hard to leave behind . . . especially for the clergy!

The anti-mask vs pro-mask divide in this stage of the global pandemic becomes an interesting litmus test for either an empathetic world view or a kind of apologetic for being something of a sociopath. Given the irresponsible leadership of Trump in America, Bolsonaro in Brazil, and Boris Johnson in the UK, we can see how many people are willing to follow the lead of a public figure who denies science, evidence, and expert medical advice with horrifying consequences. To many of us, this indifference towards public health looks evil but we may actually be seeing a kind of emotional exhaustion that becomes defiantly self-serving. A spiritual world view asks us to change our behaviors, even when we don’t feel like we have anything left to give emotionally, to stretch ourselves to simply take on the habit of caring, even when we cannot feel it, until, miraculously, we can feel the desire to be empathic again.

Far too often, patriotism is expressed as enthusiasm for wars as if the battlefield was the only way to become a hero or to find virtue when, in almost every case, the opposite is true. As Jimmy Carter recently observed, no nation on earth has ever been as engaged in warfare as the USA and it has cost us the ability to protect our environment, build sustainable energy infrastructure, to feed, educated, house, and provide healthcare for our people. America’s greatness is yet to be realized, but it is within our grasp.

Our wisdom lesson offers us a view of the how things could be, through illustrations and words. It’s the kind of world that everyone could enjoy living in, because it would be organized around compassion, equality, and justice. But that world has mainly lived in human imagination, though not because it is impossible. Instead, we have inherited a set of obstacles to achieving well-being for all. A case in point is the mobilization of the powers that be to defend the power and wealth they have accumulated – even in the midst of a global pandemic and in the face of an uprising against police brutality and White supremacy. While much of public discourse continues to fixate on the fear and fascination of “looting” by protesters, the real thievery of runaway capitalism continues and even increases. Until Black lives are more valuable than White profit, the world we’ve imagined will stay in our dreams.

Covid-19 will also have a casualty count among congregations. Which churches will survive into the 21st century and, frankly, which ones really shouldn’t? If loneliness is the number one form of suffering in the western world, surely the connections made in a faith community should be a major solution to that isolation. But, perhaps more importantly, the churches that will survive the virus and the ongoing church exodus will be congregations that are morally relevant on a global scale as we address the social justice issues that exist in the real world (demanding that we stop obsessing about superstitious beliefs in invisible beings and places).

While we are currently focused on racism as it appears to us in policing and in the pandemic, we know that the roots of racism are centuries old and expressed in every dimension of our culture. Today we are especially focusing on race and healthcare outcomes. We welcome sociology professor, Kyler Sherman-Wilkins to our pulpit to speak to this specific area of his academic expertise.

Many progressive people, maybe even especially progressive clergy, are often so afraid of criticism that they keep their most passionate beliefs to themselves. This is especially true for those of us who live in deeply conservative areas dominated by traditional forms of religion. However, since most of us did not have the luxury of being born into progressive families, we had to think, study, and painfully grow out of our comfortable prejudices into a new place of open minded and liberal views. Don’t we then owe it to others to have the courage to speak up? This is especially true in this moment as demonstrations continue across the globe as we seek to bring an end to police brutality and murder of minorities and to seek greater justice generally for people of color. Now is a time for a prophetic community of faith to make its voice heard.

“I can’t breathe.” Eric Garner’s last words were echoed this week by George Floyd as his life slipped away. The challenge for us is not to become inured by repetition. This time there was an arrest but immediately the coroner started the cover up saying that Floyd just happened to die from other causes while Derek Chauvin was kneeling on his neck. Will he be found “not guilty?” If not, will he be pardoned by Trump? Will he find his way onto another police force and kill again? This often-repeated scenario must be stopped. Here we plea for two things: Immediate reforms to policing, the judicial and the penal systems AND longer term work in bringing racism to an end in America, a long overdue educational process that starts in the nursery and continues in lifelong learning and self-correction.

Every lie incurs a debt to the truth that must eventually be paid. This was initially said of Russian lies about the Chernobyl disaster but it certain applies to lies told about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the cover up in Catholic and Protestant churches about pedophilia, Boeing’s cover up of the failures of the 737 Max. We will see how many people die in direct response to Florida’s governor trying to manipulate the numbers of Covid-19 infections in that state. A quick comparison to the honest treatment of the pandemic in South Korea to how it has been handled in the USA leaves us to wonder if the price incurred by our President’s denial and lies has been more than 90,000 deaths.

Logic and faith should be partners! A healthy spirituality does not deny reality but rather interrogates and interprets reality. We are not seeking to escape this world to be transported into an imaginary “other” world but rather to logically, ethically, lovingly transform the only world we know into a better, more compassionate world. For faith communities to be relevant in the emerging world, we must embrace an evidence based approach to our spirituality that is defined by critical thinking and a fearlessly prophetic scrutiny of our own beliefs.

We are taking a wide angle view of what it means to be a woman in the 21st century, from being relegated to carrying water and fire wood in the third world where female genital mutilation and sex trafficking are still common to the USA where, sadly sex trafficking is also common, but there is also religious oppression, a glass ceiling, and a sorely lacking representation in the houses of government. It's like Mother's Day on steroids…. join us!

May 1 is the international workers’ holiday but this year, in light of the pandemic, more consideration needs to be given to the very nature of the economy beyond the traditional rivalry between owners and laborers. As the income gap has grown and the more complex issue of the ownership of capital has pushed assets into the hands of fewer and fewer people, it is time reconsider our assumptions about ownership and distribution of wealth. As President Trump and many states’ governors are pushing (largely minority) workers to go back to work in unsafe conditions for less than a living wage in the midst of a pandemic, is the word “revolution” too strong to use or is it not quite enough?

Prejudice is its own logic, or, at least, it is impervious to logic, evidence, or critical thinking. This week we'll consider the irrational beliefs behind many of our prejudices. We look at the early American assumption that Native Americans, Africans, and Asians were somehow less than human and then we pay special attention to the case of the British mathematician, Alan Turing, who was of unique importance to both winning World War II by breaking the German Enigma code, and later laying the groundwork for the invention of the computer. In just a few years after the war, Turing was put on trial for being gay and chose suicide over the chemical castration imposed on him. Considering our history of prejudice shines a particular light on the current violence against the trans community.

"On Reparations" presented by Dr. Kyler Sherman-Wilkins, Missouri State University professor of Sociology

The subject of paying the descendants of African slaves some form of reparations is complicated but just because it is complicated does not mean that it should not be done. Imagine starting to play Monopoly with 10 players but one player starts with 90% of the property and the bank. Liberated slaves were promised "40 acres and a mule" to give them a more fair start in life but with the assassination of Lincoln, that plan was never carried out. How can we meaningfully address the injustice of centuries of forced, uncompensated labor and the centralization of capital in the hands of the few? We have to be honest about the history of American wealth and seriously drill down on solutions which will inevitably be controversial but must, none-the-less, be carefully thought out and implemented.

The pandemic is almost all that is mentioned in the news and it certainly occupies much of our emotional and mental energy. Sadly, however, the Covid-19 virus might not be the most dangerous thing going on in the world right now. The Trump administration had rolled back more than a 100 Environmental Protection Agency regulations before the coronavirus elbowed its way into our awareness but since journalists are paying attention to nothing else, the Trump administration is crucifying the EPA in what CBS news has called "an open license to pollute." The virus will eventually recede, even though it may take a year to 18 months, but the earth . . . the earth is forever!

As we try to learn the skills of staying home, maintaining distance, and the disciplines that prevent the spread of the Covid-19 virus, that means that some of us are very isolated, living alone with almost no face to face contact with anyone. Others are quarantining with a significant other, or with children. There is a lot of stress in both contexts, stresses from anxiety, depression, or domestic conflict, all of which can lead to substance abuse. Dr. Roger Ray and Dr. Paul Thomlinson met two decades ago working on an addiction research project and have often shared a lectern to speak about the most recent research and the insights they have gained from both personal and professional experience with drug and alcohol use and abuse. This talk on addiction is directed to our unique situation as we are all trying to survive both the coronavirus and the quarantine it demands of us.

The world as we have known it no longer exists. This pandemic will end, realistically, however, the virus will remain and will be held at bay, largely by a vaccine that will have to be repeated as the virus evolves every year. Still, when it is safe to go back to church and to restaurants, movies and music venues, not all of them will have survived. And as governments around the world try to navigate the complexities of having shut an economy down and then trying to start it up again, we will have to make serious decisions about universal healthcare, and possibly even a universal basic income. As Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez has observed, the virus did not so much create new problems as it poured gasoline on existing problems with health care, the income gap, foreign policy, prison policies, and the environment. We have the opportunity to forge a better world after Covid-19 than we had in the first weeks of 2020.