Relationships and Community on America

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Returning to a Better America

Author

Keywords

Scripture

Amos 5:21-24, Micah 6:6-8 , Ecclesiastes 7:10, Psalm 146:3-7, Matthew 23:23-24, Philippians 3:13-14

There are many people who will always want to return to the time when America was great. But was there ever a time when America was a wonderful place for everyone? As I saw on a Facebook meme recently...

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Author

Josiah G. Holland

Keywords

In the homes of America [or any other nation] are born the children of America, and from them go out into American life American men and women. They go out with the stamp of these homes upon them, and...

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Baal In America

Author

John M. Perkins

Keywords

I know most Americans today do not worship Baal, but when I look at the church in America, I fear that we have our own Baals that demand our worship. I see so many people bowing down before prosperity...

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A Short History of World Religions in America (other than Christianity)

Author

Barbara Brown Taylor

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 56:6-7, Ruth 1:16-17, 1 Kings 8:41-43, Acts 2:5-6, Ephesians 2:14-15, Psalm 22:27

By many accounts the first Muslim in America was Estevancio of Azamor, a Moroccan guide for a Spanish expedition in 1528 that landed in Florida. A couple of centuries later, as many as a third of the ...

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Author

Drew Hart

Keywords

When mainstream America makes an example of Paula Deen, it both turns her into a scapegoat and also creatively claims its own innocence, because it limits the definition of racism to individual acts.

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Packing for Passage on the Mayflower

Author

Bill Bryson

Keywords

Many of us struggle to know exactly what to pack when we go on our various travels. The Pilgrims in their voyage to the new world were no different. As Bill Bryson describes in his book Made in Americ...

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Racial Division in America

Author

Michael O. Emerson and Christian Smith

Keywords

While I was sitting at a stoplight a few blocks from my [Emerson’s] home in Minneapolis, reflecting on the recent rash of drive-by shootings in the area, three African-American teens clad in the urban...

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The Kindest Family in America

Author

Mia Levetan

Keywords

Scripture

Micah 6:8 , 2 Kings 4:8–37 , Genesis 50:15–21 , Luke 6:35–36, Matthew 5:4, 7 , Psalm 34:18

In 2021, I heard a story on the radio about the “Kindest Family in America”. As far as I can see, this is the only year Parents magazine awarded such a prize. When I first heard this headline I rolled...

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About Anti-Asian Racism in America (And What Your Church Can Do About)

Author

Jin Cho

Keywords

Scripture

Revelation 7:9

The following article was originally written for the author’s denominational newsletter as part of the celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. It is meant to provide some insights into t...

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Father God–You invite us to come as a

Author

Richard Herman

Scripture

Psalm 23:4, James 5:16, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, Isaiah 61:1-2, Amos 5:24

Father God–You invite us to come as a child to his/her daddy. You invite us to open our souls to You. You invite us to lay our desires before You. You are fond of us, Your children–so we come to You h...

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Americans Approach to Giving

Author

Chris Willard and Jim Sheppard

Keywords

Scripture

Acts 20:35, Luke 6:38, Proverbs 3:9-10, Malachi 3:10, 2 Corinthians 9:6-7

In their book Passing the Plate (Oxford, 2008), Christian Smith and Michael Emerson introduce the phrase “discretionary obligation” as a way to understand the typical American Christian’s approach to ...

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God–our Father, Lord and indwelling

Author

Richard Herman

Scripture

Philippians 4:6-7, 1 Timothy 2:1-2, Psalm 133:1, 2 Corinthians 9:13-14, Matthew 28:19-20

God–our Father, Lord and indwelling Spirit of grace and power: Thank you for hearing us when we pray whether in songs of rejoicing or through tears of sorrow. Thank you for gifts–for the gifts of musi...

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Stealing Indian Land

Author

George Yancey

Keywords

To illustrate how the racial oppression of previous generations has benefited European Americans, we can look at the fate of Native Americans. When Europeans arrived in North America, Indians owned al...

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We cannot have true justice unless

Author

John M. Perkins

Keywords

Scripture

Micah 6:8, Exodus 22:21-22 , Isaiah 58:6-7 , Matthew 22:37-39, James 2:1-9 , Psalm 103:6

We cannot have true justice unless it is motivated by love, just as God’s greatest act of justice, sending Jesus to die for us, was motivated by love. Years ago, before the emancipation of slaves, Fre...

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Experiencing Racism at a Bible College

Author

Bryan C. Loritts

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 1:26-27, Numbers 12:1-10, Isaiah 56:6-7 , Luke 10:25-37, Galatians 3:28, Psalm 34:18

While I was born much too late to be the legal property of a person in America, I have been the recipient of racism. When a classmate called me a racial epithet in my first year of college, I was deva...

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Read any study on human satisfaction

Author

Bryan C. Loritts

Keywords

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 , Genesis 2:18, 1 Samuel 18:1-4, Mark 8:36, Philippians 2:3-4, Psalm 133:1

Read any study on human satisfaction and you will see the paramount role of relationships with others. And yet, so many of us readily exchange friendship and community for success and achievement, onl...

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Learning Humility on a Mission Trip

Author

Phillip Yancey

Keywords

Scripture

2 Samuel 7:18-19, Isaiah 66:2 , Matthew 23:11-12, Philippians 2:3-4 , Luke 18:9-14, Psalm 51:17

The priest Henri Nouwen learned humility on a mission trip to South America. He went expecting to pass on his wisdom to the poor and unenlightened. During his six-month stay, Nouwen concluded that a d...

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The Reports of my Death…

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

2 Kings 6:15-17, Jonah 1:17, Luke 24:5-6, Psalm 118:17, Psalm 118:17, Acts 14:19-20

In 1867, the great American writer Mark Twain embarked on what he wryly called his “Great Pleasure Excursion,” a journey through Europe that would later inspire his travelogue, The Innocents Abroad...

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That Wagonload

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 127:3-5, Proverbs 17:6, 1 Timothy 6:17-19, Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, Genesis 2:18, Genesis 2:24, 1 Timothy 5:8

John Fiske, a Harvard scholar, once visited Herbert Spencer, regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of his time in England. During their conversation, Spencer asked about Mrs. Fiske and the chil...

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The Redemptive Landlord

Author

Easton Garcia

Keywords

Not everyone living in a distressed neighborhood is associated with gang members, parole officers, employers, social workers, or pastors. But nearly all of them have a landlord. —Matthew Desmond, E...

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A New Direction for Family Discipleship

Author

Brian Dembowczyk

Keywords

If the Prof is 10 min late... I was in my freshman year in college, and Statistics was the final class before Thanksgiving break. When the professor was ten minutes late, I and several others got up ...

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Author

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Galatians 3:28, Malachi 2:10, Romans 10:12-13, Colossians 3:11, Revelation 5:9-10

I think it is one of the tragedies of our nation, one of the shameful tragedies, that eleven o’clock on Sunday morning is one of the most segregated hours, if not the most segregated hour, in Christia...

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Four Years Later: Reflecting on Pandemic Ministry

Keywords

Lessons Learned in Quarantine and Beyond Do you remember that first Sunday when you stayed cloistered in your home with the immediate family, when you exchanged your dapper church clothes for a pair ...

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God of grace, abundance, and joy, who

Author

Richard Herman

Keywords

Scripture

John 8:12, Isaiah 61:1-3, 2 Corinthians 5:18-19, Matthew 5:14-16, 1 Timothy 2:1-4, Matthew 8:5-13

God of grace, abundance, and joy, who pours out your love on us every day: When we had no hope–You came as a light in our dark time. When we were weak–You came in power to lift us up. When we were los...

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O Lord and Father of the household of

Author

Hughes Oliphant Old

Scripture

1 Timothy 2:1-2, Galatians 6:2, Romans 12:10, Micah 6:8, James 5:16

O Lord and Father of the household of faith, we thank you for the gift of faith worked within us by your Holy Spirit. We thank you for having called us to yourself, for consecrating us to your ser...

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Coming To Terms with Institutional Racism

Author

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

Keywords

Racism

Christians in America must come to terms with how institutional racism has infected us. Few white persons in twenty-first-century America see themselves as racist. (Even fewer Asian, Latino, or Africa...

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The Original Sin of Racism

Author

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

Keywords

Racism

The original sin of racism in America began with a deeply flawed and demonic notion that shaped this nations development. Bad science claimed that black bodies were biologically deficient, then extrap...

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The Goals of the KKK

Author

George Yancey

Keywords

Racism

If you’ve ever wondered what the explicit goals are of the Klu Klux Klan, here is a definition offered by the organization itself: The goal of the United Northern and Southern Knights of the Ku Klux ...

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Race Issues Over Coffee

Author

Melinda Joy Mingo

Keywords

One day while drinking coffee, laughing, and sharing stories with one of my best friends, who is white, an unexpected question about race came up. It just popped up out of nowhere as we were talking a...

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Author

Tony Campolo

Keywords

If we were to set out to establish a religion in polar opposition to the Beatitudes Jesus taught, it would look strikingly similar to the pop Christianity that has taken over the airwaves of North Ame...

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