Pastor Note #142: Violence & Cruelty in America: Who Is My Neighbor?

"This is a time when followers of Jesus must unwaveringly insist on love of neighbor as a core social value, a value that requires action.  Followers of Jesus in America must assert themselves in making love of neighbor, with its firm rejection of cruelty and violence, the centerpiece of our engagement with the wider society." (click link to read the full essay)

Quote of Note #225: White Supremacy & “Unjust Forgetting”

"The project of white supremacy has always been a project of erasure, sweeping under the rugs, wiping away from pages, actively distorting the story of us, what [Viet Thanh] Nguyen calls unjust forgetting." D. Stewart

Quote of Note #224: Theocracy–the Worst Form of Government

"I am a democrat because I believe that no man or group of men is good enough to be trusted with uncontrolled power over others." C. S. Lewis

Quote of Note #223: The Human Destructive Inclination toward the Stranger

"We know what our race does to strangers. Man destroys or enslaves every species he can. Civilized man murders, enslaves, cheats, and corrupts savage man. Even inanimate nature he turns into dust bowls and slag-heaps." C. S. Lewis (click link to read full quote)

Prayer Note #69: A Prayer (Drawn from Colossians 3:12-14)

Grant that I might be a living embodiment of Christ’s saving, healing, redeeming love in this broken world.

Quote of Note #222: Ethical Capitalism & the Danger of Wealth

"Why is wealth such a threat...? First, wealth allows the rich to separate themselves from others--to become independent of others and isolated from the needs of others." L. Sweet

Quote of Note #221: Faith as Opposed to Virtue

"How many men and women we have encountered, of great personal virtue and moral rectitude, convinced of their own righteousness, who have also been totally insensitive to the needs of others, and sometimes downright cruel." M L'Engle (for full quote click link below)

Quote of Note #219: Serving Others, Not Controlling Them

"If self-denial is at the heart of the kingdom [of God], controlling others is anti-kingdom." S. Bezner

Quote of Note #218: Love Without Limits

"Somehow we've developed the mind-set that to love one person or group, we have to hate another person or group. So we direct our love toward the groups we're part of--our families, our denominations, our political parties, our ethnic groups--and feel free to hate anyone outside these boxes." J. Perkins (to read the full quote, click link below)