Each week I send
out a weekly e-mail of my thoughts to folks in my church. I include in
it what I found worth reading in the past week. Here's some stuff I found meaningful to read this past two
weeks (since I didn't send out any last week:
- Did you see CCCUCC member Jan Parks' letter to the editor published in the KC Star this week re: the anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education?
- In case you missed it two weeks ago, the United Church of Christ was featured on the Melissa Harris-Perry Show on MSNBC
for its lawsuit against the state of North Carolina's ban on clergy
performing weddings not licensed by the state. The overview of the many
"firsts" of the UCC was great to see.
- Amidst all the
good news for LGBT equality in recent weeks, hopefully you saw the news
about MU's own Michael Sam becoming the first openly gay NFL player.
Unfortunately, the St. Louis Rams could still fire Sam simply for being
gay, because there is no Missouri law that bans such discrimination.
- There's a lot of good news about LGBT equality, but let's not relax our efforts. As retired Episcopal bishop Gene Robinson writes the need still remains for people of faith to fight for LGBT young people.
- Have you been following the response to French economist Thomas Piketty's book Capital in the Twenty-First Century?
Piketty argues that we are in a new Gilded Age of income inequality
where the global rich control more and more of the world economy. The
growth of the middle class following WWII, according to Piketty is an
aberration from the norm not an inevitability for the future. What does
this mean for Christians? According to church historian Bill Leonard
it is time for us to revisit the Christian reformers who wrote during
the last Gilded Age a century ago. We need Walter Rauschenbusch's
"Social Gospel" now more than ever.
- Guess what? Everybody lies about how often they go to church.
White mainline Protestants have the lowest percentage of weekly church
attendance (NO SURPRISE THERE--HINT, HINT), but even they (we) lie
about how often we go to church!
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