Below is my conversation with Cole Merkel, the Deputy Director of Outreach Management at HereTogether. Cole provides a presentation about the upcoming ballot measure 26-210 and how voting “yes” will help our houseless neighbors. Houselessness is a chronic issue in our area. This measure seeks to ensure services in the Portland area have needed funding…
The Gospel is inherently political. The early Christians made a subversive political claim – Jesus is Lord. That may not seem very political to those of us living in the 21st century. But in the first century Roman Empire, people had to claim that the Roman Emperor was Lord. To claim that Jesus was Lord…
We at Clackamas United Church of Christ would like to make a confession. Some of us eat bacon. Some of us eat shrimp. And some of us eat shrimp wrapped in bacon!!! And we all wear garments made of different materials. (Polyester!?! Oh the shame!) And some of us have even brought these things into…
No matter how you interpret Romans 1, if you use it in a way to condemn others, you need to repent. Because when you use Romans 1 to judge and condemn, you are judging and condemning yourself.
If our LGBTQ siblings are anyone in the Sodom and Gomorrah story, they are the angels in our midst.
Last week, Vice President Mike Pence, who asserts that he is a faithful Christian, claimed that we need a military force in space because space “is a warfighting domain just like land and air and sea.” Apparently, no place in God’s creation is safe from human violence. Pence went on to say that “it is…
There’s a great story about doubt at the end of the Gospel of Matthew. The resurrected Jesus met the disciples on a mountain. They had followed Jesus for three years, sharing good times and bad times with him. One bad time was Good Friday, which, despite the name, was actually a really bad day for them…