How Christmas is celebrated has evolved a great deal through the centuries but most of us alive today inherited a very churchy version of Christmas that focused on the birth narratives in Matthew and Luke and the whole incarnational theology of the ancient church. Modern progressives find it more uncomfortable to fit into those beliefs than an ugly Christmas sweater. If we demythologize the birth narratives we may be able to find merit in some of the Christmas traditions without all of the phony mythology.

A prophet is not someone who predicts the future. A prophet is a person, religious or not, who accurately describes the present, even if no one wants to hear it. There is a saying in journalism that says journalism happens when you publish something that someone doesn’t want published. Everything else is just advertising. The ancient prophets were the ones who could speak truth to the monarchy, to the priesthood, and to the marketplace, especially when they didn’t want to hear it. We don’t have many prophetic preachers in our day but even worse, we don’t have many prophetic congregations that are willing to stand up to a culture that has lost its way. As the old proverb goes, only dead fish always swim with the current!

Climate change is not merely a matter of either science or politics. Wealthy people don’t tend to live in mobile home parks, after all, so the stronger hurricanes and tornadoes have a direct impact on those who are forced by economics to live in the least substantial housing. We must do more than open our hearts and wallets to participate in relief efforts. We need to “go upstream and see who keeps throwing all of these poor people into the river.”

It is not hyperbole to say that our election on Tuesday is probably the most important election in our life times. In fact, it is entirely possible that this could turn out to be the last free election held in the United States if the anti-democracy wing of the Republican Party gain the reigns of power. We have been subjected to increasingly insane political lies during the campaign as Donald Trump and JD Vance attempt to use fear to motivate voters. We can only hope that voters who are able to think their way through the propaganda to a reasoned decision will show up at the polls in larger numbers.

In light of the recent assassination attempts against Donald Trump, in which the infamous AR-15 assault style rife was used, it seems like a good time to raise the issue of passing much needed gun reform legislation. The majority of Americans want sensible gun laws passed and yet we keep re-electing politicians who refuse to give us what we want. What about this – what if we stopped voting for candidates who won’t do what we want and started voting for candidates who will?

We have arrived at the one-year anniversary of the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel and the war drags on and even threatens to escalate. The Israeli response has, for many, overshadowed the horror of the original attack. The world is asked to witness a problem with no evident solutions, endlessly debating who is to blame while hostages, at least the few who have survived, continue to be daily raped, tortured, beaten, starved, and held in inhumane circumstances. What now?

We cannot feign surprise at the outrageous and hypocritical misogynist attacks on Kamala Harris, but isn't it a shame that we are still having to fight this fight in 2024? Women have fought for a place at the table in law schools, medical schools, and in America's pulpits with a great deal more success than they have had in executive and legislative politics. Since this is clearly not because of some inherent deficit in leadership skills, what else can we call it but the fear that weak men have of strong, competent women?

When Louisiana's new governor, Jeff Landry, signed an order that every state classroom from Kindergarten through university classrooms would have to post a poster sized copy of the Ten Commandments, you probably heard a voice in your head saying, "What an idiot." But what if he wasn't just trying to make culture war news and appeal to his base of conservative voters. What if he is, in fact, cueing up the Supreme Court for their next unbelievable reversal of settled law. Anyone else feeling that "Here we go again," feeling?

All of the world’s religions promote compassion towards the poor as a central spiritual value. However, it should be noted that the world’s major religions all were born in times of great scarcity of resources. It was impossible to prevent poverty because there simply was not enough resources to lift everyone up to a decent standard of living. However, in the modern world, scarcity is not the issue. Our problem is an economic system that allows for the hoarding of resources in the hands of a few super rich individuals whose wealth is the real source of poverty in our time. Capitalism which has fueled innovation and inspired people to be productive, if left without guard rails, will lead to a kind of social cannibalism that none of us would want to tolerate. We have to be willing to use capitalism to create wealth rather than allowing unrestrained greed to let capitalism create poverty.

“Why do the innocent suffer? And can we consider as well how many who are clearly victims are also unconsciously coconspirators in their abuse? Just as Bob Marley sang, “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds,” we all must consider the ways in which we have failed to take responsibility to allowing or even empowering those who have caused us pain. We should have tons of compassion for all of those who suffer unjustly, but it is also important for us to become aware of the chains that have kept us in a toxic situation.

In the hope that Donald Trump will win the November election, the conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, has composed a huge book of plans and resumes to transform our government called the 2025 Project. It is 900 pages long and too much for any one news show or religious podcast to treat comprehensively but this message attempts to take a pastoral view of the changes this powerful minority would like to impose on the USA. This may serve as a good introduction to your own study of the issues.