Habakkuk and the Whitehouse
I am departing today from my usual easy stroll down the Lectionary texts, in order to bring you a message from Habakkuk: H: Dear Lord,
April 7, 2026
Bill's Progressive Christian Blog
Help for those stuck in a conservative box
Weekly Word:
(posts that may or may not match this week's lectionary scriptures)
Leave the Light On
In Sarah Ruden’s translation of the Gospels, Jesus says, “In my father’s house, there are many places to stay.” It reminds me of the Motel
March 31, 2026
Palms, Kings, and what the street says
The crowds who will take to the streets this Palm Sunday weekend to protest the Trump administration are likely to be 100 times larger than
March 24, 2026
Bill's Current Thoughts on Faith, Society, and Where We are Headed
Seeing Mary Magdalene
My Lent has been blessed this year by an online art exhibit at Vanderbilt’s lectionary site: https://exhibitions.library.vanderbilt.edu/different-eyes/ In my Bethany’s People books, I follow the minority opinion and present Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdalene as the same person. I do this because the multitude of Mary’s that we encounter in the scriptures is confusing. As a novelist, I’ve learned to keep my main characters few and fully fleshed out. Doing this, I have had the opportunity to imagine her as someone who left home (Bethany) under tough circumstances — divorce was not kind to women in Jesus’ time — and fell further into mental illness as a stranger in the town of Magdalene, and then was restored to sanity and her family (Martha and Lazarus) by Jesus. What all account agree on about Mary Magdalene, is that she became a “real” disciple of Jesus (Luke 8:2). She followed him
March 31, 2026
Defining citizenship
I grew up when citizenship was still taught in public schools, and I learned it meant guarding the peace and security of my neighborhood against any criminal element, our American soil against a foreign adversary, and everyone’s basic human rights against government overreach. As an eighteen-year-old in 1972, I spent endless hours in discussions with friends, teachers, and religious professionals, debating how good citizens ought to respond to the tragedy that was the Vietnam war. That year, I witness a shift in my neighbors viewed the prospects of sending any more youths into that meat grinder. Good citizens demanded that the government prove its case; how did our involvement improve homeland security while guaranteeing the human rights of everyone, including the Vietnamese people. Later that decade, I studied to become a United Methodist clergy-person, and my definition of citizenship was expanded by the quote, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to
February 10, 2026
ICE & Abraham
The story of Sodom and Gomorrah gets preached a lot in conservative churches (Genesis 18 & 19). The MAGA movement often proclaims that the libs are turning America into a modern Gomorrah by their acceptance of sodomites and other perverts. But in the 1990s, this scripture was the one that shifted my social conscience left-ward, until today I am a vocal supporter of LGBTQ rights. The real perverts of the Bible, as I now understand it, are the folk who beat up truth-telling prophets (or protestors) and refuse to let refugees shelter in our sanctuary cities (a concept drawn straight from the Old Testament). In seminary my Old Testament professor butted heads with the more fundamentally inclined students over this ancient text, pointing out that neither Abraham, nor God, seem to be concerned about the rampant homosexuality of these Dead Sea valley communities. The social flaws that doomed them were
January 31, 2026
Juggling Sainthood
All who are on the path towards God’s holiness are saints. Doesn’t matter if you are just beginning your faith journey, were raised by Wiccans, or have a boss that demands that you work on Sundays; anyone on a path that prioritizes spirituality over going with the normal flow of human depravity is a saint. The Apostle Paul used the word saint very freely, writing letters that began “to the saints at so and so,” even when the recipients of these epistles were both alive and strangers to him.1 I share his democratic definition of saint, adding that I have met many people that I consider to be saints who were not even Christians. Sainthood is a journey, not a destination. Further, it is a wilderness journey in which saints are always in trouble. Imagine yourself wanting to learn how to juggle. The moment you pick up two balls and
December 31, 2025
I rarely weep at movies.
Spoiler alert: there is a scene in the movie Hamnet which I found transformative. The entire first half of the movie is intimate, small groups, people in dialogue, alternating between the forest, where most of the villagers are afraid to linger; and the darkened interiors of a common home, where a few family members hash out their relationships with each other. When their child dies of the plague; mother, child, sister, and grandmother form a circle barely a yard across. Then, the mother travels to Stratford to see the play that her husband, Will, has been working on. He wasn’t home when tragedy struck. She feels very much alone and abandoned in her grief. Then she joins the crowd pushing through the door of the theater. Inside, she looks up. The stage faces three or four tiers of balconies, each one crowded with people. They reach to the sky. An
December 16, 2025
Where’s the next Rocky?
Rockefeller was a good Republican who pinch-hit and won the game during the last time that a defective president plunged America into darkness. I was a sophomore (wise fool) in college when Richard Nixon resigned in order to escape impeachment. The bus driver for the campus shuttle said, “He was a good president until he went to China. Then they switched him with a double.” Maybe, current Republicans can find it in their hearts to say, “I supported the President until…” In 1973, the then recently passed Twenty-Fifth Amendment (1967) got a workout, as it mapped out a succession process for both the president and their VP. Shortly after Nixon’s reelection in 1972, the FBI uncovered corruption in the Vice President’s office and Spiro T. Agnew — who until J.D.Vance had no equal — resigned. Nixon, following the language of the 25th Amendment, asked Congress to approve his choice of
December 11, 2025
Empathy Part III: Shame and Empathy
Every action that Jesus took was rooted in empathy. So much was this the case that in Matthew 25:31-46, he promises to remain in the world as an invisible presence with those who are hungry or thirsty. The nations of the world will be judged by how they treated the strangers in their midst, that is anyone who is a refugee, immigrant, speaks a distinct language, or follows another faith tradition. Christ demands that we have empathy for those who are homeless, ragged, sick, or in prison. Those who follow Jesus understand his solidarity with the weak. The intentional practice of Empathy is at the heart of the prayer Jesus taught us. When we pray, we think of how Jesus came into our world out of the unimaginable glory of eternity. So we stand with Jesus and pray for the elevation of our world to the goodness and charity of
September 23, 2025
A little thing in 1938
In October 1938, Polish Jews who had immigrated into Germany were rounded up and deported back to Poland. The Polish government, being equally anti-Semitic, didn’t want them. 17,000 people huddled for weeks in makeshift encampments on the border as winter came. This barbaric act was a transitional step in the larger movement in many European countries to deny citizenship to certain groups of people that they labeled as undesirables. A year later, Germany invaded Poland, starting World War II. Two years after that, they began the process of mass extermination known as the Holocaust or Shoah. I think if we were to ask Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, Tom Homan, or President Trump if they know that they are repeating history, they would say, no. They view their actions as patriotic, not demonic. They say we are anti-immigrant, not antisemitic. It’s not racist to believe in (white) America first. “Besides, we
July 26, 2025
I Samuel 8 will Preach
When the people came to Samuel and asked him to anoint for them a king, such as the other nations have, he repeated what God had told him to say, “[This king] He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. Your male and female servants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.” -I Samuel 8:14-18 In the 1990s, America became schizophrenic about separation of church and state. Conservative Christian leaders
June 17, 2025
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