Articles in Pastoral Reflections
By Rev. Dr. Robert R. LaRochelle
The recent controversy that has erupted over President-Elect Obama’s decision to invite Rev. Rick Warren to give the invocation at his Inauguration points to ongoing issues each preacher must confront concerning the role of the preacher in commenting on public policy, all part of the larger matter of the relationship between proclaiming one’s religious faith and translating that faith into specific political proposals on local, state and national issues.
By Rev. Dr. William A. Guthrie
The more one reads the Bible, the more one sees that the concept of nation runs throughout almost all Holy Scripture. Almost from the very beginning of Genesis, it was recognized that it was not good for an individual to be alone.
By Rev. Dr. Nancy H. Bloomer
In the course of human history the market was the place where urban dwellers went to buy the essentials of life: the food and other items needed for survival.
by Kirk Woodward
As Christians we continually face the problem of integrating our faith with the effects of living in this increasingly fragmented and secularized world. I faced this situation when, for work-related reasons, I recently decided to try to earn a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree in Health Care Administration.
by Janet Helene Martin
We live in a global community and we are all connected. The decisions we make in the marketplace can reflect our living faith as individuals and as congregations.
by Rev. Dr. Mark D. Hostetter
Unlike the debates about global warming, no one seems to be denying that the recent violent upheavals in the economies of the U.S. and the world are entirely man-made.
By Rebecca Brown
When I was growing up, we had quite a bit of gossip in our home town. From the lady who had too much of a bounce in her step when she walked around the block to the elderly gentleman who put on clown shoes when he marched in the parade, we were always talking about somebody.
by Katharyn L. Waldron
It is no longer “enough” for us to visit people in prison; justice demands a fuller response to the Gospels.
by Paul Bryant-Smith
As we consider end-of-life care for our loved ones and for ourselves, we are often struck by the difficulties that arise as a result of the improvements in medical technologies that have prolonged human life well beyond anything that could have been imagined even a few decades ago.
by William N. Lovell
But the Christian pacifist who is committed to the purpose and will of God as shown in Jesus Christ over and against any present crisis situation, whose antecedent causes and effects are complex and manifold, acknowledges his or her inability to provide a responsible solution to every particular evil, monstrous as it may be. Such a pacifist must be willing finally to have failed for not having an answer, in seeming defeat, in order to witness to love as the ultimate purpose of God over all.
by Robert LaRochelle
The actions we take and the choices we make reflect if we are followers of Christ, children of God, doing the very best we can with our talents, gifts and strengths.
