Universal Family

Spiritual teacher Evan and philosopher Sophia discuss dimensions of fact and value in spiritual truth--and in daily life.

In this dialogue, Sophia the philosopher and Evan the evangelist begin to clarify the overlap and difference between philosophical and religious responses to the question about knowing for sure about God. The overlap has to do with strengthening our intuitive spiritual experience. Evan's response emphasizes that if you receive God as your Father, you are a son or daughter of God, born of the spiri...

Seven friends, some leaning in a conservative direction, some in a liberal direction, discuss (in 12 minutes) whether Jesus taught that people had to believe in him to be saved, and how to reconcile apparent discrepancies that we find in Scripture on this topic. 

Meet Sophia the philosopher and Evan the evangelist, as they discuss the possibility and implications of an idea about the meaning of the Biblical idea of "the heaven of heavens" or Jesus word that "In the Father's house are many mansions" or Paul in 2nd Corinthians referring to a man [probably himself] who was "caught up to the third heaven." Will those places be our homes as we accomplish stages...

Of the various reasons to reject the father concept of God, I consider two: some fathers are terrible parents; and generations of sensitive, well-informed, ethically committed persons have been taught that the father concept of God (at least in isolation from the truth of the motherhood of God) is sexist. I respond to the second concern by reading excerpts from chapters on scientific, philosophica...

Ali and Miguel are in a world religions class and begin discussing the teaching, "Happy are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

A story about a peacemaker family: the father was a diplomat, the mother a facilitator of public dialogue regarding contested issues, and the daughter a psychology researcher on the relationship of personal peace with social and political peace. One evening they had a conversation about the teaching, "Happy are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God."

A story of two women, best friends from childhood, who learned to forgive each other and creatively go through similar programs of personal growth. As a result, they came to a better understanding of mercy.

In order to add meaning and plausibility to the eternal truth: Happy are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted, . . . I offer a story.

Purity of heart means to will one thing--if that thing is to have as one's sole purpose in life to do the will of the God of love. But what does that mean? Here are several aspects of the outworking of that purpose.

This is a story of a meek boy and an antagonistic boy who grow up to cooperate. It symbolizes hope for our world and satisfaction for those who take to heart the promise: "Happy are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."

Have you faced this question? Choose this day whom you will serve. Are you in or out? Is your life saying YES to God?     Salvation and spiritual rebirth are two ways to name the same event, an event that is widely misunderstood for two quite different reasons. . . . 

When the Creator chose to launch imperfect, free-will beings on the stage of action on an evolutionary world, it was predictable that mercy was going to be needed. Mercy is the divine attitude that applies love to the understanding of a creature's motivation, circumstances, and personal history.     The New Testament book of Matthew 18:12-35 reveals the mercy process of forgiveness in its fullness...

What I have read about the opioid crisis says nothing about the lack of a sense of purpose in the lives of our brothers and sisters who consciously use dangerous drugs--and, for that matter, our brothers and sisters who deliberately profit from excessive opioid use. Yes, lack of the healthy momentum of a noble purpose is something we all experience at times. Moreover, a sense of hopeless often owe...

We enter the family of God with the faith of a little child, but that faith lacks the discernment and power of the faith of the adult child. When the thicket of problems becomes too difficult for our tools, when our resistance to the divine way or the earthly obstacles to our living the will of God mount up, then our faith moves from receptive mode to active mode--wholehearted adult faith. There's...

Righteousness gets a bad name because of two distortions: legalistic religion that tries to control matters that should be left to individual freedom, and self-righteous swagger with its hostility toward for broad classes of humanity. When Jesus assured us, "Happy are those who hunger and thirst for happiness," he had something different in mind. He was pointing the way to the beautiful wholeness...

Social service defined: readiness to do good to anyone with any kind of need. It is common for love to be preferential in a way that is not based on our quality in the brotherhood of man/siblinghood of humankind. But everything changes when we recognize the spiritual core of our creation as personalities--unique, mysterious, and constant through change--each one a masterpiece of the Creator's art,...

When we say "God" we refer to the awesome Creator. But a full concept of God includes his intimate and personal relationship with us. He is also our Father and our friend.     Increasingly realizing this in our spiritual experience, we can more readily embrace the evidences of a friendly universe. 

When we establish our core identity in the truth of our being a son or daughter of God, we have gone a long way to ending whatever craziness may have infected us. We can enjoy the beauty of nature and the arts, including healthy pleasures and uplifting recreation. And we can lead a life dominated by goodness and make a more effective contribution to the progress of sanity in our world.

We start physical life as a one-celled zygote. We start the development of our mind in complete ignorance. Why should we expect that our physical and mental development gives us advanced standing as we begin our spiritual journey?  

Turning to him as his child, we can discover God as our Father. We thus discover a central truth of the Creator and the core of our own identity. 

As a both-and thinker who sometimes recognize an either-or, I see that (1) there can be no peace between light (divine truth) and darkness (rebellion against God). But (2) countless other conflicts arise in which we can make tremendous progress if we mobilize different attitudes and tactics, such as we can learn from Marshall Rosenberg's methods of nonviolent communication and Thomas Aquinas's met...

How can someone who used to avoid social service start to become a server of all?

From Dante's Divine Comedy to 12-Step programs to the Enneagram, insight is mixed with overemphasis on the negative and a failure to recognize the new and better way: we (at least we non-addicts) can first be transformed by the Spirit of Truth before we go on to cleanse ourselves from all evils of mind and body.