Progressive Faith Sermons - Dr. Roger Ray

Though Gandhi and MLK are lauded as great social heroes in our day, during their lifetimes they were often put in jail and were regarded as enemies of the state. To be honest about some of the people currently regarded in the USA as being traitors or at least being guilty of espionage, we should wonder if they will one day be regarded as heroic whistleblowers? Already, in Berlin, there are statues...

The laudable stated goal of the new Biden administration to bring unity to the red and the blue factions of America is obviously necessary, but it is a steep hill to climb. For the most part, the Jan. 6 insurrection was the product of a constant diet of lies and propaganda. Certainly, the first step of reuniting the United States calls for a renewed commitment to the truth, from politicians, in th...

A Haitian proverb declares, "No one listens to the cry of the poor or the sound of a wooden bell." That seems like a sad resignation to the way that things are but what we realize about Martin Luther King, Jr. is that his peculiar genius was to amplify the voices of the poor, to make the injustice of racism visible, on the evening news, to people who had been covering their ears and looking the ot...

America is horrified and embarrassed but not many of us are shocked. The failed insurrection that took place on Wednesday, January 6th, was planned, orchestrated, inspired, and incited by our president who recently lost re-election and who has been desperate to hold onto power even if he had to destroy democracy to do so. We have witnessed the embodiment of Voltaire's prophetic declaration that th...

Changes are coming that give us reason for substantial hope. We will have a change in administrations in early 2021 and an amelioration of the pandemic later in the year followed by a huge economic recovery. But looking past this new year, very soon, electric cars will replace gas burning cars and sustainable energy will end carbon pollution from generating electricity. Artificial Intelligence wil...

Mary's song, the Magnificat, has been a favorite text from the Christian tradition for millennia. The exhilaration of hope and the certainty that "the arc of the moral universe" really does "bend toward justice" continue to inspire both faith and activism, especially in the face of all the terrible, and terribly unnecessary, suffering that fills our world. With a long road still ahead of us, it ca...

In her brilliant new book, Caste, Isabel Wilkerson speaks of racism in America as a caste system that is like the studs that form the frame of our house. We rarely see them or think of them, but they are there, holding the whole house up and if termites or mold get to them, the house will collapse. Racism establishes the social order so that even after the end of slavery, Jim Crow laws, lynching,...

I have two points to make today. The first is very practical and the second is deeply philosophical. The first is that by paying attention to science, especially in forest management, we can increase the profitability of our natural resources while sustaining our old growth forests which is good both for people in the construction business as well as for people who breath air. The philosophical po...

The late Marcus Borg is credited with describing the historical Jesus as being the teacher of radical compassion. In this time when it appears, as Paul Krugman has recently published, our culture of selfishness is killing us, it is vital that we take up that mission of teaching radical compassion. We are all connected and our innate instincts validate our natural desire to care about the welfare o...

Economists are predicting that one in six restaurants will be permanently closed as a result of the pandemic. Sadly, when progressive congregations emerge from our current sabbatical or at least our retreat to online only services, the casualty rate may be much higher than what has hit the restaurant business. Still, the progressive church was already changing, and this nightmare virus may have si...

How did wearing a mask to avoid spreading the Covid virus become a politically partisan issue? It has become apparent that one of the most difficult tasks ahead of the USA is learning again how to disagree without dividing the nation. For many of us, this isn't about politics, it is about ethics and being honest about both economics and science. It is hard to bridge the gap to those who seemed to...

At the end of World War I, there was a hope that this had been the "war to end all wars." Armistice Day was established to celebrate the agreements that they hoped would lead to an eternity of peace on the planet earth. It was only 30 years before the world was plunged into another global conflict that claimed even more lives. As horrific as wars are, there is a tendency to glorify wars and those...

Despite Tuesday's election results, Donald Trump received widespread support across the USA, signaling a tolerance for, and, in many cases, a celebration of, Trump's performative fascism and a growing normalization of White nationalism. Understanding that the popularity of Trump is a symptom of these deeper problems in our society, we realize that we still have vital work to do to close up the vul...

President Kennedy's speech he was set to deliver on the very day when he was tragically assassinated included this plea to the nation, "let us not be petty when our cause is so great. Let us not quarrel amongst ourselves when our Nation's future is at stake." Every presidential election is important, but it is not an exaggeration to say that both global and domestic issues are at stake this week i...

The directors of the FBI and DHS have warned Congress that white supremacist, anarchist, and other armed militias pose a significant threat to American security. Our nation, unlike our peers in western democracies, has been held hostage to the gun industry which appears to be motivated by profits to the exclusion of concern about human life. It is up to us to reverse that priority and stem the acc...

Power begets power and institutions that are rife with power will increasingly resist change, reform, or moral responsibility. An excellent example of this is the perception that protesting police killings and violence as being inherently "anti-police" just as protesting the Catholic Church's history of hiding pedophilia as well as the rape and forced abortions common among nuns in their relations...

We're not dead yet, but we need your help. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to sell our church building, but we are still online and plan to return to an in-person presence once it is safe to do so. Making that happen requires your help. Please consider donating by visiting http://spfccc.org or mailing a check to: Community Christian Church PO Box 10062 Springfield, MO 65808

A civilization's shared myths account for why things are the way they are. They can bolster loyalty to a religion or a nation, and they can excuse class and race privilege. Ancient Hebrew scriptures claim that God gave them a land where other nations were already living just as America's "manifest destiny" excused genocide and pathological land theft. But myth's don't have to be toxic, in fact, th...

Faith is typically based on "belief" and science is based on objective research and analysis. In this address, written for the Malvern (United Kingdom) Science and Faith conference, Dr. Ray discusses the concept of "evidence based faith," attempting to rank our beliefs based on Bayes' Theorem of probability analysis. This invites communities of faith to put the majority of their energy into what t...

The late Congressman John Lewis wrote what could be his own eulogy in the essay he wrote to be published posthumously in the New York Times. He called on "ordinary people" to be willing to get into "good trouble." Of course, the sins of racism, oppression, and enslavement were not creations of black culture. These were white inventions and as such, we must acknowledge that the end of racism in Ame...

Politics and profit have tremendous influence over which foods we eat, especially the poor because almost all government agricultural subsidies go to beef, dairy, and grain production and less than 1% supports growing green vegetables and fruits. The biblical narrative about the birthday party given for Herod concludes with the head of John the Baptist being brought out on a platter as if his very...

While protests verge on becoming riots in our city streets in response to multiple murders of unarmed black men at the hands of our cities' police, we must focus on how to pull racism out of our culture by the roots. Many of us find the common placement of Confederate monuments and the names of leading Confederates and KKK members on universities and public structures to be a part of making racism...

Labor Day is an American substitute for the International Workers Day, celebrated on May 1. Americans of the early 20th century associated organize labor with communism and sought to suppress union organizing while applauding the contributions of laborers to our country. Of course, what labor really deserves is a living wage, safe working conditions, health care, retirement, vacations and a shorte...

Fear provokes prejudice and makes people willing to sacrifice their rights in favor of an authoritarian government that promises protection from the "others." But shouldn't faith offer some cure for fear? Can't we see other races and nationalities as sisters and brothers rather than a threat? We are on the verge of an election and, hopefully, substantive social progress.

170 Danish scholars from 5 universities came together to consider how the world needs to change post covid-19. They make five crucial suggestions: 1) Move away from 'development' focused on aggregate GDP growth. 2) Develop an economic framework focused on redistribution. 3) Develop a form of agriculture that is regenerative. 4) Reduce consumption and travel. And finally, 5) debt cancellation. This...