by Richard Chrisman | Jul 5, 2018 | For Religious Congregations
Looking soberly at the actualities, it seems churches in the mainline denominations are not often able to achieve our desired racial, ethnic and class diversity goals. Birds of a feather. . . This is lamentable, because we need each other across the human spectrum....
by Richard Chrisman | Jul 4, 2018 | For Religious Congregations
A Public Church is a welcoming church. But avoid repeating “welcome” too many times. Aren’t we overcompensating with our welcomes? They certainly communicate an anxiety to fill the vacant pews which are plainly evident. Everybody sees the sign out...
by Richard Chrisman | Jul 4, 2018 | For Religious Congregations
“The public life amounts to all action and speech, which are coeval and co-equal: the right words at the right moment.” Speech is a species of action, according to Hannah Arendt in The Human Condition (1958). Speech that is public is tantamount to an...
by Richard Chrisman | Jul 4, 2018 | For Religious Congregations
“Besides private life, we are given a sort of second life–the public life.” So wrote Hannah Arendt in The Human Condition (1958), informing us of an entire world that we could inhabit, other than the private one we spend most (some people, all) of...
by Richard Chrisman | Jan 7, 2018 | For Chaplains in Higher Ed.
I felt I was watching an exercise in futility. In an auditorium that seats about 400, 40 students were gathered, maybe 50, and a handful of faculty and staff. An open meeting had been called to discuss racial tension on campus. An associate dean for diversity...
by Richard Chrisman | Jan 3, 2018 | For a Public Theology
Every Sunday of the year 2017, preachers have wished for a way to cry out against the foul news of the week, the difficulty being that most of that foul news was coming from the political sphere. How to preach without being political? How do we honestly decry what...
by Richard Chrisman | Dec 20, 2017 | For a Public Theology
Male behavior toward women may change significantly in the aftermath of Weinstein’s involuntary “exposure” earlier this year. 2017 will be the year that heterosexual men were “outed.” At long last, a bright line can now be said to...
by Richard Chrisman | Dec 4, 2017 | For Chaplains in Higher Ed., For Religious Congregations
Forgetting the unforgettable–an American trait. So wrote James Baldwin in 1967 about Americans’ habit of forgetting what is unforgettable–racial history. What we cannot bear to look at, we do not look at. If we don’t see it, it didn’t...
by Richard Chrisman | Dec 2, 2017 | For Chaplains in Higher Ed.
Dialogue is the new watchword of our time. To promote understanding. To advance education. To defuse conflict. To co-exist. What is the chaplains’ role in fostering dialogue on campus? What can we as religious leaders on campus do to promote dialogue? Can...
by Richard Chrisman | Nov 5, 2017 | For Religious Congregations
“Churches die that don’t ask “Why.” Yes? No. The importance of asking the “Why” question was one of the premises of a denominational workshop I attended recently. Meaning, for congregations to survive and thrive, they need to ask...
