Opinion

Adriene Thorne of Riverside Church writes that God’s people can choose to care for one another with lavish love and justice. That is the better world we dare to anticipate during Advent.

Thomas Lecaque writes that the AR-15 has been claimed as the sword Christ will wield in the Apocalypse. It is not a tool for revelation, but it is certainly a tool of Armageddon. It is a gun that ends worlds.

Jeremy Fuzy writes that it is an American tradition to believe in the myth of redemptive violence — the idea that we can get violence under control by using more violence. But state-sanctioned killings, whether by police or the death penalty, do nothing to stop the underlying cycle of violence.

Professor Marcia Pally makes the case that in nations descended from Abrahamic traditions like the U.S., religion is not somehow conservative and anti-democratic while secularism is progressive and pro-democracy. Abrahamic principles are at the core of democracy.

Brian Kaylor writes that ten years ago today an armed man walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and opened fire. This massacre at Christmastime evokes memories of part of the biblical story we tend to leave out of our nativities and pageants.

Lisa Sharon Harper writes that here, in the darkness, we acknowledge all the deaths that have occurred from gun violence. Here, in the darkness, we say to each fallen soul: We see you. The dark is clarifying. Isn’t it? When we allow ourselves to sit in the darkness and recognize it as darkness then something almost magical happens — we feel.

William Wright of the Faithful Politics Podcast writes that the Brittney Griner prisoner exchange and circumstances that surround it have so many layers to it that it’s a wonder people are naturally retreating to their respective political and cultural camps without spending too much time appreciating the full panoply of details that makes this single issue so meaningful — and equally as confusing.

Michael Martin, founder and executive director of RAWtools Inc., writes that Christians are both one of the largest gun-owning demographics in the country and are consistently labeled as judgmental, especially toward the LGBTQIA+ community. This Advent, let us reflect on the inclusive ministry of Jesus and Jesus’s constant love of the other.

Bekah McNeel writes that Advent affirms we are right to wonder. It sighs, “not yet,” in reply. Advent reminds us that the Prince of Peace is coming to a wounded, fearful people, but he is not here yet. Peace is still twisted and detoured by gun violence and the greed and idolatry facilitating it.

Francisco Miguel Litardo had the opportunity to travel to Eastern Europe as part of a media team gathering stories from Ukrainian war refugees. All the narratives he discovered while on this assignment were compelling and moving, but there was one that lifted his spirit more than any other: a story about a preacher’s voice that was lost and yet continues to proclaim God’s word.