“Give them hope, not hell:” A thing left undone
Conversations in the cafeteria are where much of the real theological work gets done at my seminary, where students hash out their thoughts on what was discussed in the class just ended or the readings for the class soon to begin. Throw in some pop culture references, season with puns, and you’ve got a party. [...]
Engaging the religious “Other” is only a matter of life or death.
In the interests of full disclosure, a few points as preface to the following: As a freshman in college, I gave serious thought to converting to Islam. While I’d like to think that I was stopped mainly by my concern for the status of women in some Middle Eastern nations, the facts are that I [...]
The NRA has no shame. Let’s give them some.
Keep this in mind, as it will be important later: In 2002, one David Gardner paid a visit on Long Island, N.Y., to relatives of Adolf Hitler who had lived in the United States for five decades under assumed names and had not, until then, spoken publicly about their lives as the family of one [...]
Compulsory religion: You can lead a kid to the altar…
Different religions mark coming of age in different ways. Jewish youth have bar or bat mitvahs; Islamic youth are expected to begin engaging in all the compulsory acts of their faith; Christians raised in churches that practice infant baptism undergo confirmation. The small General Baptist country church of my Southern youth didn’t baptize anyone until [...]
The little-known eleventh commandment: Get over yourself
The thing about diversity is that, if people are being intellectually honest, tensions will arise from time to time. The brochures that talk of rich learning opportunities don’t tell you that the photos of a carefully selected group that fills many available demographics don’t suggest it; the list of event supporters includes names that cover [...]
It’s hard to find 11-year anniversary cards, or, healing isn’t forgetting
Eleven years have now passed since the illusion of peace and tranquility was shattered on another clear, blue, Tuesday morning, eleven years in which we’ve stubbornly refused as a nation to learn the lessons that were available to us on that day and instead seem in many ways to have doubled down on the attitudes, [...]
If God is bigger than us, then so is “God’s image”
One source of controversy in modern religion concerns the amount of deference given to the discoveries of science. (Note to self: cross “write world’s most profound understatement in one sentence” off bucket list.) While such differences split along liberal/conservative lines within religions, I also see a gradient scale between religions: In revealed religions such as [...]
Moving from Sibling Rivalry to Religious Solidarity
As part of my navel-gazing over the notion that “I don’t not believe in God” (at least not anymore), and the logical subsequent question of whether I do believe, I’ve been thinking about what sort of religion I could live with if Unitarian Universalism or Ethical Culture somehow ceased to be a good fit for [...]
Wanted: More bully pulpit, less bullying
In ranking American presidents on the he-man macho scale, Theodore Roosevelt will score pretty high on almost any judge’s sheet. But when he talked about using the “bully pulpit,” he was using the first word in that phrase to mean “excellent,” like when David Bowie sang “Bully for you, chilly for me” (“good for you, [...]
What I’d tell 12-year-old me
As a man reaches a certain age – the age when peers start losing their parents – there are lines of thought that start to recur whether he likes it or not. How many people are left carrying on the family name, and what are the odds it will survive past my nephew’s generation? Is [...]
Jason Tippitt
Tennessee native Jason R. Tippitt is pursuing a master of arts in theological studies at Andover Newton Theological School in the Boston area. He is a "religious independent" with an interest in collaborative efforts within, between, and beyond religious communities for the common good. Follow him on Twitter: @TippittJason
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Contributing Scholars
Joshua OxleyJoshua Oxley is a 2nd-year Master of Divinity student at the University of Chicago. He also serves as Humanist Advisor for the University, working primarily with secular students.
Aidan McCormackAidan is a candidate for Unitarian Universalist Ministry and holds an M.Div. from Meadville Lombard Theological School. He is a chaplain, youth and community minister engaged in embodied theologies of queerness and liberation.
Michael J. AltmanPh.D. student of American Religious Cultures in the Graduate Division of Religion at Emory University. Specialization in American religious history and Asian religions in America. Twitter: @MichaelJAltman.