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Archive: Robert Parham
Muslim freedom, American ignorance
Mike Huckabee's recent comments are but one example of a politician who speaks with authority and discloses how little he knows about the diversity within Islam. A new popular definition of Muslims is emerging that counters the long-standing stereotype that demonizes all Muslims as extremists.
By Robert Parham | February 22, 2011; 02:23 PM ET | Comments (2)
Defenders of incendiary political speech favor the ethic of Cain
When anti-gun control folk argue that "guns don't kill people--people kill people," they are disclosing scrambled moral thinking.
By Robert Parham | January 11, 2011; 04:32 PM ET | Comments (6)
Protecting the rich on the backs of the poor
Today too many Christians negotiate away the biblical imperative to protect the poor in favor of the harmful fable that our society must protect the rich - the very rich.
By Robert Parham | December 14, 2010; 08:55 AM ET | Comments (10)
Clergy plotting to defeat president
James Robison, a key host of a gathering of major Christian leaders, claimed God had laid on his heart the need to call Christian leaders together "to pray for a spiritual awakening." Christian conservatives have long used the language of a prayer meeting as a euphemism for a political rally.
By Robert Parham | November 15, 2010; 04:11 PM ET | Comments (0)
Tea Party steeped in fringe faith
For these Tea Party members--and you can add Delaware GOP Senate nominee Christine O'Donnell and Sarah Palin to their ranks--faith is central, but their faith appears at the fringes of Christianity.
By Robert Parham | September 21, 2010; 10:13 AM ET | Comments (6)
Christian leaders pray for peace
Praying for those in authority and pursuing what makes for peace are biblically mandated duties. Yet these moral imperatives are all too often cast aside by American Christians who reject Obama, regurgitate the myth that Christianity is at war with Islam and recite texts to place a divine hedge around Israel.
By Robert Parham | September 14, 2010; 09:00 AM ET | Comments (0)
Countering the surge of Islamic fear with clarity
Too many moderate Christians, especially clergy, have been muted or confusing in their comments about Islam and Muslims. They have been silent or vacillated. Awash in a culture of fear and soaked in confusion, we need more faith leaders with courage and clarity for the common good.
By Robert Parham | September 8, 2010; 09:07 AM ET | Comments (3)
Glenn Beck's generic God
For Beck, God-generic is a unifying theme and religion is a unifying force for what appears to be his revivalist agenda for Americanism - blended nationalism and individualism.
By Robert Parham | August 31, 2010; 03:05 PM ET | Comments (67)
Christians should follow Jesus on mosque debate
Jesus told his followers what to do when facing hatefulness. He said, "Do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you...And as you wish that men would do to you, do so to them" (Luke 6:27-31). Jesus was saying take a surprising initiative to break the cycle of conflict. Do what your enemies don't expect. Change the status quo.
By Robert Parham | August 24, 2010; 08:55 AM ET | Comments (6)
Doing what's right: religious liberty for Muslims
When some mosque opponents say that they "support religious liberty, but...," one immediately knows the inauthentic nature of their commitment to religious liberty
By Robert Parham | August 17, 2010; 07:25 AM ET | Comments (1)
Christ calls for community, not lone ranger religion
While bestselling author Anne Rice has rejected Christianity, she holds onto Christ. She wants to decide who Christ is all by herself. She vaults individualism above community, surely an expression of self-centered religion.
By Robert Parham | August 3, 2010; 09:40 AM ET | Comments (16)
Mosque as hallmark of religious liberty
If religious liberty is an American hallmark, then a mosque near Ground Zero would be an American landmark to our nation's commitment to religious freedom for all.
By Robert Parham | July 20, 2010; 08:42 AM ET | Comments (4)
Truth Is foundation for peacemaking in Gaza
Truth necessitates an international inquiry into the Israeli commando attack last week on a pro-Palestinian flotilla 80 miles from Israel's coast that resulted in at least nine civilian deaths and 30 wounded. Truth is also needed about the conditions in Gaza.
By Robert Parham | June 8, 2010; 08:31 AM ET | Comments (1)
Gulf gusher is moral failure
Traditional Christianity identifies greed, sloth and pride as three deadly sins--sins that manifest themselves in BP's disaster.
By Robert Parham | June 1, 2010; 02:10 PM ET | Comments (7)
Pentagon makes the right call on Franklin Graham
When Graham speaks about Islam, more often than not he discredits Christianity and damages the efforts of Christians and Muslims who are working together in the public square to advance the common good rooted in the shared traditions of love of neighbor.
By Robert Parham | April 26, 2010; 02:02 PM ET | Comments (3)
Evangelism and ethics are inseparable
Christianity is a religion of evangelism. Christians have a divine imperative to share their faith in word and deed. Christianity is also a religion of ethics. Christians have a divine imperative to share their faith with integrity and transparency. Unfortunately, some Christians and Christian organizations follow the former and ignore the latter.
By Robert Parham | March 2, 2010; 08:44 AM ET | Comments (3)
Debating suffering is easy; Alleviating suffering is harder
For those of faith, a better way is to ask what is it that God wants us to do. Faith in action avoids the fruitlessness of the theologically inexplicable, the foolishness of self-righteously faulting others for human suffering and the uselessness of escapism from human responsibility.
By Robert Parham | January 20, 2010; 09:01 AM ET | Comments (4)
Baptists and Muslims: different books, common word
If Muslims and Baptists are peacemakers together in the United States, then they will show the rest of the world a better way forward.
By Robert Parham | December 26, 2009; 06:20 PM ET | Comments (125)
More war to end war is not just war
For all the bluster about realism, Obama and his pro-war party are the ones who have abandoned realism. They have forsaken one of the rules of a just war: reasonable chance of success. More war to end war is not just war in Afghanistan--for there is a low probability of success.
By Robert Parham | December 21, 2009; 08:29 AM ET | Comments (117)
Giving too much attention to baby Jesus
If we are going to have a crèche in the White House -- along with other faith symbols -- let's remember the moral claims that come from the man Jesus.
By Robert Parham | December 8, 2009; 08:58 AM ET | Comments (1)
Better angels needed for peace in Christmas wars
I wish Christian fundamentalists felt less alienated from our culture and were more on target with moral critique. I also wish humanists and atheists felt accepted enough in the public square that they didn't need to defend themselves with an ad campaign.
By Robert Parham | November 24, 2009; 11:22 AM ET | Comments (3)
Christian Right: New declaration, same old agenda
Once again, the Christian Right makes Jesus a secondary moral guide to their political agenda of criticizing President Obama and shrinking the Bible's moral vision.
By Robert Parham | November 20, 2009; 05:21 PM ET | Comments (4)
Fighting the right's religious test for military service
Demonization of American Muslims is under way among conservative American Christians who think wrongly that President Obama is showing his true colors as a Muslim and Muslims shouldn't be in the military. But this is not the first time that anxiety within right-wing Christianity has objected to government service based on faith. Stopping the phobia from spreading from the fringes of faith into the mainstream demands that faith leaders speak up now.
By Robert Parham | November 10, 2009; 11:44 AM ET | Comments (2)
Avoid temptation to connect shootings to faith
Hasan's actions no more represent Islam than the killer of an abortion doctor represents all anti-abortionists or a pedophile Baptist preacher represents all Baptists. People of faith rightly understand that it is unfair when those outside their faith assert that the misguided individual represents their house of faith.
By Robert Parham | November 6, 2009; 01:26 PM ET | Comments (2)
Health care bill's end-of-life counseling has moral value
Making decisions about the end of life makes more sense when the living can discern their choices in consultation with their family doctor. That's a better course than making decisions in the midst of an emotional crisis at the end of life.
By Robert Parham | November 3, 2009; 05:29 PM ET | Comments (1)
Good Religion Gone Bad
Good religion rightly applied is likely the only long-term solution to the intractable conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. Even if good religion grinds too slowly for most of us, it is far superior to religion gone bad.
By Robert Parham | October 6, 2009; 08:54 AM ET | Comments (5)
Unhinged Society Needs Scapegoats
Unhinged politicians, wrathful preachers, belligerent protesters and hateful pundits pursue a practice as old as the Bible. They create scapegoats.
By Robert Parham | September 15, 2009; 03:35 PM ET | Comments (2)
Texas Heads for Shootout Over Religion in Textbooks
Regrettably, Texas religious conservatives are more determined to rule than to follow the Golden Rule. They are bent on a Texas theocracy--a form of government where fundamentalist Christian clergy and their deputies rule in the name of God.
By Robert Parham | September 2, 2009; 09:24 AM ET | Comments (1)
Heal the Sick and the System
Justice for the weak, the vulnerable and the stranger in the land is never heard at the anti-reform rallies, where the judgment of God is announced against reform-minded legislators.
By Robert Parham | August 18, 2009; 10:10 AM ET | Comments (4)
Jesus Would Tweet, and Warn of the Temptation of Technology
Jesus spoke in tweets before tweets became cool, if by tweets one means short messages.
By Robert Parham | August 11, 2009; 02:42 PM ET | Comments (3)
Blaming Men is not Good Theology
Blaming "male interpretations of religious texts" for the lack of women's equal rights is flawed theology, at least within the context of Baptists of the South.
By Robert Parham | July 21, 2009; 02:16 PM ET | Comments (1)
Sotomayor, the SBC, Land and the GOP
More evidence of the Religious Right's loss of influence, but no loss of far-right ideological partisanship.
By Robert Parham | July 17, 2009; 08:24 AM ET | Comments (186)
Across the Baptist-Muslim Divide
Distance is shrinking between Baptist and Muslim leaders in America--faster than rank-and-file members realize.
By Robert Parham | July 8, 2009; 11:07 AM ET | Comments (0)
King David's Playbook for Political Sex Scandals
When Southern politicians use religious language to confess their marital infidelity, they are tapping into one of the Bible Belt's best known stories--the story of David and Bathsheba.
By Robert Parham | June 30, 2009; 03:48 PM ET | Comments (2)
Burqa Battle Is Over Competing Visions of Religion in Public Square
The American vision is of a pluralistic democracy where all religions are equal in the public square. The French vision is one of a secular society, a society that dictates to religion.
By Robert Parham | June 25, 2009; 10:59 AM ET | Comments (3)
Rick Warren's Islamic Overture
American evangelicals like Rick Warren seek the common good with American Muslims because it is the right thing to do.
By Robert Parham | June 22, 2009; 03:04 PM ET | Comments (50)
