The three go together, so I would prefer to think about this question not so much as which is most important, but which in healthy and organically growing human associations comes first.  In the best and healthiest organizations belonging comes first. We are born citizens of the United States, then …

And so now, as often happens, we meet at the intersection of religion and politics streets. Representative Paul Ryan’s budget committee of the U.S. House has produced a budget that cuts 5.3 trillion dollars from projected deficits over the next decade, a formidable number that does not erase the whole …

A big part of the battle for this year's Republican nomination has been couched in terms of which of the four remaining candidates is the most conservative. I cannot help but be suspicious of this. My reasons have nothing to do with conservatism itself, but rather with what seems to …

Bishop John Shelby Spong has spent most of his life struggling against biblical literalism and modern fundamentalism which sprang from it. He continues that fight in his most recent work “Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World.” In this book he repeats a number of things that are, well, worth …

There is an old and trite joke — with many variations — which goes something like: “There are two types of people in the world, those who divide the world into two types of people, and those who don't.” Just for now I am with the former; I am going …