Archive
The “Nones” Are Alright
This article originally appeared on Al Jazeera America. This article argues that far from becoming morally rudderless secular citizens, many religiously unaffiliated people are seeking ways of forming meaning and identity as …
A Pragmatist’s View of Religion
It is reasonably easy to be an armchair critic of religion. There are ample examples of religious leaders who compromise the values of their tradition, and the fundamentalists of every religion are …
Hampers of hope in Harbor City
This post originally appeared on Al Jazeera America. HARBOR CITY, Calif. — From the Pacific Coast Highway exit off the freeway in Harbor City, it is impossible to miss the towering exhaust stacks …
Downtown L.A. Captures Pentecostalism’s Past, Present and Future
“When people ask me, ‘What good can come out of Skid Row?’ I tell them that the people of God come out of Skid Row!” Pastor Cue’s sermon hit a crescendo as …
The Visual History of Christian Civic Activism in China
Accounts of the Hong Kong campaign for political choice and universal suffrage that began in late September have emphasized the prominence of Christian activists in planning and leading that movement. Community organizer …
A Family Occupation: Samuel Chu on the Occupy Central Movement in Hong Kong
Samuel Chu has been a community organizer in Southern California for the past decade. On September 26, 2014 he left Los Angeles to join his father–a Southern Baptist minister, community activist and …
LA Voice: Congregations and Communities Building Electoral Power
For many years in the United States, churches have been at the center of progressive political and social movements. From abolitionism to child welfare and of course the Civil Rights Movement, religious …
Iceberg Lettuce vs. Arugula: Religion and Gentrification in Los Feliz
Last week I took a walk on the gentrifying edge of Los Feliz with the pastor of a local church that mainly ministers to the down-and-out. We talked about the urban landscape …
Where They Make Manna
When Pastor Ed Carey arrived at Hope International Bible Fellowship (Hope IBF) in 1994, the situation was grim. The once-thriving congregation was down to 30 people and thinking of closing its doors. …
Putting Education to Work: How Cristo Rey High Schools Are Transforming Urban Education
Putting Education to Work: How Cristo Rey High Schools Are Transforming Urban Education Megan Sweas, Author (Harper Collins Publishers: 2014) The story of how the Cristo Rey Network’s values-based education model and …
Laundry Love
Several years ago—2002 to be exact—I met an incredibly interesting young pastor named Greg Russinger. At the time, Greg was leading the Bridge Communities, an innovative church in Ventura, California. What was …
The Dream Center: Spirit-Infused and Socially Engaged Urban Ministry
This article appeared in PentecoStudies: An Interdisciplinary Journal for Research on the Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements (Vol 11, No 1). Abstract: In this article we investigate the Dream Center, a large-scale Pentecostal …
The Los Angeles Riots 20 Years Later: An Interview with the Rev. Dr. Cecil ‘Chip’ Murray
USC Dean of Religious Life Varun Soni interviewed Rev. Dr. Cecil “Chip” Murray for the Huffington Post. During the 1992 civil unrest in Los Angeles, Murray became a household name as the …
Religion in the News: What Does it All Mean?
This post originally appeared on Patheos’ Black, White and Gray blog. Several news stories about religion in the U.S. have caught my attention over the last couple of weeks, and they each …
“Beach Children” Find Salvation through Pentecostal Preachers
In cities and towns around the world, countless numbers of people flock to beaches in search of sun, sea and sand. Yet a different picture emerges in Lagos, Nigeria, the second-largest city …
Faith and Food Justice: Nourishing Body and Soul
Want to see interdisciplinary activism at its best? Look at food justice. Seeking to address the inequities in the food system from production to consumption, the movement creates ties together the concerns …
Occupiers Get Religion
Occupy Wall Street now occupies more than the iconic New York City financial district. In the past month, the movement has spread across the U.S. and the world, to our phones as …
Passing the Mantle: A New Generation of Leaders in the Black Church
Executive Summary In many urban neighborhoods where African American churches have deep roots, obdurate problems such as homelessness, drug addiction, gang violence and educational underachievement have only grown more acute since the …
Recovering a Moral Perspective in Public Life
With the recent retirement of Cardinal Roger Mahony, many assessments of both his accomplishments and shortcomings have–and will–be written. But any appraisal of Mahony’s contributions to the civic culture of Los Angeles …
Whom You Do vs. What You Do
This post originally appeared at Trans/missions, the USC Knight Chair in Media and Religion site. With an important election looming, our constantly simmering political contest over “values” is once again at full …