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PODCAST

Progressive Faith Sermons - Dr. Roger Ray

Sermons from the Community Christian Church of Springfield, MO. We are believers in Jesus Christ who accept all people without judgment and who desire to work and worship as a community striving for social justice.

religion & spirituality philosophy

All Episodes

23:34

Demythologizing Judaism

Progressive Faith Sermons - Dr. Roger Ray ·

2022/03/13

We too easily think of modern Judaism as being an ancient religion that hails from Abraham and Moses. The truth is that Judaism began as a polytheistic faith rooted in a priestly cult that practiced animal sacrifice. A religion that bears very little resemblance to what we would encounter in any modern synagogue. Religions are always fluid, changing, growing, and, frankly, they are almost always in need of review, evolution, or reform. Judaism is not exception to this rule. Especially as we consider

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20:39

Demythologizing Religion

Progressive Faith Sermons - Dr. Roger Ray ·

2022/03/06

The world's major religions have roots in antiquity when historical literacy was not highly valued and when it was common to "personify" aspects of nature, turning the world into a place full of gods and spirits. In the 21st century, it is important for us to be able to demythologize all of the world's religions to mine them for moral insights and instruction while leaving behind much of the magical and mythic thinking which has led to so much prejudice and abuse.

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19:18

Black History Month: Less About and More Through

Progressive Faith Sermons - Dr. Roger Ray ·

2022/02/27

If we want to understand the world, to be able to read current events with insight, we need to take the time to understand the history. This sounds so obvious, but it is a necessary reminder in a society that has struggled to learn how to remember and tell its history in meaningful, truthful, and transformative ways. No where is this more obvious in the US experience then in the observance of Black History Month. As LaGarrett J. King pointed out, “We can’t get Black history education right because

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07:08

Reflections on Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine by David...

Progressive Faith Sermons - Dr. Roger Ray ·

2022/02/26

As a pastor, I have worked with veterans who were still struggling with the cost of war decades after they were discharged. As a peace worker in Cambodia, I saw the trauma of war still living in people’s hearts, influencing cultures, and scarring the land itself, decades after the official end of war. The wounds of war are deep and last a long time, unless and until we decide, as a society, to do the work to heal them. In the current situation, we have both the immediate responsibility to help bring

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20:51

Love Your Enemies

Progressive Faith Sermons - Dr. Roger Ray ·

2022/02/20

Growing up, the way I learned Jesus’ teaching on loving my enemies was confusing and even harmful. Especially where abuse and oppression were concerned, rolling over and looking the other way could not be options. But I also understood that violence and hatred could not create a just, compassionate community. I felt the trap: fight back violently, and become like those who had harmed me, or do nothing, and allow myself and others to get hurt again and again. Encountering Walter Wink’s

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19:58

A Wonderful Life Should Not Be Exceptional

Progressive Faith Sermons - Dr. Roger Ray ·

2022/02/13

Most of us have spent our lives in communities that made it more difficult for us to thrive and flourish as human beings. And it is very likely that we have picked up on those very habits, mistreating ourselves, others, and the earth. We add to that the exhaustion that comes from suffering from, resisting, and transforming oppression, and the odds seem to be stacked against us. And yet we still carry inside of us this conviction that it is possible for us to live together in such a way that everyone

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23:19

War Is Inconceivable

Progressive Faith Sermons - Dr. Roger Ray ·

2022/02/06

As the world waits to see if a ground war is about to start between Russia and Ukraine, it seems good to give some thought to how we got to this deadly threatening point. How has the spread of nuclear weapons and NATO bases in Eastern Europe led to war always being proposed as the solution to the world’s problems. As Sting once sang, “I’ve never seen a military solution.” We have much better options and spiritual communities should never stop pointing towards the pathways to peace.

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21:39

A Snake Doesn’t Have to Bite You to be a Snake

Progressive Faith Sermons - Dr. Roger Ray ·

2022/01/30

Jung suggests that the dragon, a mythological beast common to virtually all cultures, is unconsciously an archetype that reflects human potential. After all, a dragon is a snake that can fly! Spiritual people need to rise above the situational ethics that ignores moral misconduct in others that allows them to slither more than their soar! Remember, a snake doesn't have to bite you to be a snake.

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21:36

“Trying to Create Safety”: Reflections on Restorative...

Progressive Faith Sermons - Dr. Roger Ray ·

2022/01/23

Despite the insistence on being the “land of the free,” the United States is the global leader in both total number of prisoners and per capita rate of imprisonment. The prophetic vision of proclaiming release to captives and letting the oppressed go free is a good opportunity to reflect on the vision and practices of the restorative and transformative justice movements. These approaches invite us to look more intentionally at the world we have, and then ask what kind of world we want to create.

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18:30

“Until Everyone is Safe”: Reimagining Social and...

Progressive Faith Sermons - Dr. Roger Ray ·

2022/01/16

The world as we know it has been shaped by an approach to development and success that has fueled terrible inequality, catastrophic climate change, and now, vaccine inequity. Thankfully, other approaches have been offered that help us re-think how we relate to ourselves, each other, and the earth. The development of a patent-free vaccine called Corbevax is one example of how we can reimagine society to prioritize personal and social well-being and realign our policies and institutions to create

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13:31

Ten Commandments vs the Beatitudes

Progressive Faith Sermons - Dr. Roger Ray ·

2022/01/09

Fiction author, Kurt Voneggut, once pointed out the hypocrisy of many loud conservative Christians who demanded that the Ten Commandments be displayed in public buildings and court house lawns without ever asking to have the Beatitudes publicly posted. He was certainly no theologian but he hit on a very good point. Religion that is "useful" in controlling the conduct of civil society is always going to be popular with the "law and order" crowd but the moral teachings of Jesus about love, hope,

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24:33

Sociopathy vs Spirituality

Progressive Faith Sermons - Dr. Roger Ray ·

2022/01/02

Jesus Seminar founding member, Marcus Borg, first described the message of Jesus as being “radical compassion.” Peer and fellow seminar member, Karen Armstrong, took that concept to an interfaith (or no faith) form of spirituality, saying, The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures,

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15:52

Dr. Roger Ray - Christmas Stories

Progressive Faith Sermons - Dr. Roger Ray ·

2021/12/26

Ten years ago, when I was still blond and clean shaven, I delivered this sermon in our former church building to try to give an honest and academic explanation of the birth narratives in Matthew and Luke. This year I am speaking out of state so we will re-run this video and I will be back next week to share with you the message I am delivering in South Carolina this weekend. Merry Christmas!

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26:30

Guess Who Won’t Be At Christmas Dinner

Progressive Faith Sermons - Dr. Roger Ray ·

2021/12/19

In 1971, in the early days of the “War on Drugs,” then President Nixon appointed a commission to study marijuana and to release their results and policy suggestions. More than 80 people worked for most of a year to produce a nearly 4000 page long report and even though Nixon commissioned the study, the results were that pot was no more dangerous than alcohol and they recommended that it be decriminalized and managed in the same way as alcohol in the interests of public health. The report even named

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22:51

More Than Our Trauma: Healing-Centered Social Change

Progressive Faith Sermons - Dr. Roger Ray ·

2021/12/12

A familiar image from the Advent season is leveling the mountains so that all "may walk safely." One example of this process in our own times has been the increasing emphasis on healing trauma, especially since marginalized people disproportionately experience trauma. From ACEs to trauma-informed care, to emerging approaches that are healing-centered and asset-informed, we wholeheartedly welcome resources to prevent, heal, and transform trauma. At the same time, we recognize and celebrate that we

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18:40

Open Season on Protestors? (well, except for Jan. 6...

Progressive Faith Sermons - Dr. Roger Ray ·

2021/12/05

Stephen Colbert observed that, like most of us, not being a lawyer, it is hard to judge whether 17-year-old, Kyle Rittenhouse, broke any laws when he took a semi-automatic rifle to the demonstration in Kenosha and ended up killing two demonstrators. But, if he didn’t, then the laws need to be changed. Years of progressively liberalized laws regarding open-carry and the availability of military styled weapons is a part of the fabric of a society in which a teenager, imagining himself to be a

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24:07

Giving Thanks in a Thankless World

Progressive Faith Sermons - Dr. Roger Ray ·

2021/11/28

Emiliana Simon-Thomas and Jeremy Adam Smith observed that, “Americans are very grateful and they think gratitude is important—they’re just not very good at expressing it.” In our world of constant and chronic stressors, it takes intentional effort to recognize, appreciate, and savor the good things in our lives. But when we do, we create conditions for our relationships to thrive: savoring positive experiences, expressing thanks, and receiving gratitude from others.

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27:58

The Indigenous Peoples of the Americas

Progressive Faith Sermons - Dr. Roger Ray ·

2021/11/21

As we approach our national observance of Thanksgiving, we are being asked to also give respectful reflection to the Indigenous Nations who were here thousands of years before Europeans sailed across the Atlantic in little wooden ships. Guilt for the centuries of genocide, enslavement, and pathological land theft hardly makes sense in the 21st century. What we need now is understand about how we got here and not some exercise in self-flagellation for the sins of our ancestors (though reparations

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22:31

"Almost All of the Land in the World is Claimed": The...

Progressive Faith Sermons - Dr. Roger Ray ·

2021/11/14

US borders are almost always in the news, ubiquitous even to the point of invisibility. But the abusive treatment of Haitian refugees last September, from administrative policies to violent border patrolmen on horseback, was a stark reminder of their cruelty. Political borders are real and have real impacts, but they are not objective or neutral. Their history, along with their psychosocial meanings, reflect the inequalities of colonial violence. We need to think deeply about, and act courageously,

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18:19

The Roots of Racism (Missing White Woman Syndrome)

Progressive Faith Sermons - Dr. Roger Ray ·

2021/11/07

While the disappearance of anyone is tragic, the way the media exhaustively covers the disappearance of beautiful, young, white women compared with the silence around the disappearance of tens of thousands of women of color shows more than a media bias, it reveals a self perpetuating racism in the way the public shows more concern about white victims than we do about non-white victims. The real roots of racism hide, not only in our institutions but inside our own brains and that is where we have to

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