Bil Aulenbach Someone recently asked why I think so differently about Christianity than other pastors. I responded that “I attended a progressive Episcopal seminary in Berkeley, California, whose basic teaching philosophy was religious literacy.” “What do you mean by religious literacy?” Let’s start with the word literal. It can be confusing. A literal person is someone who … Read more
One of the most depressing images in my ninety-four years of life is watching the illegal, immoral, and uncontrollable goon squads of ICE, masked and armed to the teeth, chase and take down people they consider immigrants, primarily because of the color of their skin or the place where they work. Every time I see … Read more
The lectionary for the fourth Sunday after Advent (December 21, 2025) included reading the story of King Herod ordering the death of two thousand male Jewish babies aged two and under in retaliation for the Wise Men not telling him where Jesus, “the newborn King of the Jews,” was living (Matthew 2:1–22). I have heard … Read more
The last time I saw my friend Brad Allen was on Friday, October 10, 1958, at around 2:30 p.m. on a beautiful fall afternoon in Berkeley, California. We were both second-year seminarians at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, riding our motorcycles to Tilden Park in the Berkeley hills to play a friendly game … Read more
I take the following as given: Jesus was totally human. Jesus was born a Jew, lived his life as a Jew, and died a Jew. He had nothing to do with Christianity. He was Jewish! The Jewish religious group Jesus started, Followers of the Way, was just one of over twenty Jewish denominations. Jesus spoke … Read more
(This is the second in my series of ten misconceptions in Christianity today. This post suggests that the institutional church thinks it knows who Jesus was. They don’t!) If I were to ask a pastor who Jesus was, I would receive a wide variety of answers. I would be told that he’s God or the … Read more
The Christians is a play by Lucas Hnath, presented by The Wayward Artist and first performed in 2015. It ran at Irvine United Congregational Church November 14–23, 2025. The production starred five actors who played the parts of Pastor Paul (who oversees a megachurch), his wife, his associate pastor, a church elder, and a young … Read more
Is there a God? A quick facetious answer: yes, there are millions of them, all inside people’s minds. The most popular one resembles Santa Claus. If you’re good (do what the church tells you to do), you’ll receive presents and go to heaven. If you are bad, you’ll find coal in your stocking and go … Read more
I was a White boy raised in a predominantly Black neighborhood. It was segregated, but no one ever used that word. Black people attended their Black church, school, etc. I went to my White church, school, etc. To avoid confronting racial issues, my parents sent me to a boys’ prep school that was all White … Read more
A few weeks ago, I posted about someone’s ten misconceptions regarding the church today. I felt the author lived in a dark closet and was out of touch with the real world, so I responded with my own blog post about them. I then decided to create my own list of ten misconceptions, which will … Read more