This year - today - I am repenting of my dependence on fossil fuels.

Hope unbelieved is always considered nonsense. But hope believed is history in the process of being changed.

Spirituality becomes a commodity to be bought and sold. So spirituality has to be disciplined by social justice.

Faith can cut in so many ways. If you're penitent and not triumphal, it can move us to repentance and accountability and help us reach for something higher than ourselves. That can be a powerful thing, a thing that moves us beyond politics as usual, like Martin Luther King did. But when it's designed to certify our righteousness - that can be a dangerous thing. Then it pushes self criticism aside. There's no reflection.

The people who have more money and goods than any people in the history of the world spend most of their time worrying about not having enough.

Faith reminds us that change is always possible.

I think it's a good thing for a president or political leaders to want to put their values or their faith into action. Desmond Tutu did that in South Africa. Martin Luther King Jr. did that here. This is a good thing.