When it comes right down to it, Lent is all about preparing for an unjust execution. All these years later, is it possible to cross the breach from state-sponsored violence to a radical forgiveness? Is it possible to heal our culture of the notion that the solution to violence is more violence? Sr. Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking and The Death of Innocents, thinks a change of heart is possible. Join her in exploring the consequences of capital punishment in the DVD series, “Questioning Capital Punishment.”
Perfect for small group study, let Sr. Helen guide your discussion on this life and death issue.
Questioning Capital Punishment is a five session DVD study. Each video session is approximately 15 – 20 minutes and discussion questions are provided as downloadable files from the product page.
“People are worth more than the worst act of their life…” — Sr. Helen Prejean
To place an order, please click here, enter your login on the left side of the page, and click on “purchase now.” If you do not have a member account set up with LtQ, please start by setting up a member account at create an account and once your account is set up, please visit the Questioning Capital Punishment page to place your order.
Attention International Customers: This product is only available in NTSC format.
“Martin Luther King may have never made it to the promised land, but the vision of that promise inspired him to do everything he could to get there.
That vision — that promise — requires of us what it required of King: to be in solidarity with the poor, to counter the idolatry of wealth, to practice non-violence, and to seek justice and inclusivity in a culture dominated by suspicion and fear.”
From “Living the Questions:
The Wisdom of Progressive Christianity”
by David M. Felten & Jeff Procter-Murphy
“Felten and Procter-Murphy give voice to a faith that provides a profound alternative to the dominant ideology of ‘American Christianity.’ Attention should be paid!” – Walter Brueggemann, professor emeritus, Columbia Theological Seminary
We spank children to teach them not to hit one another. We sanction the killing of killers as a deterrent against killing. We advocate the arming of citizens to promote personal safety. Is it any wonder that people are being deluded into complying with a system that allies them with violence, not compassion; with death, not life?
Even our language is overwhelmed with a continual drumbeat of violence. From seemingly innocuous phrases like, “Shoot me an email” to the “war on poverty” to “He’s da bomb” and even the “Fight for Peace” are simply “to die for” in our culture.
We are a wholly compromised culture that can’t even imagine the existence of any alternatives. Why? Because violence is entertaining, exhilarating, and as Chris Hedges has argued so poignantly, it gives many of us meaning.
From “The Myth of Redemptive Violence” in
Living the Questions: The Wisdom of Progressive Christianity
“You can believe all the right things and still be a jerk. You can believe all the right things and still be miserable, still be in bondage, or still be untransformed. So, the emphasis upon belief is, I think, modern and mistaken. It’s also very divisive – once people start thinking that being a Christian is about believing the right things, then anybody’s list of what the ‘right things’ are becomes a kind of litmus test as to who’s really a good Christian and who’s not. Being a Christian is really about one’s relationship with God. And that relationship with God can go along with many different belief systems.”
Marcus Borg in “Living the Questions”
– Marcus Borg in “Living the Questions 2.0”
Marcus Borg is a world-renowned Jesus scholar, speaker, and author of numerous books, including “Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time” & “The Heart of Christianity.” He is also a contributor to a number of Living the Questions DVD programs, including “Eclipsing Empire” and “First Light.”
In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook massacre, the loudest voices seem to be focusing on curbing the availability of certain weapons and preventing unstable individuals from acquiring weapons. But Dom Crossan believes that “The most important question we have to face today really is violence.” Recalling John’s version of Jesus’ trial before Pilate, Crossan points out the way it is commonly misinterpreted: “Jesus himself says to Pilate, ‘My kingdom is not of this world.’ And if he had stopped there, [Pilate] would have said, ‘Well, he means it’s up in heaven.’ No, [Jesus] says, ‘If my kingdom was of this world, [my] guys would be in here to liberate me.’ In other words, ‘We’d use force and violence, just like you people did.’ So a kingdom not of this world is not a kingdom ‘in heaven.’ It is a kingdom here below which does not use force or violence.”
John Dominic Crossan is one of the world’s most respected Jesus scholars and author of numerous books, including “Jesus, a Revolutionary Biography” & “God and Empire: Jesus Against Rome, Then and Now.” He is featured in a number of Living the Questions programs, including “First Light” and “Eclipsing Empire.” In 2012, Crossan served as the President of the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL)
Thanks to you and who-knows-how-many other fans of LtQ, Living the Questions: The Wisdom of Progressive Christianity hit #1 on Amazon’s Theology Bestseller List on December 12, 2012! Thank you!!
It’s a “Thank You” Sale!!
50% off ALL LtQ Home Edition DVDs now through Christmas!
With Pope Benedict’s recent release of a book reflecting on the Nativity, the historicity of the Virgin Birth is yet again back in the news. It seems that Benedict is more concerned that barnyard animals are inaccurately included in most traditional Nativity scenes than the fact that insistence on a literal virgin birth is one of the reasons many thinking people leave the church.
Retired Episcopal Bishop Jack Spong sees it differently than Pope Benedict — and offers an alternative vision for interpreting the meaning behind the parable of the virgin birth. With apologies to Dr. Seuss: “Maybe Christmas, Jack thought, doesn’t come from a virgin. Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a Spirit emergin’…”.
Are you a fan, groupie, or friend of LtQ? Then here’s your chance to help spread the word about Living the Questions and Progressive Christianity! David and Jeff’s new book, “Living the Questions: The Wisdom of Progressive Christianity” is available wherever books are sold or downloaded – BUT, if we all band together and buy a copy on ONE DAY, there’s a good chance that we’ll make it into the “Bestseller” category!
So c’mon – you know you were going to buy a copy anyway. Be sure to go to Amazon.com and buy one (or twelve!) on
December 12th 2012 (that’s 12.12.12!).
Score the perfect Christmas gift for that hard-to-buy-for friend or relative! Buy a copy for the person you’ve been arguing theology with for years! Or just buy a copy!
HANG ON! DON’T ORDER TODAY – WAIT UNTIL 12/12
Everyone ordering on ONE DAY is the key!
Thank you in advance for helping David and Jeff out in this hair-brained scheme to conquer the heights of Amazon Bestsellerdom.
–and we’d greatly appreciate your help spreading the word. Many thanks!
Tragic as the downfall of CIA Director General David Petraeus might be, it’s just the symptom of a much larger problem: the “spirit of militarism.” The high rates of military divorces, suicides, and PTSD diagnoses seem to suggest that what we have asked our military to do over the last ten years has put severe strain on rank and file soldiers and their families.
The paramilitary SWAT team of the Louisiana State Police patrols post-Katrina New Orleans.
Whether or not the cracking up of the personal lives of soldiers and generals creates a practical national security challenge remains to be seen. But what is not in doubt is the spiritual question that is raised not only when the military solution seems to be perceived as the most effective choice for countries around the world, but when our whole culture becomes militarized — from our police forces to our childrens’ video games to our economy’s enslavement to the military-industrial complex.
Brian McLaren shares an incident from Jesus’ life that suggests that the “spirit of militarism” itself is the problem:
“I think of an encounter Jesus has with this fellow and he says, “What’s your name?” He calls out from him the name of what’s disturbing him. And the name he gives would be like today somebody saying, “Platoon” — because he uses a military word: Legion. So, what’s driving you crazy? What’s making you insane? “Platoon.” And so it’s this language of living in this world that’s so militarized. “This is what’s making me crazy.” And so that man is now restored to humanity from being oppressed by something inside of him, the spirit of militarism you might say.”
Jesus managed to cast out the demon that possessed the man (see Mark 5 and Luke 8). But today, the “spirit of militarism” seems all the more entrenched — and poised to not only define, but cripple our culture and our legacy.
_________________________
Brian McLaren is a pastor, emergent church leader, activist, and speaker and has been named one of the most influential Christian leaders in America. He is the author of numerous books, including Everything Must Change, A New Kind of Christianity, Naked Spirituality, and Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road? Christian Identity in a Multi-Faith World.
The McLaren quote is an excerpt from the “Living the Questions” program, “Saving Jesus,” just one of many programs designed to spark conversation in questioning the dominant pop theology of Christian orthodoxy.
In a reflection reminiscent of Emerson’s appeal to see in every fair flower a “wayside sacrament,” Philip Clayton urges the seeker to not miss the miracle of every moment:
“Do not, in your rush to find ultimate meaning and the ground of all being, neglect the transcendence that lies around you like a miracle at every moment . . . every outlook, every walk in a park is a call to horizontal transcendence.”
— Philip Clayton (from LtQ’s upcoming series on Science, Religion, and Evolutionary Spirituality)
Philip Clayton is the author of numerous books, including, Adventures in the Spirit: God, World, Divine Action (Fortress Press, 2008), In Quest of Freedom (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2009), The Predicament of Belief (Oxford 2012, with Steven Knapp), and Religion and Science: The Basics (Routledge 2012). He has served as the Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dean of Faculty, and Professor of Theology at Claremont School of Theology and is currently the Provost of Claremont Lincoln University.
Pastors David Felten and Jeff Procter-Murphy, along with the voices of top Bible scholars and church leaders—including Marcus Borg, Diana Butler Bass, John Dominic Crossan, Helen Prejean, and John Shelby Spong—provide a primer to a church movement that encourages every Christian to “live the questions” instead of “forcing the answers.”
Based on the bestselling DVD course, "Living the Questions: The Wisdom of Progressive Christianity" tackles issues of faith, dogma, and controversial subjects that many churches are afraid to address. "Living the Questions" is the most comprehensive survey of progressive Christianity in existence today.
Available at www.livingthequestions.com, through online booksellers, and as a Kindle download!
“A welcome book that is bold (without being contentious) and courageous (without needing to be triumphant), Felten and Procter-Murphy give voice to a faith that provides a profound alternative to the dominant ideology of ‘American Christianity.’ Attention should be paid!”
— WALTER BRUEGGEMANN, PROFESSOR EMERITUS, COLUMBIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
When it comes right down to it, Lent is all about preparing for an unjust execution. All these years later, is it possible to cross the breach from state-sponsored violence to a radical forgiveness? Is it possible to heal our culture of the notion that the solution to violence is more violence? Sr. Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking and The Death of Innocents, thinks a change of heart is possible. Join her in exploring the consequences of capital punishment in the DVD series, “Questioning Capital Punishment.”
John Dominic Crossan is one of the world’s most respected Jesus scholars and author of numerous books, including “Jesus, a Revolutionary Biography” & “God and Empire: Jesus Against Rome, Then and Now.” He is featured in a number of 
Living the Questions 
You must be logged in to post a comment.