Tom Ehrich
5 ways churches can help stop the Ebola hysteria (COMMENTARY)
By Tom Ehrich — October 21, 2014
(RNS) God isn't causing Ebola to spread through western Africa as some sort of punishment for the people there, or to come to these shores as some punishment of us. Diseases happen.
COMMENTARY: Scapegoats along the border
By Tom Ehrich — July 22, 2014
(RNS) It isn't Mexican immigrants who caused sea changes in the American workplace. It wasn't Hondurans or Guatemalans who sucked the life out of American communities. Gun-toting "patriots" shouting hatred at refugee children are spewing venom at the wrong target.
COMMENTARY: Sex and the never-ending Christian adolescence
By Tom Ehrich — April 1, 2014
(RNS) I don't know any adult who would willingly repeat adolescence, yet here we are treating our faith as an endless adolescence centered around sex.
COMMENTARY: Rallying the troops with self-righteous fury
By Tom Ehrich — February 18, 2014
(RNS) Nothing rallies the troops better than self-righteous fury. Tell those who are indeed being victimized that they are under assault by a vulnerable minority, turn attention away from those actually gunning for their money and freedom, and create a scapegoat.
COMMENTARY: What shopping malls can learn from churches
By Tom Ehrich — February 4, 2014
SAN MATEO, Calif. (RNS) Having tried hard in several churches to raise funds for legacy expenses, I know it's a tough sell, and getting tougher. And it should be a tough sell. Churches had no business building facilities they could barely afford to construct.
COMMENTARY: Winning and whining are insufferable
By Tom Ehrich — January 27, 2014
(RNS) Class war isn't a resentment of success. It is a reaction against stealing, unearned privilege and arrogance.
COMMENTARY: Where are the referees?
By Tom Ehrich — January 21, 2014
(RNS) We are living, for now at least, in a "Wild West" of gerrymandered voting districts, unfairly enforced laws, corrupt arbiters, and the rich getting richer by buying and tilting basic systems like courts of law and media coverage.
COMMENTARY: Chris Christie and our self-absorbed culture of irresponsibility
By Tom Ehrich — January 13, 2014
NEW YORK (RNS) During a two-hour apologia, Chris Christie talked mostly about himself and how his feelings were hurt by this story of political vengeance. This is what our national epidemic of narcissism looks like.
COMMENTARY: Sunday mornings are broken
By Tom Ehrich — November 19, 2013
(RNS) Church-as-Sunday-morning isn’t working; it probably never worked as much as we wanted. It certainly isn’t what Jesus envisioned. Christians were to share a common life and pray “unceasingly,” not gather occasionally for worship in a large, walled-off space.
COMMENTARY: Drunk with power with nobody to stop them
By Tom Ehrich — November 5, 2013
(RNS) Self-centeredness is nothing new, of course. But for a time, ideals of community and shared sacrifice seemed to hold self-centeredness in check. Many of us think our nation is still playing by ethical rules that restrained an essential selfishness. Not so.
COMMENTARY: Old habits die hard
By Tom Ehrich — October 8, 2013
(RNS) Old ideas just need to be abandoned and something fresh and responsive allowed to emerge. Old ideas always benefit someone, and those someones tend to push back to protect their benefits. But that self-protective push-back isn’t a viable strategy.
COMMENTARY: Who elected these clowns?
By Tom Ehrich — September 30, 2013
SAN MATEO, Calif. (RNS) The politicians in Washington who are maneuvering for a federal shutdown should come to Central Park on El Camino Real where real people live, love and value each other instead of trying to tear down the government.
COMMENTARY: Stepping in when politicians step aside
By Tom Ehrich — September 24, 2013
POLAND, Ohio (RNS) Destructive elements in Congress might yet succeed in shutting down the government. But they won't cripple an emerging fervor among the faithful to bind up the nation's wounds.
COMMENTARY: The day the buzz died
By Tom Ehrich — September 17, 2013
NEW YORK (RNS) I walk past Best Buy on Fifth Avenue and feel no urge to go inside. Same with the Apple store. I'm just not wowed anymore, and it's the same lesson that churches are painfully learning.
COMMENTARY: The shameful politics of scorn
By Tom Ehrich — September 3, 2013
(RNS) We should be acknowledging the fundamental reality that we are "all in this together," that everything we do has impact on someone else. Instead, we deny the impacts of our behavior.
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