-
·
Why Religious Freedom Acts are Code for Open Discrimination
In the last few years, we’ve seen a flurry of new bills coming out of state houses addressing religious liberty. They reveal an earnest desire to protect religious freedom. In practice, however, they serve to disenfranchise and actually restrict the religious liberty of vast numbers of people. These bills, popping up in at least 20 states, including…
-
·
When is something redefined?
When something is constantly evolving throughout history, when do we claim it is “redefined”? Do we say it every time? Of course we think of it in the big moments. When we think of marriage, we think of the current marriage equality movement, and an earlier generation’s movement toward the legal acceptance of interracial…
-
·
For Proclaiming the Gospel, Context is Everything
Between the Lectionary and the world, we’re getting hit with fireballs: the kind of truth that burns and purifies, leaving us naked and lost. I know I wasn’t the only one on Sunday, talking about Jesus in the Temple. A story often referred to as a “cleansing” of the Temple, but more to the point,…
-
·
The Problem of Proof
Having to prove a white dude hates blacks to even charge racism is like having to prove a spree killer hated his specific victims to even charge him with murder.
-
·
How to Really Celebrate Valentine’s Day
I used to hate Valentine’s Day. It’s a Hallmark holiday I’d say. It’s an excuse to buy somebody more stuff I’d say. It’s about making the women in our lives happy I’d say. I was much more cynical then. At its root, the problem I had with the way we celebrate Valentine’s Day is that it…
-
·
The Beast Doesn’t Need to Speak
It is easy for the guy on the top of the pyramid to demand that the ones at the bottom do their jobs. To him, it is irrelevant that his job is actually to carry a football and get the snot beat out of him. That the “other duties as assigned” include ridiculous press conferences full of…
-
·
Why I Love the Call Stories
Most preachers love the psalms and parables. Me, I’ll take the call stories. The stories where Jesus collects followers like I collected baseball cards and comic books. Intentionally: with respect for big names and the common ones alike. Of course the other stories are sexier. The enduring parables like The Prodigal Son(s), the Good Samaritan, the…
-
·
No Merit In a Massacre
Word that some 2,000 people were massacred this weekend in Nigeria by Boko Haram, has been slow-moving. Perhaps it is not as stunning to us to imagine Africans killed on a giant scale than a dozen Parisians. I won’t judge. Two unrelated tragedies that are both disturbing. What struck me was this quote District head Baba…