A jury comprised of five white women and one Latina has acquitted George Zimmerman on all charges. This outcome was largely determined by the way we select juries in America. Imagine that two women who looked like Trayvon Martin were…
Jury selection helped Zimmerman
By Alan Bean A jury comprised of five white women and one Latina has acquitted George Zimmerman on all charges. This outcome was largely determined by the way we select juries in America. Imagine that two women who looked like…
Getting straight about that serpent-dove thing
Most readers of this blog would identify as moderate Baptists who view their more ideological brothers and sisters as well-intentioned, but misguided, extremists. Moderates are sensible mediators between extremes who eschew both conservative and liberal forms of group-think, political correctness,…
The serpent-and-the-dove thing
By Alan Bean Here’s an uncomfortable reality. Moderates will ignore an issue, no matter how pressing, if a clear majority stands in opposition, or there is considerable support on both sides. If a proposal can’t generate at least an 85…
Homeless
By Alan Bean Homeless, homeless Moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake These old Paul Simon lyrics have been running like a soundtrack through the back of my mind for the past few days. My wife and I are homeless. We…
Learning to love a thermostat God
By Alan Bean “Is organized religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world?” This question was originally scrawled in the margin of an Alabama newspaper by an exasperated Martin Luther King Jr. The…
Boston is about us
When I recovered from the initial shock and horror of the Boston Marathon bombing, I automatically switched into advocacy mode. “Please, God,” I thought, “don’t let the perpetrators turn out to be foreigners or immigrants.” I am not proud of…
Don’t blame immigrants for Boston
By Alan Bean When I recovered from the initial shock and horror of the Boston Marathon bombing, I automatically switched into advocacy mode. “Please, God,” I thought, “don’t let the perpetrators turn out to be foreigners or immigrants.” I am…
They shoot preachers, don’t they?
In his book Don’t Shoot, criminologist David Kennedy identifies a disconnect between a criminal justice system built on the notion of personal responsibility and the fact that gang bangers think and behave as members of a group. You can’t reduce…