To the family and friends of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and to our countless other hard-working, community-building immigrant neighbors, “In the name and Spirit of Christ our Lord, we are deeply sorry for the actions of the United States government.” A…
We ordain women because we baptize girls
“In those days,” God declares, “I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. … I will pour out my Spirit on both men and women, and they shall prophesy.” — Acts…
Letter to the Editor: When Muslims sound more like Jesus than the Christians
I live in Alabama where, apparently, a number of aspirants to political office are operating on the sad assumption that a majority of Alabama voters will reward them for being xenophobic, in general, and Islamophobic, in particular. Last week, in…
Letter to the Editor: A story for Ramadan and Lent
This year, in a somewhat rare convergence of calendars, Ramadan and Lent began on the same day — sacred seasons of prayer and devotion now wounded and scarred by missiles and bombs. That grave irony has called to mind, for…
Another letter from Birmingham
Our nation’s current campaign of intimidation against our immigrant neighbors has called to mind Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, written in April 1963 by King from a prison cell not far from where I am writing this morning…
Hanukkah shadows, Hanukkah light
Many mornings I go on a long, slow sunrise prayer walk — what the mystics call “goal-less walking” or “life lived at three miles an hour.” These days, in the neighborhood where I walk, there are a number of delightful…
What if it’s just Jesus?
If I live another few weeks, I will soon turn 70 years old. Like anyone who has lived that long, I have seen many things come and go and change, one of the most bewildering of which is the degree…
A quiet call to national repentance
Cruelty is a sin. That such a self-evident truth might need to be said out loud never had occurred to me until recently; my own nation’s current campaign of cruelty against migrating people prompting me to say what should go…
As one born among us
“When an immigrant resides with you, you shall not oppress the immigrant. The immigrant shall be to you as one who was born among you; you shall love the immigrant as yourself.” Those words from Leviticus 19:33-34 belong to…
‘Somebody get me my walking shoes’
“Speak up for the voiceless. …. Defend the rights of the poor.” Those words from Proverbs 31:8-9 are among the many in Scripture that call the people of God to a life of empathy and advocacy— a wide stream of…
Jesus, the Holy Spirit and ‘more of the same’
For the past 30 years, I have made it a practice to read the four Gospels all the way through, every word, about three or four times a year; all of which must add up to somewhere around a hundred…
Concerning diversity, equity and inclusion
“Love casts out fear,” says 1 John 4:18, concerning which the late John Claypool once observed, “As surely as love casts out fear, fear casts out love.” Fear casting out love may help explain the current national obsession with dismantling…