“We don’t talk a lot about sex. There’s a lot of secretiveness. I hope that the JUSTSEX conference will get people more comfortable talking about sexuality issues and (help them) come up with good problem-solving skills.”
Voices in the Church: Suppressed or amplified?
Seldom do I read the hunting and fishing enthusiast’s “Fish and Game” column in the Madison County paper, but a recent offering on the “State of the Firearms Industry,” drew my attention. The article spoke of the firearm industry returning…
We need each other
I need you, you need me — we’re all a part of God’s body. Stand with me; agree with me — we’re all a part of God’s body. It is His will that every need be supplied. You are important…
My Christmas prayer
We were standing at the airport in Havana, Cuba, preparing to depart for our return home when our translator, Vladimir, turned to me and asked, “What is a ‘grinch’?” His look of confusion was understandable given he could find no…
Confronting white power in the Church
I did not vote for the president-elect. However, I’ve benefited from a system and a mindset that did elect him. With campaign promises to be tough on crime, deport illegal immigrants, and bring an end to Muslim religion-inspired terrorism, our…
Like a good neighbor: The U.S. and Cuba
The United States is not there — at least not in relationship to our close neighbor, Cuba. Thanks to the tenacity of the church in the U.S. committed to God’s justice and love, and to President Obama, our neighborliness is…
Make every day Earth Day
“The great lesson from the true mystics … is that the sacred is in the ordinary, that it is to be found in one’s daily life, in one’s neighbors, friends and family, in one’s back yard.” —Abraham Maslow, Religion, Values…
Like all movements, the Church is propelled by both potential energy and kinetic energy
Even the clouds appeared to be drawing their energy from the land — or so it seemed from my perspective from the passenger seat traveling the Brazilian countryside. Mile after mile revealed expansive fields of sugarcane, a source of ethanol,…
Give me your rings!
Aliança! Aliança! That’s the word the hooded young men wielding guns kept saying. How did they know that’s who we were, I wondered? We were the Aliança de Batistas do Brasil. How could these strangers know that?
Who’s filling your grocery shelves? Vulnerable workers with few protections.
Their fingerprints are on the food we consume, these men leave wives, children, parents, extended family and their communities to spend a minimum of seven months a year working in the U.S. guest worker program.
Considering the lilies and hard conversations
Their beauty is exquisite — the daylily blooms resulting from last summer’s sabbatical gardening. With coffee in hand, I journey each new day to see what surprise the garden holds. I count the blooms, marveling at their balanced symmetry, stunning…
Gun violence: An interview with Lorraine
It began as a normal day. After finishing breakfast Lorraine placed a peck on the cheek of her husband, uttered a quick “I love you,” before heading out to the grocery story to purchase milk to replenish the jug emptied…