Many years ago, when my church went through the United Church of Christ’s Open and Affirming process to declare ourselves welcoming and affirming of LGBTQ people, someone in the congregation asked why we needed to make a public declaration. Of…
A meditation on death
My sister-in-law Faye died this weekend after a long and debilitating chronic illness. Not surprisingly, her husband of 60-plus years wondered why God allowed her to suffer. I don’t think God did. I don’t think God causes, allows or wills…
Struggling to believe
I’m struggling to believe. Not in God. Not in Jesus. But in the church. I’m wondering if we’ve gotten it all wrong, the songs and sermons, altar calls and Bible studies, missionaries and seminaries. You see, I’m finding little evidence…
What the SBC can learn from NCAA women’s basketball
In case you’ve missed it, we’re in the midst of March Madness. For only the second year, the women’s NCAA basketball tournament can use that moniker too. It had been the exclusive property of the men’s tournament for all the…
Lessons from a Hindu wedding: What if the point of evangelism is friendship?
I just got back from my third trip to Tamil Nadu, India. My academic program has a decade-long collaboration with two schools there, and their faculty have traveled to Oregon three times for shared projects. Over the years, I’ve built…
“What’s the one book I should read on anti-racism?’
I gave a talk for the Alliance of Baptists’ educational emphasis on anti-racism not long ago. Someone in the audience asked me to choose the one book I thought they should read. Immediately, I said, “Audre Lorde’s Sister Outsider.” When…
My love-hate relationship with football
This photo from 1964 tells you a lot about me. I had just turned 4 years old. You see how my mother has me dressed. We’re visiting my dad’s sister. My boy cousins had gotten football helmets for Christmas, and…
Celebrating Christmas with extravagant joy
A few years back, Catherine bought me a T-shirt that says, “In a world of Grinches, be a Griswold!” I love Christmas. I am a Griswold. I go all out with decorations, both outside and inside. I just put up…
If you want to offer thoughts and prayers after the latest massacre at a queer club, do so with your actions
Five people were killed and at least 25 injured when a young man walked into a queer bar in Colorado Springs and started shooting. We don’t need any more “thoughts and prayers” after these acts of violence. I’m not saying don’t…
The abusers in the pews
My abuser wasn’t a pastor. Still, he was a “good Christian man” by all appearances. He went to church every Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night. No one would have suspected a thing, and I wasn’t talking. Lately, we’ve…
Why can’t churches get handling abuse right?
Yet another evangelical megachurch is repenting for mishandling clergy sex abuse. Every few days, it seems, we’re hearing about a different instance of a pastor or church leader who has abused women and/or children and a church (or denomination) that…
How Miss Marple and British crime fiction help us explore mysteries of the soul
“Jane Marple. Look at her well. I tell you, that woman knows more about the different kinds of human wickedness than anyone I’ve ever known,” says a character in an Agatha Christie story. In another story, Miss Marple explains, “Human…