Howard Thurman posed a foundational question: “What do we say to the people who stand with their backs against the wall?” The question arose from a pivotal encounter with a Buddhist monk who challenged Thurman to justify his commitment to…
Realistic thoughts on hope
I am an election nerd. I love studying polls and following the ins and outs of campaign trail news. Being just such an election nerd has put me in the vicinity of hope over the last few months. That’s because…
Re-forming our consciences?
On October 31, 1517, Augustinian monk and university professor Martin Luther released his Ninety-five Theses, calling into question the church’s selling of indulgences, papally authorized documents that granted the bearer or the bearer’s dead relatives relief from eons in Purgatory….
Preparing for Election Day
With Election Day just around the corner, Americans are once again being inundated with political advertisements, campaign promises and an endless stream of commentary about the state of our nation. While we may disagree about the candidates, the issues and…
The heretic in the mirror: Josh Howerton’s Bible problem
Josh Howerton has made it big business to lampoon fellow Christians he believes are heretics. He mocks beliefs different from his own. He equates his own interpretations of the Bible as God’s word while he shows a shocking level of…
Rest in love, Dolores Huerta
America lost more than a labor leader today. We lost a moral giant, a fearless organizer and one of the most influential Latina women of the 20th and 21st centuries. Dolores Clara Fernández Huerta died at her Bakersfield, Calif., home…
What patriarchy asks of men who oppose it
A Guardian column written by V (formerly Eve Ensler) has been circulating among friends. Her criticism of our nation’s patriarchy, which she calls “psychopatriarchy,” struck a chord. Recognizing the horror and anguish that women (as well as men) in my…
Whose Christian values?
Last week, I attended a conference on rural poverty. It was the annual meeting of Together for Hope, a coalition of nonprofits scattered from the North Carolina coast west to the Four Corners region and from Northern Minnesota to the…
Were 102,000 football fans really praying to Jesus?
An angry face ranted to me after a Sunday morning worship at the church I served between 1994 and 2002 in Knoxville, Tenn. He was railing about a mutual friend who led a student ministry at the University of Tennessee…
Zach Lambert is a better model to follow than Jack Graham or Josh Howerton
If indeed the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist, his next best trick was convincing the church to follow something other than Jesus. As evidence, look no further than the stranglehold white Christian…
Naïve Catholic bishops wandering the Oval Office
The easily predictable hullaballoo over 12 Roman Catholic bishops being videoed and photographed with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on the cusp of a historic election continues to build steam. Some of the bishops have formally apologized and…
Somebody mailed Texas a ghost story before Halloween
Saturday is Halloween. My kids will be out. They aren’t my kids by birth. They’re a group of young queer and trans adults I mentor. Some of them will be at parties Saturday night. Some of them will be on…