This year’s Academy Awards ceremonies made me think about some of the best attributes of church. I cried several times unexpectedly, but that’s just one of the parallels with church. What really got my attention was the personal tributes given…
On interdepencence
On this International Day of Women and Inclusivity, I am inspired by an image that first came to me on Facebook. A pastor/priest is presiding at Communion, standing at the table with her infant child on her back in a…
Confessions of a white preacher
Two stories. Two young men. One white. One black. It was a number of years ago now. I was a pastor in the suburbs of Washington, in a multiethnic congregation of people from the very poor to the quite wealthy….
Ukrainian Baptists should be shocked that Baptists in America are abandoning them
I don’t understand why Speaker Mike Johnson, by all accounts a committed Baptist, is abandoning the Baptists of Bucha, Ukraine. We all remember Bucha as the city where, two years ago, Russian invaders raped, tortured and murdered. I also remember…
Searching for Grace: First Sunday
This is the second of a five-part fictional story set in the early 1990s about Paul Graham and his congregation, Grace United Church of Christ. In Part 1, Paul made the difficult but necessary decision to leave the Southern Baptist…
How does a pastor survive a 59% vote of confidence?
Life moved on, and somehow I missed that two weeks ago the deacons of Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock, Ark., finally took a vote of confidence in Pastor Steven Smith. According to published reports, 59% of those voting supported…
Would today’s Christian nationalists exile Roger Williams — again?
In October 1635, five years after arriving in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Puritan Separatist minister Roger Williams was brought before the colony’s General Court, charged with insisting that magistrates stay out of church affairs; that Native Americans were the real…
Divorce, double standards and debates on same-sex marriage
One of the most helpful books I read while wrestling with the topic of same-sex marriage was a book on divorce. As a gay Christian trying to discern whether Scripture might allow for the possibility of same-sex relationships, I wanted…
Politics, faith and mission: A conversation with Winnie Varghese
Winnie Varghese is an essential voice in the Episcopal Church on issues of race and justice. A fellow Texan, she is the daughter of Indian immigrants. I first met Winnie during her time as priest for ministry and program coordination…