With the morning sun wrapping rays around the two windows in the bedroom, causing a pale light to creep steadily in from their edges, my oldest child rustles the bedsheets. It’s like she can feel the idea of warmth, the…
Troubling the water, a gospel for the ‘unmet’
These days, I can’t get this Gospel text out of my head: Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many ill, blind, lame, and paralyzed people. One man was…
What has happened to suspended UMC Latina bishop?
March 8 marked a year since Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño, leader of the Sacramento, Calif., Area of the United Methodist Church, was suspended after complaints were brought against her. Her yearlong suspension is unprecedented in United Methodist history. Observers have…
When we can’t hear our children’s cries
I still can see the face of the distraught mother who came to me after I had preached at a church in Nebraska. She approached me tentatively; I noticed her, but as I was signing books. I thought maybe she…
How I realized I had been shaped by patriarchal views of pastors
When I read Victoria Robb Powers’ story describing the confusion she felt when she encountered a Baptist female senior pastor for the first time, I recalled two similarly disorienting experiences. One incident was completely understandable, in light of my Southern…
My home state is no longer safe for my family
My family and I are refugees in our own country. I’m just trying to be a good parent and love my kids, but the state that always has been my home no longer is a safe place for me and…
Saying the quiet part out loud
Isn’t it eye-opening when people say the quiet parts out loud? When they do, you learn what they really think. That was the case last month when a Republican lawmaker from Alaska attended a House Judiciary Committee meeting where representatives…
Tennessee representative who proposed execution by ‘hanging by a tree’ needs a history lesson
There’s more than the usual political craziness attached to the recent remark by Tennessee Rep. Paul Sherrell to bring back “hanging by a tree” as an amendment to a firing squad bill. There’s a denial of horrible history. This is…
Letter to the Editor: Call out leaders’ bad behavior
Letter to the Editor March 13, 2023 Dear Editor: In her book, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, New York Times bestselling author Anne Lamott writes: “You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted…
Three years ago today, our world changed
Three years ago today, when the pandemic hit, I was barely shy of nine months pregnant. We knew our daughter, George, would be born with Turner Syndrome. She faced open heart surgery at a day old in April 2020, a…
Sometimes it’s not a good idea to quote the Bible
Just because you’re quoting the Bible doesn’t mean you’re not embracing racism. That’s a lesson Coach Mark Adams of Texas Tech University learned the hard way last week. While the comments that got him fired were discouraging and inappropriate, what’s…
Shelter from the storm: The Asbury revival as Woodstock 2.0
The Baptist church of my youth didn’t have a revival until we called a Southern Baptist pastor from Texas. Then we had a revival whether we liked it or not. I walked the aisle on the final night. At 20…