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…
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…
Paved A Way: Why we need to relearn the history of infrastructure
“You rarely change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” —Buckminster Fuller Learning to tie your shoes in a new knot is really difficult. We spend years learning…
The one thing that unites the world’s religions
The world’s religions intrigue me. This fascination is a benefit of my having lived on the island of Java for a quarter century, immersed in a culture enriched by religious pluralism. My appreciation for religious difference also is tied to…
The rest we must have
My 9-year-old son has formally declared sleep his nemesis. “It’s so boring,” he complains. “I have too much I want to do.” He is, and always has been, wide awake and ready to play or create by 5:00 a.m. He…