Americans love greatness. We love great wealth, great success, great possessions, great entertainers, great CEOs, great athletes. I’m old enough to remember when Muhammad Ali declared, “I am the greatest.” And in the world of boxing, he likely was. We…
We can’t let political violence be used to silence concerns about rising political violence
On the flight home from our family vacation on Saturday, my phone lit up with messages about the horrific and thankfully unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Donald Trump at his rally in rural Pennsylvania. In the wake of that awful event,…
The kids are not all right
A 20-year old tried to assassinate a presidential candidate this weekend. Now I know that, technically, we consider 20-year-olds adults. But I teach 20-year-olds. I know they’re still somewhere between childhood and adulthood, their brains not yet fully formed. But…
Politics, faith and mission: A conversation with Grace Ji-Sun Kim
Grace Ji-Sun Kim is professor of theology at Earlham School of Religion, host of the Madang Podcast, an ordained pastor in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and a prolific and much-respected author and public theologian. Her most recent book is When…
Don’t blame ‘the media’ for reporting your own violent language
Boston Globe reporter James Pindell stood in front of the press riser in the 91-degree heat as the gun smoke settled and Donald Trump rose up with blood running down his cheek, pumped his fist, and yelled, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”…
Let’s not return to the political violence of the past
I am a child of the 1950s, ’60s, ’70s and an early adult in the ’80s. Over those decades geopolitics were complicated by the Korean War and then Vietnam. The simmering Cold War heightened anxiety and demanded political and military…
Trump needs to be stopped with ballots, not bullets
The attempted assassination of Donald Trump is an attack on American democracy. Which is pathetically ironic because Trump himself remains an attack on American democracy. We must denounce the would-be assassin while reminding the nation that making Trump a victim…
Do I belong here? A first timer reflects on the CBF General Assembly
As a first timer to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly, I was new to name tag ribbons. After checking in, I paused with my name tag at the table strewn with colors, examining the various identities like “Chaplain,” “El Familia” and…
Maybe we are the sharks
We fear shark attacks despite being far, far more likely to die in a car wreck while driving to the beach than being bit by a shark once at the beach. Shark attacks make the national news precisely because they…