On April 12, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested in Birmingham, Ala., for leading a nonviolent demonstration for human rights. While he was being detained, he was given a newspaper that contained a statement written by eight white preachers….
Christian America’s betrayal of the kingdom of God
The storming of the American Capitol on Jan. 6 — with its profusion of Bibles, crosses and other Christian symbols — placed a gigantic exclamation point on the unease American Christians always have felt with the First Amendment to the…
The importance of natural capital for the rural church
Back in May 2020 as the boredom of the pandemic was settling in, Brian called his friend Jeff who owns a bicycle shop. Brian asked Jeff what he had for him, an infrequent cyclist to date, but looking to take…
A real-life story of the power of kindness to overcome differences
One of the most unfortunate consequences of the political disagreements that plague our country is the broken relationships — the suspicion, judgment and even hatred — that now fester between many former friends and acquaintances who believe differently. Some have…
A reflection on Amanda Gorman’s inaugural poem
The inauguration of Joe Biden as 46th president of the United States was a splendid event, despite the confinement of the pandemic. And for many of us it was a finely orchestrated ceremony that lifted our spirits only days after…
No ifs, ands or butts: Binary thinking makes the Christian life hard to wear
Binary thinking is the butt crack of the body of Christ. Yes, I’m being cheeky, but the reality is that our Christian faith gets sucked into the bottom half of a sagging belief system sort of like when a person…
Why Christians should support the Equal Rights Amendment
Editor’s note: On Jan. 21, U.S. Representative Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) introduced a resolution in Congress to certify the Equal Rights Amendment. As of last January, the required 38 states have ratified the ERA, but the Trump administration blocked certification of…
A prescription for healing the American church
I’ve been to my share of doctors. Many of those visits happened when I was so young that they have no conscience in my adult brain. My earliest memories were of Dr. Matchett, an orthopedic surgeon who was assigned the…
‘This Land Is Your Land’ sounds different as an adult today
The music of elementary school never left me. I remember the tinkering incoherence of band instruments, high whistles of the recorder, the school piano at assemblies. But most vividly, I remember the hum of children stirring when my grade six…
Amid the hypocrisy of critiquing ‘unity,’ maybe we need a different goal: Cooperation
We need to debunk the argument that achieving “unity” means everyone will get their way. That’s not logically possible. This fallacious thinking is emerging as a primary conservative critique of the new administration in Washington, D.C. And once again, it…
Think you understand what it’s like to live on minimum wage? Here’s my story
Two weeks before I got married, I lost my job delivering pizzas because I had gotten three tickets for minor traffic violations over the previous two years. So when we got back from our honeymoon, I landed a job working…
‘God bless white America’: Why we need to overturn white racial mythologies
On June 17, 2015, a young white stranger walked into a Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. (sometimes known as “Mother Emanuel” because of its role as one of America’s most historic Black churches). That…