It is the day after the election, and we’re waiting. Once again, we’re waiting. But waiting is not new to women. I imagine what it would have been like for Mary Magdalene and the other women who waited a day…
Emotional contagion begins with church leadership
Emotions are not our faith. Our faith is our faith. Yet, emotions are powerful forces in faith communities, especially in one whose primary metaphor is “body.” We are at our best when we are one body, the body of Christ,…
3 ways money poisons politics and 3 ways to address the problem
Money has poisoned the well of democracy in the United States. How, you might ask? In several ways. First, as the Scripture tells us, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager…
‘The Critique’ versus ‘The Heroic Narrative’ defines the debate in America today
In 2015, 37% of Republican voters told pollsters that “colleges have a negative effect on the United States.” By 2019, 59% of Republicans said they believed that. Among non-white voters, educational level had no effect on political preference in the…
My cancer journey: ‘May the peace of God swaddle your world’
In her poem “The Fourth Sign of the Zodiac,” Mary Oliver observes that the fox and the snake move silently in the woods. And then she asks why we should be surprised that cancer could silently enter the forest of…
Why I’m quitting church: I’ve got better things to do than watch my pastor be run off over race
World Series. Halloween. Time Change. Full Moon. Election. COVID. And for me: Goodbye Church. I love my church here in Georgia and my ministers, my Sunday school class, and the friends I have made. But today, I resolved to put…
Elections have consequences, and now my marriage may be at stake
Raise your hand if the U.S. Supreme Court decided whether or not you could marry. I see you, folks in interracial marriages and you queer folks. Now raise your hand if justices on the current Supreme Court want to invalidate…
The Beatitudes for 2020
Listen now, for this is the way of the world: Blessed are the rich, for they can buy the earth. Blessed are the powerful, for they will control the people. Blessed are the war makers, for they will conquer the…
Happy Halloween, but this year I don’t need anything else to fear
I’ve always hated Halloween. I didn’t like it as a kid. The creepy faces, the scary clowns. It was all too unnerving. That didn’t change when I became an adult. The Halloween after my college graduation, sitting at the desk…
Protestants helped create the death of expertise but also can help reclaim it
“Go to seminary, but don’t let them teach you anything.” That’s what I remember from my conversation with my beloved Southern Baptist pastor when, about to graduate from college, I told him I was heading to seminary. I don’t remember…
Prescription for a divided nation: Love and forgiveness
It didn’t surprise me in recent weeks to read articles like the essay Gene Weingarten wrote for the Washington Post in which he lamented the fact that “I find myself profoundly disliking and disrespecting almost half of my countrymen and…
Your gospel is too small
September 11, 2001. Although post-graduate theological diplomas decorated my book-stuffed office and 40 years of pastoral ministry were under my belt, I was speechless that Tuesday morning when hijacked airplanes demolished more than national icons. What was I to say…