In the aftermath of the presidential election, the “N” word (a vicious reference to African-American human beings) is making a public comeback. In a Nov. 14 essay, the online journal, Fusion, documented multiple N-word postings, many related to schools, including…
Love, resistance, and the trouble ahead
She looked like hell when I answered the door. The sun was not yet fully up and a lady was knocking already. This day was not to be one for the normal rules of politeness. All the rules had been…
The election seen from an Arizona slot canyon
This opinion piece was also delivered as a sermon at the historic Madison Avenue Baptist Church in New York City on Nov. 13, 2016. Recently, my husband and I were in Arizona and Utah. We love that area of the…
Building the muscles of a posture of grace
I have terrible pain in my neck. On the right side, just under the skull. I can point right to it. It’s always in the same place. It can make normal activities like sleeping and driving almost torturous at times….
In the wake of Trump’s election, a meeting in the Ladies’ Room
Okay, ladies. Huddle up. We’re having this meeting in the Ladies’ Room because we have a serious problem that can no longer be ignored. You don’t have to be even all that in touch with world events to know that…
The great white backlash continues
Hatred has won. Violence is the new means of communication. We have gone from a political correctness which masked racism and ethnic discrimination to a full blown demonstration of revenge for the years in which people of color strived to…
Church in the Age of Trump
Depending on who you talk to, last Wednesday morning we either woke up to a different world or we woke up to a depressingly predictable one. While none of the pollsters or aggregators really saw the results of this election…
Don’t blame Trump for your bad behavior
Kids don’t show up at school and suddenly say racist things to their classmates because of who won a presidential election; most often they repeat what they’ve heard at home. College students don’t suddenly start yelling racial epithets on a…
But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’
Shock. Outrage. Fear. Despair. Confusion. Disappointment. All of these emotions and more are certainly justifiable for those of us who advocate a progressive understanding of the gospel story. On Tuesday, we were quite certain that we would be helping elect…
Believing what we’ve preached, post-election
For the past two weeks, I’ve crafted my sermons in light of the election that was coming. I engaged the themes raised by the lectionary texts of the day to deal with the difficulty of an election season that put…
For the church, a call to be bold
The mood was incredible. I was gathered with my closest friends in the world. These were the same people I had spent 2008 with, the same people who came to my wedding earlier this year, and the same people who…
Dwelling in silence: the future of noise
I have to admit that I am a headphone snob with a portfolio of devices. There’s my Bose noise canceling set for lawn mowing and air travel. The in-ear set for motorcycling. The Beats wireless for exercise. If you have…