When I was a child, my father taught me a little bit of truth can be used to camouflage a lot of falsifying. Today’s Republicans prove this every time they blame the Democratic Party for our racial divisions. Republicans like…
My experience at Baylor’s Truett Seminary
The first time I walked into Truett Seminary’s campus, I remember feeling at home. My mom and I flew across the country to visit a Baptist seminary that vocally and visibly supported women in ministry. I was a college senior…
God, save us from jackasses and fools
May Day fell on a Sunday, one year to the day after I graduated college. I already was a minister of music and youth at the local First Baptist Church. Back then, we thought it was a good idea. Folks…
How one manufactured story becomes a belief about millions
On June 23, the president of the United States stood in a Mack Trucks plant in Macungie, Pa., to give a speech about American manufacturing. Somewhere in the middle of this speech, he purposely manufactured a person. It went like…
Please stop calling me the young pastor
There is an expression I often see on Instagram. It’s attached to viral videos. A grandmother lighting a dessert soaked in highly flammable liquid. A man adding layer upon layer of tape to his face. Two women making soup with…
In praise of Ordinary Time
Ordinary Time on the church’s liturgical calendar is so named not because it has been demoted, but rather because it is ordinal or numbered. This includes the Sundays following Epiphany up to Lent, then the longer stretch from Pentecost to…
Is Theology Beer Camp right for you?
Theology Beer Camp began as an experiment in “pub theology.” A few “theology nerds” delving into deep subjects like God, the universe and the meaning of life over a few brews. Tripp Fuller, a theologian best known for his podcast,…
One idea on how to limit the wealthy from buying elections
Recently, Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire. A trillion dollars is beyond my comprehension level, but The Guardian newspaper interprets Musk’s $1.1 trillion to be more than the Gross Domestic Product of all but 21 nations. The paper further…
Not famous but eternally important
How many of you remember Phoebe? She was a deacon in the New Testament church at Cenchrea. She’s not one of the Bible’s most famous people, but she was eternally important. Not because she was a deacon but because she…
We must see faithfully before we can serve faithfully
Democracy often is discussed in the language of elections, institutions, constitutions and public policy. Scripture begins elsewhere. Before it concerns itself with governments, it concerns itself with people. Before it addresses systems, it forms character. That is why Proverbs 4…
Stop being press agents for Trump’s negativity
As a person who spends a lot of time searching for ways to create spaces for healing light to reside, I have thought about many ways in which the media world can contribute to creating a counter-narrative to the Trump…
Small things
I recently discovered the work of the Polish poet Anna Kamienska. Her work titled “Small Things” runs 30 lines, but here is enough to suggest what she is up to. It usually starts taking shape From one word Reveals itself…