In a nation that reveres liberty, intellect and rule of law, the latest clash between Donald J. Trump and Harvard University is not just a headline, it’s a high-stakes constitutional confrontation. And in this second round, the gloves are off….
Evangelical Trump Hypocrisy Syndrome strikes again
Imagine former President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, posting a social media meme riffing off The Blues Brothers movie and declaring he’s “on a mission from God.” Conservatives would have lost their ever-loving minds. This would have been further evidence…
A vessel for whom? How I learned self-hatred and neglect at church
Conservative legislator Sen. Mike Lee of Utah has introduced the Interstate Obscenity Definition Act that, in part, would ban pornography in the United States. As conservatives push more restrictions, we have to question: Who actually benefits from a culture that…
The lies my country taught me
When I was 12 years old, growing up in the 1950s, I gathered every Saturday with hundreds of kids my age at the downtown theater in my West Texas town where the silver screen fed us lies that passed for…
Children in the marketplace
Jesus said it: But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not…
The Episcopal Church refuses to help Trump Make Apartheid Great Again
On Wednesday, May 21, President Donald Trump once again sullied the presidency and our nation’s reputation by ambushing South African President Cyril Ramaphosa with a made-for-social-media propaganda stunt that was peppered with lies and misleading video about an alleged white…
Love led me out of the closet
There are thousands of young LGBTQ Christians across the country sitting in church pews, overwhelmed by anxiety and shame. Each week, they hear sermons suggesting their identity —something they did not choose and cannot change — is a barrier to…
Nazi ideology wrapped in an American flag
Sinclair Lewis is quoted as saying, “When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” He wrote his novels in the 1930s, the time of the first “America First” movement when our nation…
Get out of the echo chamber and hold to hope and courage
The echo chamber sends unending messages each day about the onslaught of the evil that is walking the national leadership halls surrounded by an aura of being unstoppable. It is maddening. I am sure I am not alone in being…
Ironing a distorted funhouse mirror: Healing cognitively driven depression
At the campus counseling center, I had promised my therapist, Chrissy, that, unlike previous forays into counseling, I would be completely honest. In a previous article on dealing with depression, I described how being honest with a college student convinced…
May 13, 1985: Philadelphia’s Fire Still Burns
Forty years ago, on May 13, 1985, a tragedy unfolded in the Cobbs Creek section of West Philadelphia that would forever scar the conscience of a city and shock the world. On that day, the Philadelphia Police Department — under…
The irony of white supremacy
We have no record of Jesus ever interacting with someone who looks like me. He and all those around him were people of color. But I come from Northern European heritage. By racial identification, I am classified as white/Caucasian. In…