The holidays may be winding down, but for some LGBTQ youth, year-end celebrations mark the beginning of a very different season: experiencing homelessness. According to Marian Edmonds-Allen, executive director of Parity NYC, a faith-based organization focused on healing divisions between…
Diaspora communities improve lives in Africa with remittances, but sometimes that comes at great personal cost
In this season of giving, some African expatriates are weary of being asked for financial assistance from people who assume they’ve got money to spare. One such person is Asisat Oshoala, a Nigerian soccer star based in Barcelona, Spain. In…
Even on January 6, family was important to Mike Pence
Family is so important to Mike Pence that his wife and daughter were by his side the entire day of January 6, as insurrectionists sought to take his life at the U.S. Capitol. “Not very many people know my wife,…
What are you wearing to Thanksgiving dinner this year?
You’ve heard of Hot Girl Summer. You’ve heard of Christian Girl Autumn. Tis the season for the Thanksgiving Outfit. Back in 2016, as many American women remember well, the brown button-up skirt made its way across stores and into our…
November 22, 1963, took my life in a new direction
November 22, 1963, was a Friday. It began normally. I was a junior at Tallulah High School in Tallulah, Louisiana. After lunch that day we were scheduled to attend an assembly in the gymnasium. Between lunch and the assembly word…
Study finds Americans’ understanding of ‘family’ is changing
What does the idea of “family” mean anymore? According to a new national research, Americans’ ideas of marriage and family are changing and people have mixed feelings about how that will affect the future. Pew Research Center released a new…
‘Nobody wants to be an addict’
During a recent Spirituality in Recovery group at Costello House, a recovery living ministry for men, I asked residents if they would be willing to answer a few questions about their experiences with addiction and recovery. September is National Recovery…
Now I know my grandmother was a person, not just an event
Note: This article includes graphic descriptions of suicide. In my life, she wasn’t a person. She was an event. My mother’s mother ended her own life with a shotgun blow to the head. It’s a conversation stopper if there ever…
The sacrament of the Southern summer shore
Growing up in a doubly landlocked state, we were lake people. When my sixth grade Girl Scout troop went to Savannah and Tybee Island, many of the girls never had seen the ocean before. Instead of beach trips, people would…