Amid all the headlines about the Southern Baptist Convention’s stance against women in ministry last week, other actions that would have made headlines in a normal year fell from view. Two such actions came in the form of resolutions among…
In the Nashville shooting, talk of gender and mental health interrupt the conversation about guns
Confusion over the gender identity of the Nashville school shooter has allowed some commentators to flip the script and blame mental illness, not guns, for the death of three 9-year-olds and three adults at Covenant Day School last week. U.S….
650 UMC clergy and laity publish letter supporting International Transgender Day of Visibility
As their denomination splinters over sexuality and gender issues and as their state elected officials debate new restrictions on transgender citizens and their families, a group of 650 United Methodist clergy and laity published an open letter supporting International Transgender…
Misogyny is in your church too
In the movie Talladega Nights, race car driver Ricky Bobby (played by Will Ferrell), gathers his family for a celebratory meal after a big win. Quieting the people gathered around the family dinner table, Ricky offers a prayer, a special…
Amid quantum leaps of change, we’re experiencing enlightenment despair
For the past several decades, our world has experienced quantum leaps of change on its perspective of itself and the universe in greater degrees than ever before in human history, and we are reacting with whiplash anxiety. The new James…
Colorado cake maker back in court, this time for refusing service to a transgender woman
Jack Phillips went all the way to the United States Supreme Court to avoid making a cake for a same-sex wedding, and now he’s in court once again wanting to avoid decorating a cake for a gender transition celebration. Phillips,…
Of Margie, mountains and ‘El Shaddai’
I learned a lot of things in seminary, like how to perform baptisms and administer Communion, why understanding cultural context is important when reading and interpreting Scripture, and the importance of sneaking Amy Grant lyrics into almost any theological conversation….
How our view of creation and incarnation shape our view of intersex people
Every disconnection from communal wholeness goes back to a disconnection within the self, which is fundamentally experienced in bodies. So the way Christians talk about Jesus being born as a human body has the potential to shape either wholeness or…
Some words I’m working to adjust in my vocabulary this year
On New Year’s Eve, Lake Superior State University released its annual list of English-language words and phrases that should be banished in 2023 because they are overused and trite. Please don’t call this list the Greatest of All Time or…