Lament should be the order of the day. Yesterday, we began Black History Month with bomb threats made against at least 13 historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) throughout the country. Unfortunately, that these threats coincide with the beginning of…
Helping when it costs you something: A love lesson from the ditch
As an educator, I am captivated by the conversation between Jesus and a lawyer described in Luke 10:25-37. The expert in civil and religious law asked how he could inherit eternal life, which he could answer by quoting a command…
Want to understand Critical Race Theory? Read the Good Samaritan story
This is the third in a series of opinion columns to be published over the next three weeks exploring Critical Race Theory. Critical Race Theory grew out of the work of legal scholars of color who recognized how racism was structured…
Loving your global neighbor
This week, the United Nations marks Human Rights Day. But it won’t be much of a celebration, as a pandemic of persecution impacts billions of people around the world. In response, Christians should stand up and meet this challenge, speaking…
Your friendly neighbor epidemiologist has an important message for you
Your friendly neighbor epidemiologist wants you to know that when it comes to understanding COVID-19, faith and science do not have to be in conflict. “Friendly neighbor epidemiologist” is the title Emily Smith has given to a Facebook page and…
Churches need more of Mr. Rogers’s theology of neighborliness
Mr. Rogers’s lessons on neighborliness articulate a theology for Christians living in a culture seemingly devoid of neighborliness and for churches struggling to survive in a world of declining religious participation.
A pastoral dilemma about art and nudity: embodied faith and raising children in the church
Oh, the dilemmas of pastoral ministry. Here I sit, looking at a beautiful piece of art for Sunday’s order of worship, trying to determine whether to cover the nakedness of the man helped by the Good Samaritan.
Our disaster-relief success hasn’t moved the needle in addressing poverty. We need to ask why
Because churches and faith-based organizations do disaster relief so well, we assume what works for communities recovering from a fire will be what works for a family experiencing food insecurity or poverty. Most victims of poverty suffer because of systems designed to help some people thrive at the expense of others’ languishing.
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…