When you hear the phrase, “the Black church,” what comes to mind? Who do you think about? Maybe high-spirited songs and impassioned sermons fill your ears as you recall attending a Sunday service where the majority of people in the…
Speaking to the power of the queer experience to communicate the gospel
Perhaps the most gut-wrenching stage in the sadly predictable grief cycle following atrocities such as the one in Orlando just over a week ago, where a gunman opened fire inside a gay nightclub killing 49 and wounding 50+ more, is…
A ragged wall that looks a lot like the Church
The rocks were far from perfect. Our 30-year-old retaining wall had come tumbling down, and the stone masons were tasked with rebuilding it. They would reuse the rocks, but they’d have to shape them to fit the new design. The…
Embracing the hopelessness of Holy Saturday
Why are we in such a rush to get to Easter Sunday? In our efforts to make Easter celebrations the most extravagant Sunday of the year, when church attendance is expected to be beyond the norm, we forget — if not…
If Jesus ran for president
First of all, I want to note that I don’t think Jesus would ever run for President of the United States. It wasn’t his thing. He didn’t come as a great political Messiah, and often he seemed ambivalent to the…
My Christmas Eve epiphany
I have been driven to a startling conclusion: the God who burns with compassion for the outcast is our salvation. That simple message fueled the ministry of Jesus. Jesus’ solidarity with the poor wasn’t stressed much in the churches I…