By David Gushee Follow David:@dpgushee American life offers us very few heroes today. Certainly there are few people that everyone admires. Instead, our semi-heroes come in shades of red and blue, like the rest of our public life. Martin…
‘Selma’ reveals a Martin Luther King who struggled with both the system and himself
There are few movies that should be required viewing. Most movies are merely candy we consume quickly and forget. But there comes a time when a movie rises above those confectionary tomes and becomes something much more. Selma is such…
What would King say about Ferguson?
Fifty years ago today, on Dec. 10, 1964, Martin Luther King, Jr., was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He was 35 years old, and at the time was the youngest person ever to be given the Peace Prize, which was…
Chaos or community: Which way?
By Ken Sehested – Chaos or community: Which way?
In church on Saturday
By Gary Cook In Sue Monk Kidd’s remarkable book, The Invention of Wings, a fictional account of real people caught up in the 19th-century drama of slavery and the abolitionist movement, there is an encounter between Sarah Grimke, who became…
“Can’t we just play nice?”
“Look for the words ‘social justice’ or ‘economic justice’ on your church website. If you find it, run as fast as you can.” That was the advice of Glenn Beck to his radio show listeners on March 2, 2010. It was…
Thoughts leading into MLK Day
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” – Martin Luther King Jr. I’ve always loved Batman. He wasn’t my first love, that was Supes, but early on I grew to love the man…
Be a nudger
During the recent commemorations of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, one small detail stood out that I never had heard before: Martin Luther King did not go to the Lincoln Memorial that day intending to say the…
Learning to love a thermostat God
By Alan Bean “Is organized religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world?” This question was originally scrawled in the margin of an Alabama newspaper by an exasperated Martin Luther King Jr. The…
The new civil rights movement?
Despite what almost every single church sign says, openly LGBT people are NOT welcomed in most churches across the South and across America. Richard “Dick” Brogan was a personal friend and one of my heroes. Dick was a white Mississippi Baptist…