I’m sitting at a sunroom table, my 84-year-old parents to my right and left. Dad just asked Mom, “Did you find my will in the safe deposit box?” She had. Moments ago, to make sure they had their bases covered,…
We are a nation of bullies
“Mommy, Jason is being mean to me, and I can’t get him to stop!” My 6-year-old daughter was calling from her hour-long school bus ride home (no, she doesn’t have a phone but uses a Fitbit watch for emergencies). In…
Our love for Black children must speak louder than headlines
When I saw the recent headlines of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos being reunited with his father after being held in a Texas detention facility for more than a week, I softened at the sight of the blue bunny hat. And…
More Americans worried about cost of raising a family
The percentage of Americans concerned about the cost of raising a family has jumped sharply during President Donald Trump’s first year back in office, according to the latest American Families Survey. Worries around the economics of family shot up 13…
Remembering Stephanie
On the third Sunday in Advent in 1991, as we returned home from Crescent Hill Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., 16-year-old Stephanie Erin Leonard announced to us: “I think it’s time for me to be baptized.” It was the first…
Dad of trans daughter writes about how to slay dragons
Parents must lean into communities of affirmation to endure the religious, cultural and political backlash that comes with parenting gender nonconforming children, author Sim Butler said. Butler said his new book, The Dragons Do Come: Raising a Transgender Kid in…
Honoring the invisible work of clergywomen in this season
Last Christmas Eve, a new post appeared in one of my clergywomen groups on social media. It began, “How many pastors are sitting at their desks crying this morning? Just me?” Spoiler alert: It wasn’t just her. The replies started…
The gift of a transgender child
Sarah has long been concerned with the scope of my reading, and she is right. For years I have focused my reading on history and current events. Sarah said fiction belonged in my reading diet, too. Fiction, she said, would…
Big Tech must take a page from the auto industry
When I was born in 1979, my parents brought me home in a bassinet that sat, unsecured, on the back seat of their Honda hatchback. They did this not out of reckless disregard for my safety, but because it was…
Families need to create their own spiritual rhythms
This is the fourth in a four-part series on making churches family friendly. Through our research and experience with churches and families, we have discovered faithful parents and caregivers want to engage children in the faith but often do…
Active fatherhood prevents violence and saves lives
As Father’s Day approaches, we’ll soon be inundated with gauzy images of fathers and sons playing baseball and dads taking their daughters to work. It’s wonderful to celebrate the paternal bond as a feel-good Hallmark holiday. However, as an expert…
‘Privilege, not a right’ is language of abusive control
If you know anything at all about how abusers talk, you’ll recognize the danger in one of the Trump administration’s favorite explanations for its tyranny: “It’s a privilege, not a right.” Here’s what the White House Press Office said about…