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…
Advent, Genocide and the Baby in the Manger
Advent is my favorite time of year. The idea of waiting for hope to be born is irresistible and wonderful. When I was a kid, I memorized the entire Christmas story from the gospel of Luke for a Christmas event…
Jesus is Dead and So Are We: Eric Garner is Our Only Hope for Resurrection
By Jeff Hood – Jesus is Dead and So Are We: Eric Garner is Our Only Hope for Resurrection
I can’t just leave
Have you read The Help? I am Mae Mobley. Miss Eva hugged me close as I read to her from my kitty cat book, words she could not read herself. Miss Carolyn cleaned the scrape on my knee I got…
How Hurricane Hugo broke the racial barrier
Twenty-five years ago on September 21, 1989 Hurricane Hugo made landfall in the Charleston, SC area and brought significant destruction in almost two dozen counties. At that time I was working for Baptists in South Carolina and supervised the department…
the speck is also the log.
I’m a racist. I tried beginning this conversation differently, for instance by talking about how incredibly difficult hearing about the events unfolding in Ferguson has been, but that route’s been mired in political and rhetorical polarization with each side mustering proof texts…
Repenting of Christianity
Chinua Achebe’s classic novel Things Fall Apart centers around the life on Okonkwo, the powerful leader of his clan and their village, one of nine villages in the Umuofia region of Nigeria. Okonkwo is a fearsome warrior, well-respected among his…
The taller I become….
We’re remembering the Freedom Summer of 1964 this year, fifty years later. During those momentous times in US history, a broad group of organizations worked together to break the tyranny of the Jim Crow laws in Mississippi. Their primary goal…
Prayer and resistance
Just after seeing Jesus transfigured, the disciples run into a little trouble. A man with a boy possessed by a demon approaches them to cast out the demon. The disciples try, gathering a big crowd along the way, but they…
Motives matter
If a random Google search is anything to go by, it was Ralph Waldo Emerson who originated this clever quip, albeit in a slightly altered form: “I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not…
In search of more Acts 10 moments
One of my favorite Bible verses appears in the story of Peter visiting Cornelius’ house in Acts 10. In verses 34-35, Peter says, “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism, but accepts from every…
Learning to listen
I am afraid of well-meaning Christians. This is probably because I am one myself, but it is also because I encounter well-intentioned Christians all the time. They have a vision for all the good they could do to other people….