Yes, I know the heavy-hitting headline above is a gulp of gargantuan words you might not ever string together. “Myopia” is a vision condition known as being shortsighted or nearsighted. “Utopian” worlds are fictional places or fantastical illusions of preferred…
Is it OK to feel how I’m feeling?
In this quarantine life and racial upheaval, it seems that everywhere we turn, someone is telling us how we should feel. Or rather how we shouldn’t feel what we are feeling. Are you afraid? Stop! Are you too calm? Stop!…
Racism and the evolution of Protestant support for private education
Earlier this summer, the United States Supreme Court ruled in a 5-to-4 decision that private religious schools should have the same access to public funds as private “nonsectarian” schools. Chief Justice Roberts’ majority opinion cited the Constitution’s protection of the…
Why we must not look away in the current crisis
It was a sermon illustration I will never forget. Our pastor told the story of Father Michael Renninger, pastor of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Richmond, Va. While a college student on his way home one weekend, Renninger stopped to…
When we forget our history, institutions do the sinning for us
Eighth grade social studies class in North Carolina, in my school years, covered the history, geography and economy of our fair state. Mrs. Spivey was my very fine instructor, and I am confident she would confirm that I was an…
Christian citizenship means somebody’s calling my name
What does it mean to be a Christian citizen? The question should challenge every breath in our bodies in the way George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and many other Black Christian citizens died daring to breathe. There is no dodging…
Why I don’t believe #AllLivesMatter
Of course, every life is significant — uniquely created by God and irreplaceable — and while I do believe every life matters, I don’t believe in #AllLivesMatter. I don’t believe in it because it is a cop-out, an attempt to…
Amid a pandemic and a fractured nation, how do we live ‘in the meantime’?
What’s going on with your feelings these days? In an old comic strip, Shoe, the curmudgeonly newspaper editor, is sitting at his desk. He declares, “There are mood swings and there are mood bungee jumps!” Some days are like that…
What I’ve learned from race conversations with refugees and immigrants
“Racism.” The word evokes feelings, emotions, strong opinions, even questions. It should. Apart from the COVID-19 crisis, nothing else has so galvanized our nation in recent months and forced us to contend with a sin that is pushing our nation…