It’s that time of year again. New books, backpacks, technology, schedules, classes and teachers conspire with learners to develop their lives. At every level of education, including graduate study in seminaries, the goal is to engage students in the practices…
Grief fatigue: Are we really making a difference in the world’s healing?
Last week I had the opportunity to meet with a group of millennial social justice leaders who were meeting across the street at Union Theological Seminary. I probably shouldn’t have read their bios before I headed over to their closing…
In N. Charleston, justice advocate avoids anger, burnout with centering prayer
Last year was an especially difficult one for folks in and around Charleston, S.C. Bill Stanfield, CEO of a faith-based community development organization, centering prayer emerged as his response.
When wielding power can be healing
“Money and power.” That’s what the gentleman who telephoned me from Mississippi said. The pressure on his home state and on my home state of North Carolina for recent legislative and gubernatorial actions, viewed widely as discriminatory, are all about…
N.C. Baptist church joins fight against transgender bathroom bill
More than 50 people were arrested Monday night at the North Carolina state capitol in a protest of the state’s new law curtailing LGBT protections — a protest organized in a town hall meeting last week at Raleigh’s Pullen Memorial Baptist…
For Raleigh church, self-examination was key to surviving identity crisis
When a small group of members at Hayes Barton Baptist Church claimed the Raleigh, N.C., congregation was sliding from its Baptist moorings into the arms of the “emergent church” movement, their agitation threatened the congregation’s stability and forced deep self-examination. Hayes Barton…
That’s not your seat: Regulating the seating arrangements at God’s dinner party
“That’s not your seat” is a phrase used by Morgan DePerno, a student in my church history class, as the title for her recent review of Martin Luther King Jr’s Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story. For Morgan, “that’s not…
No great wisdom, just a willingness to speak out
I’m not a “media hog.” I really don’t go looking for ways to get noticed, quoted, published, but it’s not been uncommon recently for a local television station reporter to show up seeking a voice from “our perspective.” It didn’t…
Wake up, Christians: The Flint water crisis is an issue of public justice
We cannot live without fresh water, and we cannot thrive without its abundance. We may debate whether other goods are “basic” to human flourishing, but there’s no argument about the necessity of water. So access to clean water is vital…
How weighty are stories in congregational faith formation?
By Kenneth J. Meyers The culture generally addresses human dignity and justice issues before the church can get into gear. Such is the matter when in recent years Americans faced the LGBTQ life concerns with resolve. The cultural consideration recognized…
#SayHerName: A shoutout to my sisters in the wilderness
By Elijah Zehyoue #Sayhername! Tell her story! Her name is Hagar. And her story is this: As soon as the Bible begins, we learn of Hagar. As Sarah’s slave we can presume she has been with Sarah and Abraham for…
It’s the economy, Christian
By Bob Allen Four million black people were fired in 1865, when President Lincoln and the federal government abolished slavery, a pastor told a packed house at the first summit meeting of a new coalition of churches in Louisville, Ky.,…