Pope Leo XIV offered a stirring message of hope amid suffering in Barcelona on Tuesday after taking questions from young people who had struggled with abuse and depression.
Trump, the White House, the UFC and our history of violence
On June 14, a spectacle of violence will take place on the White House South Lawn — a spectacle bigger than anything we’ve seen since the January 6 insurrection. UFC Freedom 250, a mixed-martial arts event produced by Ultimate Fighting…
How American religion inspired Cole Allen’s violence
During the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last Saturday, Cole Allen breached a Secret Service checkpoint and fired shots at agents in an attempt to assassinate the president of the United States and other high-ranking officials. About 10 minutes prior, from…
‘Beautiful, ain’t it?’ Our tragic, magic lives
On Sunday mornings before worship, I check the news to see if there are any new tragic deaths that need to be mentioned. Sometimes I end up writing concerns in the margins of the sermon or the prayers of the…
Vietnam War tactics are back in Trump’s America
When I saw the cellphone videos of U.S. Border Patrol agents executing Alex Pretti on a snowy street in Minneapolis, the shameless brutality of the shooting reminded me of another execution 58 years earlier on a war-torn street in Saigon….
The myth of transgender violence
Well. It happened again. There was yet another mass shooting committed by a transgender person. Roberta Esposito, a transgender woman, opened fire during a youth hockey game in Rhode Island. Esposito specifically targeted family members in the shooting, killing her…
KPop Demon Hunters — the Brené, the bad and the beautugly
Over Zoom, my young-adult counseling client smiled when I noticed her new poster hanging on the wall behind her. The active-duty military service member said, “It’s Huntrix — the musical group from the movie KPop Demon Hunters.” Later I saw…
We can win with nonviolence
Since early December 2025, Minnesota has been under siege. Stories and videos have been pouring out of Minnesota — and elsewhere in the United States — of ICE’s violent, illegal and unethical actions. We have seen peaceful protesters assaulted; we…
Group documents 20 times ICE and CBP shot civilians in past year
The cruelty of U.S. immigration enforcement operations can be counted in rising body counts, attacks against children and families and in the dehumanizing rhetoric federal officials are using toward immigrants and American citizens, according a report by an immigrant rights…
‘I see you, I grieve with you, I stand with you’
My heart retches within me. I grieve for the lives of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Good was murdered while she attempted to drive away from an ICE agent, shot at least twice through her window after the ICE agent…
The dawn of Apple Pie ISIS
Let’s be clear about language before we are clear about lives. The word “agent” will not be used here to describe armed, militia-style bullies with low emotional intelligence who terrorize communities, abduct children in Walmart parking lots, ambush day laborers…
Violence is not the greatest force in the ‘real world.’ People of faith know this.
Archbishop Óscar Romero once said, “Let us not grow tired of preaching love, for this is the force that will overcome the world.”