When I was 18, I worked in the summers on the make-ready crew for a builder. I was the one who scraped all the paint and plaster off of walls, cleaned out the bathtubs where every worker had thrown tape, nails, spit cans, food wrappers, and things which I have […]
In this age of information at our fingertips, it seems nothing should ever surprise us. And yet it does. So this is my attempt to help more of you not be surprised. (And those of you who listened all the way to the end of the service last Sunday won’t […]
Robert Holden is an author and motivational speaker whose work combines psychology and spirituality. He often opens his events by asking participants to learn and share with each other a two-part greeting that is spoken by Zulu people of South Africa. The greeting is an invocation of sorts spoken in […]
It’s been a “when it rains, it pours” kind of few weeks, beginning with Greg Abbott‘s directive to the Director of Child Protective Services giving his opinion that gender-affirming treatment for trans kids is abusive.
Before we could catch our breath—it really felt like a blow to the gut—the Florida […]
I watched the Presidential debate on Tuesday night. Why did I watch? Because I think it’s my duty to be informed — to try to see what I’ve missed before. (To be honest, I didn’t watch it all. I couldn’t. I turned the TV off for my own sanity and […]
In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins explains a phenomenon referred to as the Stockdale Paradox. Admiral Jim Stockdale was the highest-ranking United States military officer in the “Hanoi Hilton” prisoner-of-war camp during the height of the Vietnam War. He was tortured over twenty times during his eight-year imprisonment. […]
When I was in seminary I took a course on feminist theology. One question that came up early and often for my classmates and me was “Do you consider yourself a feminist?” The question placed me in a little bit of a quandary. On the one hand, it was clear […]
“I’m so weary of the ‘call out’ culture. We need a call forth culture instead. Calling forth the best in people. Calling forth compassion, gratitude, empathy. Calling forth justice. Calling forth beauty, goodness, wonder. Calling forth courage.”
~ Diana Butler Bass
It’s been a difficult few weeks for […]
Since this is my first article for June, which is celebrated as PRIDE month, I want to share the story of a gay black woman.
Staceyann Chin grew up, as the title of her memoir tells us, on The Other Side of Paradise. She grew up on the impoverished side of […]
This Sunday we celebrate Pentecost, the “Birthday of the Church,” the recognition of the gift of the Holy Spirit. We use red to symbolize Pentecost because it reminds us of the tongues of fire that descended on the crowd in Jerusalem fifty days after Easter.
Those flames are on my mind […]