Women's capacity to control their fertility is a moral good. While much of the opposition to various forms of contraception and to abortion come from Christians and Christian groups, many Christians believe that contraception and abortion can be good and responsible decisions that women make faithfully, without regret, and without shame. Read more
This morning, ninety college students and four law students from nineteen colleges and universities will start work in summer internships in twenty cities across the country as part of the Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty (SHECP) summer internship program. This program embodies an innovative educational approach to teaching poverty that is focused on three things - internships, broad-based interdisciplinary curriculum, and teaching poverty studies as a complement to a student’s educational major. Read more
Despite our insistence that if people just worked harder they would improve their economic circumstances, the data we have doesn’t bear that out. Economic mobility is often about where you live, how much money your parents make, what kind of education you get, and how strong your social safety net is. Middle and upper-middle class people often have existing social safety nets that help them out. Read more
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God and She was known as Sophia. Read more
Last week I wrote a blog post about the Supreme Court’s deliberations regarding marriage equality. The point of the piece was to highlight that the term “biblical marriage” is largely used by conservative and right-wing Christians and politicians as if it were equivalent to the form of monogamous, heterosexual, companionate marriage that conservatives venerate. It’s not. Now, don’t get me wrong – I have personally been in one of those of monogamous, heterosexual, companionate marriages for over twenty years and... Read more
God protect us from Biblical sexual ethics, Biblical marriages, and Biblical literalists! The truth of the scripture is in its enduring message of justice and love as moral norms for humankind, marriage equality is surely an fitting expression both of these norms. Read more
Jesus said that there is no greater commandment than to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. (Mk 12:31) Sometimes, the hardest part of this lesson is to love ourselves. For mothers, in a culture that demands self-sacrifice and putting the needs of our children before our own, this can be even more difficult. Sometimes, loving ourselves requires deeper self-knowledge and self-care than our culture recommends or even understands. Read more
Christianity was never meant to be about us. Like my dad taught me, we are a covenant people. The covenant was made by my local church when I was baptized, made on behalf of the whole people of God, the oikoumene. The ecumenical movement is about recognizing that the body of Christ is bigger than any one denomination. It’s about sharing our faith with one another across our lines of difference, and about learning from one another new ways to follow God. Read more
In a context where the vast majority of women are acting as responsible moral agents exercising a legal right to a safe medical procedure, waiting periods and mandatory ultrasounds are a paternalistic attempt to shame and harass women by assuming they cannot possibly know their own minds. Read more
It’s springtime in North Carolina. Between the redbuds, dogwoods, azaleas, wisteria, lily of the valley, and the wild violets – my yard is a riot of color. This is the time of year when my girls and I gather wild violets and make violet jelly to enjoy with our tea and scones and when we turn the compost into our raised bed to begin to prepare the soil for our modest annual attempt at tomatoes, basil, and the odd pepper... Read more
To Do Justice
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In