“A theologian of glory calls evil good and good evil. A theologian of the cross calls the thing what it actually is.” ~ Martin Luther, 1518 Saturday marked the first day since November 9 that I didn’t feel crazy, or completely out of sync with reality, or that everything I thought was true was false. I had been doing that thing that I know I wasn’t supposed to do: retreat and disconnect. I also knew that I was able to... Read more
It started with a dignified woman standing on stage, on television, stoically bearing witness to the dead son her husband spoke about with grieving passion. When that husband challenged the nation’s premiere bully to read the Constitution, that bully set his sights on the woman. Of course he did. This is a man who used to own an international beauty pageant, a man who reduces women to their appearance and their bodies. He fixates on what shape and size they... Read more
Earlier this week, I had an op-ed about religious freedom published in the local newspaper, responding to to legislative efforts in many states (VP nominee Mike Pence’s Indiana among them) to enable business owners to use religious freedom as a license to deny services and discriminate. Here’s an excerpt (click to read the full piece): As Lutherans prepare to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the advent of the Reformation in 2017, a pivotal voice from the past suggests another more compelling view of... Read more
By now, you know whether or not Alton Sterling and Philando Castile had criminal records. As if that justifies either of them being shot and killed by police while pinned to the ground or while sitting in a car with a four-year-old in the back seat. One day I got my neighbor’s “rap sheet” in the mail. At least that’s what the sender, another neighborhood resident, called the printout of mostly traffic violations attached to the name of a young... Read more
I was going to write about the liberation theology of Jesse Williams. I immediately zoned in on this piece of his speech when I watched it Sunday night on the BET Awards: “But freedom is somehow always conditional here. ‘You’re free,’ they keep telling us. But she would have been alive if she hadn’t acted so… free. Now, freedom is always coming in the hereafter, but you know what, though, the hereafter is a hustle. We want it now.” I... Read more
A few months ago, I got an email from a reader who said she grew up conservative Christian, though now considered herself progressive and a feminist. The abortion issue still vexed her. She asked me this: Q: I have been having a cognitive issue with abortion rights. I am fervently pro-women and consider myself a feminist, but something about it isn’t sitting right. I agree that women should have control of their bodies, but I guess I’m having an issue... Read more
His response to a woman’s charge that his buddy assaulted her begins and ends with defending his buddy. We know that guy. He stages a made-for-tv apology reminiscent of an intimate abuser after publicly berating a woman for doing her job. We know that guy. He uses and abuses women who are, aren’t, and might someday become his wives. We know that guy. He ignores the horrific effects of homophobia, even after it leads to slaughter, and turns the focus... Read more
In an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education today, Eboo Patel says: “An interfaith leader is someone with the vision, knowledge base, and skill set to create the spaces, organize the social processes, and craft the conversations such that people of different religions can share a common life together.” While the essay doesn’t talk about the horrific events in Orlando this weekend, it’s easy to see how and why the vision, knowledge, and skills to bring together people of... Read more
Recently, I sat down with Josh deKeijzer at HelloChristian.com for an interview about feminism and Christianity. Josh took the opportunity to ask me some of the main questions that Christians who remain skeptical or outright hostile to feminism still have. As much as I can’t believe that there are still people who think feminism is some kind of malevolent movement, I understand that stereotypes and misunderstandings abound. Here’s one part of our conversation: Wasn’t feminism born in a very anti-Christian... Read more
Though I wrote the book about eight years ago, I find myself still and once again answering basic questions that Christians have about feminism, and that feminists have about Christianity. This time, it is in preparation for an interview with another website. I’ll share more from that piece once it is published, but thought I’d go ahead and share here the basic questions and summary answers that shaped my third book, Feminism and Christianity: Questions and Answers in the Third Wave,... Read more
Caryn Riswold
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