Lutheran Prayer breakfast: also the room for Watergate hearingsand formation of the ACA, among other historic events Yesterday we arrived in Washington D.C. for a two day visit (the Lutheran Immigration Leadership Summit) on Capitol Hill. The first day, we spent time with clergy, bishops, community leaders and staff from three Lutheran denominations–the ELCA, the LCMS, and the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America–centering our message for visits with congresspeople and senators. We brought two core asks: 1) Maintain the... Read more

Christus Victor by Gustav Aulien and pedagogy of the oppressed by Paulo Freire are two books I've found to be essential. Read more

I have a slew of friends headed to seminary this coming fall, and some of them have been asking for reading recommendations. Of course, they’ll be buried in reading assignments once they get their syllabi, but in the meantime, I thought I’d post a suggested reading list. No claims to any kinds of comprehensiveness here, there’s so much I’ve left off, but I hope this is idiosyncratic and inspiring enough to get you started (or continuing) a lifetime of reading that... Read more

Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, “We see,’ your sin remains. (John 9:39-41) Surely we are not blind, are we? This is the... Read more

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/03/perceptions-discrimination-muslims-christians/519135/?utm_source=fbb http://donate.splcenter.org/bannons-camp-of-the-saints https://www.buzzfeed.com/lesterfeder/this-is-how-steve-bannon-sees-the-entire-world?utm_term=.br4rOjKmZ#.jkMAb34o7 Read more

In college, I played Ultimate frisbee. It was a relatively young sport, so this meant we mostly organized ad hoc sessions on the gorgeous Luther College library lawn. At the time, Ultimate frisbee players were precisely who you imagine them to be. Long hair, bandanas, bare feet, counter-cultural, unshaven and sometimes unwashed. Then the college organized an intramural league, and our team, made up of the regulars from the lawn, would win most games, until it came time to play... Read more

A perfect paragraph, a shockingly grand insight that rattles the cosmos, a fluid narrative turn that leaps the rails, these are the reasons we read. I always have a stack of next books to read. I try to range wide and deep. Dig into the right book, at the right time, and the muscles at the back of my head, near the neck, change their composition, wag their tails and release some sort of transcendental remedy that makes everything okay.... Read more

When I think of Lent, I think of fish sandwiches. I know, this isn’t the most pious of associations, but having grown up in a predominately Lutheran and Catholic community in Iowa, even the school lunch calendar was subject to the liturgical seasons. So every Friday during Lent, we’d get fish sandwiches. I love fish sandwiches, so I was pleased. I also knew that this school lunch schedule was influenced somehow by a call to fast from meat on Fridays... Read more

Reposted: A Faithful Witness to Building Welcoming Communities For pdf, visit What is Sanctuary? – Unitarian Universalist Association You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.”                                                       –      Psalm 91:1-2 As the faith community, we are called to accompany our community members, congregants and neighbors facing deportation. Sanctuary Movement and the Immigrants’ Rights Movement People... Read more