It’s a good day to get caught up!

Last updated on: January 1, 2021 at 12:02 pm By Kathryn Shihadah

Post Apocalypse! It’s come to my attention that, due to a flukey tech problem at Patheos, many of my subscribers did not receive my last few posts. Obviously, this is a catastrophe of massive proportions. Other subscribers haven’t read them due to extenuating circumstances (like holiday inertia, TV binge-watching, or excessive post-egg nog napping). Or maybe you’re just not on the Grace-Colored Glasses train yet (subscribe to my newsletter now)! For all of these reasons and so many more (that... Read more

In the new year, resolve to improve your Cultural Intelligence

Last updated on: December 30, 2020 at 2:28 pm By Kathryn Shihadah

“Cultural intelligence” – the capability to relate and work effectively across cultures – is something that every white, privileged person needs to work on to help make this world a better place. If you know how to read, or how to listen to people talking, you can be part of the solution to the urgent problems of inequality, injustice, and racism. Make a New Year’s Resolution to understand the people around you better by improving your cultural intelligence, one page... Read more

Christianity and Covid: “freedom” shouldn’t be deadly

Last updated on: December 27, 2020 at 9:14 pm By Kathryn Shihadah

333,000 Americans have died of Covid – but I know some Christians who are loudly disputing that number. Some are implying that the death toll numbers have been deliberately inflated. Some have been accusing medical professionals of complicity in skewing the statistics. Over 19,000,000 Americans have contracted Covid, and many millions of Americans don’t have enough to eat because the pandemic is dragging on and on – but I see Christians refusing to obey mask mandates, singing Christmas carols in public... Read more

This Christmas in Bethlehem, Palestine

Last updated on: December 22, 2020 at 10:35 pm By Kathryn Shihadah

Question: O little town of Bethlehem, how are you doing this Christmas? Answer: You’d better sit down for this. I have the privilege of being the wife of a Palestinian. I’ve been to Palestine and Israel a number of times, and have friends and relatives living there. Here’s an actual, factual report on the situation in the town where our Savior was born. It might not be quite what you’d picture. No deep and dreamless sleep, no stillness at all.... Read more

What if I don’t actually “need” my stimulus check?

Last updated on: December 18, 2020 at 4:05 pm By Kathryn Shihadah

Jesus had much to say about finances, and his words offer a profound challenge for Christians who will be receiving a stimulus check. For the unemployed and underemployed, that first stimulus check must feel like a lifetime ago, and the next payment can’t come soon enough. We can expect $600-700 per person, though it could be months before everyone receives their remittance (apparently, some folks have not even received their first check yet). The government can’t figure out a way to... Read more

The significance of Baby Jesus as a person of color

Last updated on: December 15, 2020 at 9:32 am By Kathryn Shihadah

White Christians: we need to embrace the truth about Jesus: he was one of them – a person of color. During 2020, we have witnessed incredible injustice toward people of color: senseless deaths of men and women at the hands of police, admiration of a white young man with a rifle, disproportionate effects of the pandemic on communities of color. We’ve engaged in victim-blaming when these groups have demanded their rights – for example, we criticized protesters for damaging property,... Read more

Come Sail Away – a parable, Part Two

Last updated on: December 11, 2020 at 1:29 pm By Kathryn Shihadah

(Part One of Come Sail Away is here.) As you leave the prayer meeting, you feel a tingling sensation from the top of your head to the soles of your feet, and you know it’s the Holy Spirit. So many like-minded people, praying and believing together, will surely move the heart of God! You decide to grab your prayer journal from your cabin, find a comfortable chair in the sea breeze, and spend the rest of the afternoon in quiet... Read more

Conservative Christians need to outgrow binary thinking

Last updated on: December 9, 2020 at 3:28 pm By Kathryn Shihadah

The universe is complex and full of nuance. A binary approach – right/wrong (i.e. my way/highway) – is just too simplistic. The conservative program (in which I was a participant for most of my life) is led by (usually) white men who often create viewpoints based on decontextualized, narrowly-interpreted Bible verses. Alternatively, they may operate from a narrow interpretation of the Bill of Rights or other top-down “discernment.” Their words are delivered to us as if incorruptible, and we dutifully... Read more

Come Sail Away – a parable, Part One

Last updated on: December 4, 2020 at 12:40 pm By Kathryn Shihadah

Today is the big day. You sold everything you owned and bought a ticket on the new luxury cruise ship, and today you sail. It’s a special voyage for Christians only, with time to relax, a concert every night by a popular Christian artist, and Bible study and prayer meetings each day. Yup, it’s time to upgrade – time to live large. The brochure promised that this would be the best trip ever, and you would love the destination –... Read more

Learning to love my gay neighbor, Part Three: Affirmation

Last updated on: December 1, 2020 at 10:27 am By Kathryn Shihadah

The journey to loving and accepting those around us who are gay requires that we believe the best about others and understand the Bible as Jesus did. I have to think that someone who chooses to come out as gay must be something of an optimist. They must be trusting that the awkwardness of the announcement will wear off and life will somehow be better after that. Even if they expect to be rejected, the relief and freedom to be fully... Read more