We all cringed. By “we,” I mean every woman who’s ever endured a time when a hug from a casual acquaintance ventured into the boyfriend zone—and that would be all of us. Ariana Grande had just finished singing at Aretha Franklin’s funeral when Bishop Gropey McFeelsy reached around to “hug” her. But in fact, his hug turned into a side-boob grab. It was gross and it was obvious; as was her attempt at a graceful side step. As was his... Read more
This just in: Aretha Franklin didn’t have a will. Granted, her legacy is about far more than tangible assets. Her legacy is in music; and in the power of music to push the gospel into secular spaces. Still … Money may not be everything, but it’s not nothing. The value of her estate clocks in at around $80 million, and with no plans left in place for her legacy, it is left to her four sons and the county probate... Read more
While the nation grieved the passing of Senator John McCain—and stood appalled at the president’s disrespectful responses to that death—there was another mass shooting in Florida. “Another mass shooting” should not be a redundancy that so easily rolls off our lips. But it is, and it does. It is, in fact, the mantra of everyday American life. And we could chase ourselves around the same circles about gun control; about our nation’s appalling lack of access mental healthcare; about toxic... Read more
The death of Mollie Tibbetts is horrifying. A guilty verdict for her killer, Cristhian Bahena Rivera, does nothing to diffuse the tragic loss of life. Like the rest of the country, I’m heartbroken for her family, and can’t imagine the pain they will live with forever. What’s also tragic is that President Trump is using this case as a stump for his “illegals are criminal and it’s time to build my wall now” rhetoric. It’s not just tragic. It is sick,... Read more
Guest post by the Rev. Chris Furr As an undergraduate at UNC, I took a number of history courses, including a course on the Civil War. I remember where I sat in the small auditorium, where just outside “Silent Sam” memorialized the students and alumni whose lives were lost fighting for the Confederacy. We were just across campus from William Saunders Hall, named for a 19th century KKK leader (Saunders Hall has since been renamed “Carolina Hall”). On the first... Read more
It's easy to feel as though we're at the mercy of the zeitgeist. We're not. Read more
Editor’s note: “Political tracking,” the practice of following candidates and constantly filming their public statements, is a common practice in big races and has recently become a tactic used in smaller, local races. Here, the Rev. Nancy Jo Kemper, who was the Democratic candidate for Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District in 2016, shares her experience dealing with political operatives who tried to catch her making statements that could be used against her out of context. Dishonesty, she says, is at the... Read more
It’s every parent’s worst nightmare. It’s every church leader’s worst nightmare. So if you are both a parent and a church leader, like I am, you are literally sick over this: the revelation that hundreds of priests in Pennsylvania sexually abused more than 1,000 children over the span of several decades. More than one thousand. I have to spell that out and say it out loud, and I still can’t quite let my head and my heart wrap around the... Read more
He called her a dog. The day after white supremacists tried to rally in our nation’s capital, the president—who some might call the most powerful white man in the world—called a black woman who used to work for him a “dog.” Right out loud. In public. And just like every other day, we’re mostly going to sit here and be OK about it because it’s just another day in Trump’s America. I preached a sermon on Sunday about the power... Read more
New trend: political ads in which a GOP incumbent says that his opponent is “too progressive” for the area. As if an “area” can have a singular identity. As if a town/region/state/county/district can now, in this America, include only people of singular belief and values. As if we aren’t wildly complicated creatures who come to our belief by way of life and relationship and hardship. As if it were all that simple. They want it to be that simple. The... Read more
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