Mark Van Steenwyk had an interesting proposal in a recent Sojourners article: taking disruptive direct action to white nationalist churches during their worship services over Lent. I’ve contemplated this idea. I don’t think I would ever do it personally because I would lose my job very quickly that way. But I’m haunted by the reality of what Jesus modeled for us. The primary way that Jesus got the religious leaders mad enough to crucify him was by disrupting their sacred... Read more
Milo Yiannopoulos is the poster boy of the alt-right movement. His entire platform is based upon antagonizing political correctness, which has made him a sought-after speaker for College Republican chapters throughout the country. Since Milo’s speaking events have drawn protests on liberal campuses, the Conservative Political Action Committee decided to make him a keynote at their annual gathering this week. That is, until footage emerged of him making comments in support of pedophilia. In other words, a hero of the... Read more
On a recent podcast episode with Scot McKnight and Kenneth Tanner, Kenneth made the comment that the Eucharist is more powerful than any of Donald Trump’s executive orders. I want to live in a world where that’s true. I’m just not sure it is. Or rather I’m trying to understand why the church is undergoing such a massive failure to produce a grateful, merciful humanity, which is what we ought to become when our lives are ordered around the Eucharist.... Read more
Fifteen years ago, I worked for the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), a mostly Latino immigrant labor union. We were part of a coalition of immigrant rights organizations that developed an immigration reform proposal in consultation with Congressman Luis Gutierrez called the DREAM Act which had a goal of normalizing the immigration status of the undocumented immigrants living in the US as well as creating a sustainable system for the future. It’s never been passed, but it’s the basis for calling... Read more
When I first entered the world of white radicalism in the early 2000’s, I noticed something that was fascinating to me. The posturing was almost identical to the world of white evangelicalism I had left behind. People who called themselves the greatest of sinners were as ruthlessly critical of other white people as evangelicals were of non-Christians. In both communities, self-flagellation was the currency by which we legitimized ourselves. In both communities, we were always one inappropriate comment away from falling... Read more
On Tuesday, the daily office lectionary included this verse from 2 Timothy 1:7: “God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline.” As I contemplated this verse, my mind immediately went to this photo of Ieshia Evans, a devout Christian nurse who was arrested at a protest in Baton Rouge this July after one of the recent police shootings of unarmed black men. I have rarely seen a picture that captured... Read more
Ten years ago, my name was Mr. G. I was the 10th grade English and journalism teacher at Graham High School in North Carolina. After five semesters of teaching, I had finally acquired the right combination of backbone, charm, and humor to manipulate a group of 25 teenagers into basically following my instructions or at least not blatantly derailing me. And then I quit to go to seminary. I just went back to check out the Graham High School website. There... Read more
I recently had the opportunity to interview a Muslim immigrant woman named Mona as part of the Crackers and Grape Juice podcast. It was convicting to realize as she talked that she loves my country more than I do. Mona shared that many immigrants like her come from parts of the world where government corruption is expected, where political demonstrations are always bloody, where the basic infrastructural stability that we take for granted in the US is entirely nonexistent. So... Read more
This week, I got to do church in a way that I hadn’t experienced before. After my morning men’s group meeting, I attended our church’s sanctuary committee meeting, which is exploring ways to support and protect undocumented immigrants in a political climate defined by hatred against them. Attending the meeting were a local labor organizer named Chloe and a Honduran immigrant named Jose who had a very scary appointment at the ICE immigration office where he was facing likely arrest and... Read more
If you want to get to the core ethos of true Christianity, Ephesians 2:14 is a good place to start: “For [Jesus] is our peace; in his flesh he has made [all humanity] into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.” Jesus’ purpose is to make humanity one, to tear down every wall that keeps us from loving God and each other completely. Jesus doesn’t do walls. His disrespect for social walls is what... Read more
Mercy Not Sacrifice
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