In 2016, 80% of Evangelical Christians said they’d found the political candidate God wanted them to vote for. He declared bankruptcy four times. He had multiple affairs, and was currently on his third marriage. He discriminated against people of color when he was a landlord. He bragged about sexually assaulting women. He lied about his weight and refused to show his tax returns. But evangelicals shrugged it off, went to the polls, and handed him the presidency of the nation... Read more
Earlier this summer, Supreme Court Justice Kennedy announced he would retire, leaving an empty seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. Conservatives immediately called for the president to nominate a conservative justice who would help overturn Roe v. Wade, making abortions illegal again. At the same time, a growing group of evangelical leaders has kicked into gear as well — not to rush a conservative judge into a lifelong Supreme Court seat, but a call to pause. And fast. And pray.... Read more
Though we have encountered our share of grief and troubles on this earth, we can still hold the line of beauty, form, and beat. No small accomplishment in a world as challenging as this one… Hard times require furious dancing. Each of us is proof. -Alice Walker, Hard Times Require Furious Dancing On Friday I met my sister Hannah in Las Vegas and we spent the weekend celebrating her birthday and her upcoming wedding. We laughed. We danced around... Read more
One hundred years ago today, a baby boy was born in South Africa. He was named Rolihlahla, which meant “troublemaker” in the local dialect. No one could have guessed how much he would suffer for making “trouble” as he worked to dismantle segregation and apartheid. No one could have guessed how he would change the world. Nelson Mandela was arrested for his efforts to end segregation in South Africa. Initially jailed for five years, his sentence turned into twenty-seven years... Read more
On Saturday I saw an insane number of patients in clinic. When I got home, I stayed up late to finish charts and to read three memoirs for a writing competition I’m judging. Yesterday I went to the hospital as a No One Dies Alone volunteer to sit with a patient who was dying, who didn’t have any friends or family to accompany them through the transition from this life to the next. I woke up this morning absolutely exhausted.... Read more
I was in a Lyft on my way to work yesterday morning when I got a news alert on my phone: All twelve boys and their coach were rescued from a cave in Thailand, where they’d been trapped for more than two weeks. I teared up. My heart skipped a beat. I gave thanks for the grit and grace that volunteers brought to bear on behalf of those kids. Twelve boys who otherwise would have died are now rescued, free,... Read more
For the past seven days, I’ve been holding my breath, praying non-stop for the twelve boys and their soccer coach trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand. Every morning, I check the news to see if there’s been any updates, hoping and praying that I’ll wake up to the news that all of them have been safely extricated from the cave. (As I write this, eight of the boys have been rescued.) The other reason I obsessively follow the story... Read more
Tomorrow we’ll shut down businesses and drink lemonade and host barbecues and set off fireworks and wave flags to celebrate our freedom. But this year my heart is heavy because we aren’t really free. Emma Lazarus, the gifted New York City poet, wrote the iconic lines engraved on our Statue of Liberty: Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I... Read more
In German-occupied Europe in November 1938, Nazis raided Jewish businesses and homes, and destroyed 268 synagogues. Tens of thousands of Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps. The incident was named Kristallnacht (Night of Crystal) because of all the shattered glass the Gestapo left in their wake. Many of the men died in the concentration camps. Some were released, on the condition that they emigrate out of Germany. But where could they go? Two weeks after Kristallnacht, pollsters asked... Read more
It’s World Refugee Day. There are more displaced people today than there have ever been in the history of the world. It’s World Refugee Day. People are fleeing unspeakable violence, starvation, genocide, rape, mutilation, bombs… It’s World Refugee Day. People are leaving their homes and communities and neighborhoods and keepsakes behind, just to stay alive. It’s World Refugee Day. Families are fleeing to the U.S.’s southern borders begging for asylum. And instead, their kids are ripped from their parents’ arms... Read more
Sarah Thebarge
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