Objectively speaking, there has been very little in the political world that one might call good about the months leading up to the election. Now that the election is over (sort of), for Christian leaders everywhere there is at least one very, very good thing. Here it is: Donald Trump is no longer a candidate for president. The whole election I have heard Christian leaders invoke the separation of church and state as their reasoning for staying silent at critical... Read more
Matthew 24:36-44 It’s known in church history circles as the Great Disappointment. Followers of Baptist minister William Miller quit their jobs in preparation for October 22, 1844, when Miller was convinced (and had convinced many others) that Jesus would come again. He called the impending return “the Advent,” and taught widely and compellingly that Jesus was coming back that day. After October 22, 1844 came and went, Miller had to revise his theory, of course, and many of his followers... Read more
Luke 1:68-79 I don’t know how it was at YOUR house on Thanksgiving Day, but at my house growing up, Thanksgiving was one of those Norman Rockwell kinds of holidays . . . at least my Mom did her very best to make it seem so. I remember my Mom getting up very early in the morning to put the turkey in, because it was likely we’d have a huge group and she was usually cooking the largest bird she... Read more
Below are some excerpts from the forward I wrote to Elizabeth Hagan’s new book, Birthed. Navigating the grief embedded in the human experience is something we all face, and this beautiful story will give universal words to your own personal pain. Take a read and then check out the book! “At first glance I assumed this story was someone else’s: a story of infertility, sad and painful, worthy of something like detached from those of us who have never spent... Read more
Amy Butler and Leslie Copeland-Tune Okay, ladies. Huddle up. We’re having this meeting in the Ladies’ Room because we have a serious problem that can no longer be ignored. You don’t have to be even all that in touch with world events to know that the state of women in the world is pretty grim. Women comprise two thirds of the 781 million illiterate people in the world. Women and girls represent half of the poor in the developing world,... Read more
Luke 21:5-19 1905 there was a very passionate young librarian at the Brooklyn Public Library who worked as the superintendent of children’s department. With much conviction, she came to her supervisor one day with the request that the books The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer be removed from the children’s library because of the characters’ “coarseness, deceitfulness and mischievous practices.” Her boss, troubled by the prospect of making a move to keep these books out... Read more
Zero Circle Be helpless, dumbfounded, Unable to say yes or no. Then a stretcher will come from grace To gather us up.We are too dull-eyed to see that beauty If we say we can, we’re lying. If we say No, we don’t see it, That No will behead us And shut tight our window onto spirit. So let us rather not be sure of anything, Besides ourselves, and only that, so Miraculous beings come running to help. Crazed, lying in... Read more
Today I walked into the building and got in an elevator with a group of about 12 Columbia students attending class in our building. They were tense and silent, and then I said to them: I’m so sorry. Several of them began to cry. Something happened in our country yesterday that goes far beyond winning or losing an election. A dark and dangerous part of our shared life has been exposed like never before and it has left many... Read more
All Saints’ Day Ephesians 1:11-23 On Monday, March 4, 1861, as part of taking the oath of office for his first term as the sixteenth President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln delivered his first inaugural address. The situation in the country was dire. Seven states had seceded from the union; Jefferson Davis had been inaugurated as the President of the Confederacy two weeks earlier. Against the advice of those tasked with keeping him safe, Lincoln took the oath of... Read more
So here’s how last week went down for me. It actually all began almost two weeks ago when I was sitting in an airport about a 12-hour plane ride away from home. The final presidential debate wasn’t on TV anywhere, so I livestreamed it on my phone. Why do I do this to myself? Nothing I heard surprised me, which was probably true for most any American who is halfway paying attention these days. But then Donald Trump started talking... Read more
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