Who are you, O God, that you should tell me to walk toward myself, and who am I that I should be walked toward?
The Washington Post recently profiled a typical day of gun violence in America, and following that trail of blood across the country made me think again that only people with a certain kind of standing ought to have a say in certain matters. The abortion debate should be left to people who have experience... Continue Reading →
On November 6, the Americans who live in Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District did something that puts them in a difficult position with regard to the President of the United States: they elected a person who meets his criteria for categorical exclusion from American territory to represent them in America’s Congress. Trump’s response to... Continue Reading →
Someone on the Christian Right should read the Book of Exodus to Donald Trump before he cements his connection to Pharaoh by sending his army out to bring back all those slaves — someone who can help him understand that Pharaoh is the loser in that story. Ideally, someone on the Christian Left... Continue Reading →
Millions of people, including many Christians, will see the incoherent Christian response to Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh as yet another reason to abandon the Christian project altogether. I feel that way myself sometimes, and I’m a Christian seminarian. Her most enduring memory is the laughter of those boys. In every... Continue Reading →
On Thursday of this week, two members of the congregation underwent a trial of humiliation, while many of us watched, in hopes of one thing or another. Now it’s Sunday, and those two humiliated people have washed their faces, changed their clothes, and come to church, because they can; they still can. Which... Continue Reading →
There’s a price to pay for claiming Christian identity, and it can be high. Maybe that’s why the word “Christian” seems to be slipping out of public discourse. This week, The New York Times reported that a certain group of people wants senate Republicans to force a vote on Brett Kavanaugh’s ascension to the Supreme... Continue Reading →
Richard Beck offered a few reflections on prayer this morning that resonate with my own experience and practice. Prayer doesn’t come naturally to me either. I, too, have been “saved” by the discipline of a regular practice. I, too need a morning routine to reroute me from less productive ways of starting my days, whether it’s uncritically beginning to feed at the trough of the entertainment news cycle or engaging in fruitless online discourse or whatever. I like what Beck says about how the way we “imprint” our day matters. If the first thing I reach for in the morning is my phone or my laptop, my heart and mind begin to be shaped in ways that are deeply unhealthy.
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I’ve been thinking this morning about, of all things, hockey pools. For those unfamiliar with this phenomenon, a group of friends get together before the season and pick which NHL players they think will score the most points in the upcoming season. You assemble your roster and then watch to see how they perform against other people’s rosters in the year ahead. I’ve been doing this with a bunch of guys over the past few days. I tend to be pretty terrible at hockey pools, but it’s all good fun.
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Chief among the illusions recently enlisted in making America great again is the conceit that this is a Christian nation. Well, after his experience at Urgent Care the other day, Jesus might beg to differ. I took Jesus in because a capillary in his eye had ruptured. Actually, I took Francisco, my co-worker, but he’s... Continue Reading →
