That racism exists in our world, in our country, in our community, in our systems - social, economic, and political - is irrefutable. But as a middle-aged, middle-income, able-bodied, cis-gendered, straight, white, Christian, male, layers of privilege afford me the possibility - the comfort - of not noticing that racism. Or, if I do notice …
Time to vote!
Today it is tempting to write something like, "I don't care who you vote for - just vote!" On one level, I mean it. Nationally, our voter turnout is, frankly, pathetic. As you can see, since 1948 we've never had higher than 65% turnout of eligible voters. Multiple years saw only 39%. If we could …
Sleep Out Saturday
Gonna try live blogging Sleep Out Saturday. Haven't done that before so bear with me... 2:00pm Home preparing to go on a bike ride with our kids. Being away from them is the hardest part of any overnight youth event. In the next day or two, I'll share more SOS insights from WUMC teenagers in …
Happy Halloween!
I was feeling a bit silly today, so... Hope you enjoy watching this even half as much as I enjoyed creating it! 🙂 H/T to Colleen Erbach for editing help. Another H/T for inspiration to HISHE, BatDad, and of course, this guy.
Building empathy, enabling community
"Stress. It was really stressful having to constantly compare prices and serving sizes. It took a lot longer than when I grocery shop with my mom." "I felt like people were watching us and judging us, because we we talking so much about the price of everything and the servings. I didn't like that." In …
Vote out hunger, how?
The Midterm Elections are now just a few days away (on Tuesday, November 4). Last week, I pledged to vote in a way that seeks to end hunger and encouraged you to do the same. Which you can still do, by the way. But it occurred to me that it might not be exactly obvious …
Connections. It’s all about connections.
There was a lot to like about last weekend's Confirmation retreat. No, not everything was peachy. You can't throw 16 people who aren't used to spending that much time together into a fairly small space for 26 hours and expect nothing but sunshine and roses 🙂 We played a lot, and we snacked a lot, …
It’s not all bad
This has been a tough week: Ongoing war and atrocities in Iraq and Gaza. Robin Williams' suicide Shooting death of Mike Brown and all that followed (and continues to follow) in Ferguson, MO. Death, racism, oppression, violence, pain and despair are not hard to find. I'm going to talk about all of that as honestly …
New parables?
My task this week is to tackle some of those most mysterious teachings of Jesus that we usually call parables. In particular, parables about what the author of Matthew's gospel calls the Kingdom of God Heaven. Why 'Heaven' instead of 'God'? Most likely the author was Jewish or was writing for a Jewish audience or …
‘Blessed are the peacemakers’
Today is Nelson Mandela Day; it could hardly occur at a better time. What the world needs now is a whole lot of people praying for - and working for - peace. Those of us who claim the name of Jesus better be leading those efforts, if we want to live up to that name. …
All That I Can't Leave Unsaid 