St. John’s Church Leads the Nation in Civil Rights

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, here’s a look back at the civil rights history of the church where more than 700 people met the day Reverend King made his famous “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial. Built in 1815, St. John’s Church Lafayette Square in Washington,...

January 21st, 2013 | Featured, Social Justice | Read More

A New Evangelical Manifesto

Henry Thoreau observed that it was not a bad idea to build castles in the air—as long as we built foundations under them. That is what this book does. A New Evangelical Manifesto: A kingdom Vision for the Common Good edited by David P. Gushee (Chalice Press) addresses multiple issues that cry out for...

January 2nd, 2013 | Social Justice | Read More

Just Love ‘Em.

Your much-loved, much-lauded, beautiful son finally marries the love of his life, but despite your pride and delight, you can’t brag on him or his new partner to any of your friends at church. Because the love of his life is actually a man. What do you do? You hide. Your daughter moves out into her...

December 27th, 2012 | Social Justice | Read More

The Hope of Gehenna

Let me paint for you a picture of where I was on Monday morning. On the outskirts of Nicaragua’s capital city lies a dump, a wasteland. All of the trash of the city’s nearly 2 million people can be found burning in this heap. And heap is the wrong word. It is a city of trash, a mecca of filth,...

November 8th, 2012 | Social Justice | Read More

Awareness

My friend Kristin called me in September and asked me to do the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure walk with her. We’re both breast cancer survivors — she received her diagnosis at age 43. I got mine at age 27. She thought the walk would be a good way to celebrate our lives and...

November 1st, 2012 | Essays, Social Justice | Read More

Untying the “Not”

For two of my college years, I found myself working at an outlet store. It was one of those big-box brands, selling designer clothes, shoes, accessories, everything you could want from a high-end store at half the price and none of the dignity. I worked in the shoe department, where I was proud...

October 11th, 2012 | Blog, Essays, Social Justice | Read More

“Honesty is Such a Lonely Word..

“…Everyone is so untrue.” Those are song lyrics. Billy Joel sang them. Those lyrics are true. I wish we all could speak the truth like little kids and old ladies. They tend to honestly react to situations and to say what those of us not living on life’s fringes only want to...

October 1st, 2012 | Blog, Essays, Social Justice | Read More

Danger in Twenty-five Miles

The middle class is a tricky category to fall into. You are not poor enough to have the tight confines of an extremely restricted budget – spending to survive with anything more hardly being an option. You do not feel you are rich enough to be associated with the superficial, self-absorbed Real...

September 3rd, 2012 | Social Justice | Read More

Into the Cross Hairs

High profile shootings occur every year or so; Gabby Giffords, Treyvon Martin, Virginia Tech, and Columbine come to mind. The latest chapter was played out in Aurora, Colorado where a disturbed young man took his automatic rifle with a 100 round drum of bullets out on as many people as he could...

August 28th, 2012 | Essays, Social Justice | Read More

On Working Harder For Free

I hate to say this, especially after the past couple of weeks, but not all conversations on Facebook are terrible. Many of them are, and also pointless, and a wonderful excuse to talk about everything but the original point the speaker meant to bring up in the first place. And maybe that’s what happened...

August 21st, 2012 | Essays, Social Justice | Read More

Social Justice