Latest Articles
There's a Woman in the Pulpit
I am so pleased to announce the release of There's a Woman in the Pulpit, a collection of stories from the RevGalBlogPals.
Why Easter means more to me now
There’s a stereotype that we more progressive Christians tend to downplay this stuff: that our interest in Jesus is mostly about his teaching, that if we do talk about something like the resurrection it’s only to debate whether it’s historically plausible. But I’m a lot less interested in evidence for the resurrection than I am in what the thing means. And I have learned, to my surprise and delight, that it actually means more to me now than it once did—before my faith took a bit of a leftward turn.
Pothole season
Right on schedule, I came down with a head cold on Easter Monday. It’s an occupational hazard. It’s practically what Episcopal clergy sign up for. It should just be added into the ordination vows.
Other people saying things
"They had decided that they did not want us in the parade, a...
God amid materialism
Morton Kelsey showed me that I was under a spell that needed to be broken.
Reading Backwards, by Richard B. Hays
Richard Hays has said for years that he's working on something about "echoes of scripture in the Gospels." But life intervened, so he has produced this slim volume as an appetizer.
Loretta Lynch supporters hold ‘pray-in’ on Capitol Hill to urge a vote on her confirmation
c. 2015 Religion News Service...
Gay rights and religious liberty: Can Americans have both?
(The Christian Science Monitor) The recent backlash against “religious accommodation” laws in Indiana and Arkansas is evidence of an i...
Anti-Semitism spikes, say researchers
The number of violent anti-Semitic attacks around the world surged nearly 40 percent last year, according to a report released in mid-April by researchers at Tel Aviv University in Israel....
Canadian Supreme Court rules against opening meetings with prayer
Canada’s Supreme Court has ruled that a small town in Quebec may not open its council meetings with prayer....
Vatican ends investigation of U.S. women religious
The Vatican on April 16 officially ended a seven-year investigation of American nuns with a compromise....
Glimpse of the holy: Notes on three spiritual writers
A pet peeve of mine is the pigeonholing of authors—especially the label "nature writers" inflicted on certain writers of immense spiritual power.
“Some more skilled future self”
Most therapists will say that a key to finding any kind of viable and lasting happiness in the world requires coming to peace with who you are. Not some future self that you wish you could be, not the person that you imagine yourself to be in your best moments, not the person that you will undoubtedly be two, five, ten years from now. No, the person staring back at you in the mirror.
Lincoln and the war that never ended
Yesterday flags stood at half mast to mark the 150th anniversary of the death of Abraham Lincoln. It was, to borrow the man’s own phrase, altogether fitting and proper that we should do this in recognition of our greatest president and his tragic end.
The freedom to practice religion without empathy
While I happen to think that refusing to bake a cake for a gay wedding that isn’t even happening at your own church is a distortion of what it means to follow Jesus, this is more lament than argument. It makes me sad; and our religious freedom tradition, quite rightly, isn’t particularly concerned about my sadness.
What’s far more frustrating than pro-RFRA sentiment itself is the lack of empathy displayed by some who hold it.
Unfamiliar lands
Princeton Theological Seminary can be a lonely place for an African American professor. During a difficult period, I saw Isabel Wilkerson on PBS.
Discerning desire
I was 29, agonizing over a decision, when I came upon a little book by Robert Ochs.
Wearing God, by Lauren F. Winner
I read Lauren Winner's new book with the sort of joy one feels when watching someone utterly hit their stride.