Carol Howard Merritt

We can't predict the future, but we can look at the interesting things that are happening now, and we can dream about where God might be calling us. When imagining what might be coming, there are a few approaches or attitudes that can orient us. 

Though I sympathize with those who feel weary when talking about what is to come, I forge ahead because the "future" is not far off, planning is vital, and I care about a new generation.

I thumbed through a stack of Xeroxed images, looking at the multiple faces of Jesus that a friend compiled for her theology paper. She had gone to the library and photocopied profiles from around the globe.

How has the "myth of the model minority" affected the lives and work of Asian-American women? How is the myth used in our society? Please join Derrick Weston and I as we talk with Mihee Kim-Kort about her book Making Paper Cranes.

Right now, there are a lot of pastors who ought to be looking in the mirror and chanting, “It’s not all about me.” 

After the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary, people of faith yearned to respond.

Richard Twiss and I spent time meditating and praying together, particularly discerning the question, “Who God is calling us to be?”

How do you practice Sabbath in this busy, stressed-out world? Is Sabbath just a luxury for those who don't have kids?

Even as a Reformed minister, who is a product of the regrettable history of iconoclasm and who warns that our minds can be "factories of idols," I know every worshiping community has sacred items. 

If life is the most important thing in a political and theological belief system, then why would a person support the death penalty, back wars and oppose gun violence prevention?

It would be easy for those of us who lean to the left of the political spectrum to dismiss the right by saying that they are waging a war on women, but that would deny the whole picture. What about Sarah Palin? What about Michelle Bachmann? And what about the other Grizzly Mamas who are being plucked, groomed and prepared as we speak?

I’m proud to be a part of a movement whose great concern is learning to love your neighbor as you love yourself. And as we move into the new year, I hope those voices of justice will grow stronger—and I wish for some other things as well.

I often wonder what Jesus was getting at when he asked his disciple, “Who do you say that I am?” Was Jesus testing the waters, trying to figure out if the people and his friends understood the nature of his divinity? Was he trying to figure out if his rabble rousing was about to get him killed? Was he concerned with how his identity was formed by the community? Or was he simply wondering what people thought about him?

I’m not always enamored with our traditional, staged pictures of the nativity—with Mary on her knees in adoration. 

One week after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school, there seem to be so many failures in the ways that our theology is playing out in the public sphere. And while quick responses, blog posts, sound bytes and tweets are important in this moment, as they emerge from varying political and evangelistic agendas they also expose some of Christianity's devastating aspects.

There is a particular authority that comes from privilege. When a white man steps into the place where he belongs, he has an internal power with which he was born. He is entitled. Like royalty, he sits on the throne naturally, because that place is caught in his blood. But an entirely different power emerges from women who have been told that they are not allowed to speak in church—and suddenly rise behind the pulpit. Something flares up from deep inside of them, and when they have a safe space, the words can come out of them with force and fury.

Remember that authors are responsible for marketing. Whether you’re on a small press or a big press, if you want people to read your book, then you’ll have to sell it. Unfortunately, even as deeply spiritual people, we are not above marketing. So how do you do it? Here are a few suggestions.

You are probably way more fascinating than Elizabeth Gilbert, but before you write that best seller that has Julia Roberts itching to play your role, know that the way to get published is to… well… get published. 

Lately I've been getting a lot of questions about how to get published, how to build a platform, how to become a speaker. So, I'm dedicating this week to some of the questions that people ask me. Yesterday, I looked at why a platform is important. Today, I want to talk about the the big ideas. All of this, of course, is just how I do it. There are many others who will give you different advice.

So you have this book bursting within you. You really, really want to get published. You start lingering at the bookstore tables at major conferences in order to talk to people in publishing about how to do it and they say, “It’s all about the platform.”