Spirituality. Politics. Music. Life.
I realize that the entire Christian world is waking up this morning to say something about Pope Francis. And I’ll ask you to trust that I will indeed get to my grief over this death, and what it means to the world. But deeper than that, for we United Methodists, was the death of Bishop […]
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If you find yourself recognizing JD Vance’s smirk, or even agreeing with it, right now you are doing great harm to our world. I know you’ve been taught otherwise. I know you’ve been taught the toxic lessons that White men are supposed to “lead,” and everyone else supposed to follow.
Read MoreThe angels were holding a washcloth over my mouth, and I was struggling against them.My arms and legs were thrashing.I was suddenly afraid that I could not breathe. I had awakened to find them basically on top of me, and I didn’t know what was happening. The angels were using a spray bottle to pour […]
Read MoreThe MAGA-GOP really IS saying “my choice” to the autonomy of actual women.
But theologically they also say “my choice” to “the Body of Christ.”
The two are, horrifically, interconnected.
One is the actions of actual human men toward human women, demanding an ownership of actual women’s bodily autonomy.
The other is a prior “theological ownership” over Jesus….demanding the control of the Body of Christ.
Frederick Buechner once described “Prayer” in a way that leaps to my mind this week, in these days after our communal experience of the Eclipse. Buechner wrote: “We all pray whether we think of it as praying or not. The odd silence we fall into when something very beautiful is happening, or something very good […]
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Dear Gov Abbott, I am writing you as a Christian pastor, and calling out your inclusion of the phrase “illegal immigrant” in your tweet regarding the senseless murders of five innocent people in Cleveland, Texas. I would remind you how our common faith in Jesus Christ insists that “In Christ there is no Jew or […]
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In our Methodist tradition, we (wrongly) claim “the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.” The research behind this story tells us: That does not appear to be true. We are lying to ourselves about what historical Biblical teaching actually said. Before we get into it, and for those who are confused….there’s an old […]
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This is different, isn’t it? We’ve been here before. We’ve been in church, the Sunday after some mass shooting…somewhere…and we’ve viscerally felt the horror and the shock. You’ve heard me preach on those Sundays. But this is so different. This is our home. Our city. Violence toward our police. In our downtown, where some of […]
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Friends, This blog is a message to delegates to the upcoming United Methodist General Conference. If you are a delegate, I hope you’ll watch it. If you know a delegate, I hope you’ll forward it to them. The primary message is this: “Restructuring” or “Reframing” will not help solve the intractable conflict over LGBT issues […]
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Donald Trump holds up various mirrors to American society. If you don’t understand this, you’ve probably misunderstood why he’s so popular. Trump’s outrageous political statements are a kind of Political Mirror for many Americans. Personally? I believe Trump does not share the core values of many of those who see their reflection in his Political […]
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