Just a quick post for you bibliophiles out there. I read a lot of books every year. This year, in no particular order, here are some that really stood out. A number of them are not new books. Turtles All the Way Down by John Green I have struggled with OCD at least since my teen years, and this YA novel by John Green is the only fictional work I’ve experienced that really “gets” what it’s like inside my head... Read more
My heart has ached and almost broken as I have seen leaders I admired again and again and again show they have no godly judgment, that they can excuse evil whenever it is convenient for their politics, which reign supreme. Read more
I wrote about Daniel Melvill Jones and Kyle Marshall’s podcast, Assumptions, previously here. The constructive dialogue these two good friends have achieved in their discussions resonates with me as someone who also aspires to communicate respectfully with people who are different from me. In my writing here on the blog, and in discussions below posts, I’ve been privileged to get to know a number of people who come from far different perspectives, including atheists and agnostics. Some have even become off-blog... Read more
Sexual abuse. I’m tired of it all. I’m tired of the rampant disrespect shown to women in this society. Read more
Donald Trump’s Gospel is as follows: success means being dominant over everyone else, at all cost; the only true happiness in life is being able to be a winner, not a #loser. What Trump Values To tell what a person values, we must see what he treats with disgust. And over and over again, President Trump has shown that what matters most to him is domination, winning, and success. Recognize any of these?: “I like the people who don’t get... Read more
“Don’t hate,” the Facebook commenter said to me after I stated a position about a current event. I hadn’t said anything hateful. I had said something challenging. It isn’t the first time I’ve heard this kind of response. While the right wing (along with certain progressives like President Obama) rightly criticizes the fragility on college campuses these days, the right–including the religious right–has its own problem. So without denying the problem on the liberal side, I would like to speak... Read more
OCD and Fear I have struggled with bouts of OCD since my teenage years. When I first began to experience intrusive thoughts, terrified, I tried to run from them. To relieve the anxiety, I engaged in compulsions, repetitive activities that feel like control without actually being control. And so I purged my belongings, obsessively washed my hands, and compulsively confessed real and imagined sins. And I tried so hard my brain hurt not to think my intrusive thoughts. But the... Read more
I want to talk about something that has been on my heart for a while now. Christian friends, we need another way forward. It’s time all of us take a deep look inside and note how our community and even we individually have ravaged, traumatized, abused, and deeply wounded the LGBT community. This shouldn’t be about what we can get out of it. This shouldn’t be about controlling an outcome with the gay people in our lives. It... Read more
The Bible passages for today can be found here. This week, I heard a story on NPR of a little baby, born in the United States to now-undocumented parents who had overstayed their visas in the US: “When 2-month-old Isaac Enrique Sanchez was diagnosed with pyloric stenosis, a condition that causes vomiting, dehydration and weight loss in infants.” They were told they had to go to Driscoll Children’s Hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas for the operation Isaac needed. They wanted... Read more
We don’t think we need the mercy of God. We don’t think we need the mercy of other people. Read more
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