Latest Articles
What I left out of my mother’s funeral sermon
I told the truth about her but not the whole truth.
We need to talk about climate change
Scientist Katharine Hayhoe recommends focusing on common ground and hope.
Black men I’ve mourned
I’ve preached more than 800 funeral sermons. Many of these deaths have marked me.
Maggie Nelson finds freedom in the emphatic middle
Her new essay collection examines how Americans thread the needle between care and constraint.
Preaching in the valley of actual death
My task at funerals is to share the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
July 31, Ordinary 18C Luke (12:13-21)
The lilies of the field don’t have student loans.
Fantasy and reality after Roe
One can imagine an anti-abortion politics that started with economic solidarity or righteous fury at male sexual license. But the thought experiment only demonstrates its own absurdity.
When I think of Downton Abbey, I think of the costumes
Beautiful objects in a sea of inequity and decadence
Encountering the sacred Black feminine
“God’s social location is nowhere near women or Black people. I had to start looking for an image of the Divine that can speak to that.”
How Christena Cleveland walked away from “whitemalegod”
The social psychologist went on a revolutionary pilgrimage in search of the sacred Black feminine.
Alleviating domestic child poverty is not complicated
We were just doing it, and then we stopped.
Reckoning with the careless ableism of the church
Amy Kenny’s call for disability justice leads with righteous anger but offers grace.
The Second Amendment has been shaped into an altar
Cowardly politicians sacrifice the helpless upon it.
Episode 18: Journalist Chris Hedges, author of Our Class
A conversation with Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Chris Hedges about his ordination and prison ministry, White liberals in the church, Jesus and insurrection, and more
Feeling US history
School districts and legislatures aren’t just challenging textbooks and curricula. They’re challenging feelings.
The world through Niebuhr’s eyes
38 scholars weigh in on Reinhold Niebuhr’s life and times, his allies and adversaries, his theology and ethics
Lawsuit against faith-based schools continues gaining steam
A class action lawsuit accusing the US Department of Education of wrongly allowing discrimination against LGBTQ students at faith-based schools has grown in number of participants and in general su...
First transgender bishop in ELCA resigns
The first transgender bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has resigned amid criticism over the decision to remove the pastor of a Latino congregation on the Feast of Our Lady of G...