Why I'm grieving Elizabeth Warren’s exit
Unlike Hillary Clinton’s defeat in 2016, Warren’s defeat came at the hands of her own party.
How the security culture has burdened women
Natalie Fixmer-Oraiz shows how the post-9/11 US has intensified control of women’s bodies.
I learned to pray at Notre Dame Cathedral
Was the familiar God I knew as a preacher's kid the same one who inspired such greatness?
God's hands that stop gun violence
What if we did the work of God in the world?
The Spirit's work, denied after the fact
United Methodists have been down this road before. What's different this time is that Karen Oliveto is already a bishop.
When theology fails
After Ruth Everhart was raped, she had to rebuild her beliefs about God’s will.
What I know about knowing and being known
In a Century cover story, Katherine Willis Pershey mentions that she infuriated a friend with her beliefs about sex before marriage. That friend was me.
Learning hope from Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel has died. Reading the obituaries, the thing that astounds me is the thing that has always astounded me: how young he was. Eighty-seven now, in 2016. I’ve been burying World War II veterans throughout my years of pastoral ministry. How could Wiesel only be 87?
Pure Christian sex?
Human sexuality is fraught, particularly when mixed with the complexities of culture, religion, patriarchy, and adolescence.
A pope's love
The day after Valentine’s Day, the BBC offered the world an unexpected and unusual love story. Nearly 40 years ago, two Polish-born philosophers began a correspondence, one that continued for more than 30 years and ended with a visit the day before one of them died.
What "we" shall overcome?
At the vigil for Ferguson, I stumbled over singing "We Shall Overcome." I have remarkably little, personally, to overcome in my life.
Misogyny, #yesallwomen, and the role of the church
The shooting that rocked California last week raised questions about treating the mentally ill and why there are so many semi-automatic weapons on our streets. But what caught the nation's eye this time around was that the shooter made clear his motives: Twenty-two-year-old Elliot Rodger hated women. He wrote a manifesto announcing his intention to reap vengeance on women for denying him the sexual attention he believed was his entitlement.
David and Goliath, by Malcolm Gladwell
I'm delighted that Malcolm Gladwell has rediscovered his Christian faith. But I worry that David and Goliath is like the Bob Dylan album Saved.
Come out and say it
It’s National Coming Out Day, on which the LGBTQ community and its allies celebrate the courage of those who publicly claim their gender and sexual identities despite the risks involved....
When Antoinette Tuff saw a gunman as a human being
As I read the headline yesterday, my heart began to pound and my throat closed up: “School Clerk In Georgia Persuaded Gunman To Lay Down Weapons.” This was a good story—ultimately a hopeful one—but all I could see was “school” and “gunman."
A Year of Biblical Womanhood and Sabbath in the Suburbs
In a guinea pig memoir, the intrepid narrator tries on a practice for a period of time, often a year, in the hope that the project will lead to personal or prophetic insight, renewed hope for the future—and a book deal.