Do politics belong in church?
11 pastors and theologians weigh in
Why our church's centennial was worth celebrating
“The history of a church,” one member wrote in an old scrapbook I found, is “an unfolding pageant of life.”
My kids don’t have school today, and I’m cheering for their teachers
School closures are difficult and disruptive. But this is how public protest works.
A feel-good story's power and limits
There is a danger in responding to a film like Hidden Figures by congratulating ourselves on how far we’ve come.
The joy of things and the trap of excess
An ethicist and an anthropologist ask: How much is too much?
Recipes for a revolution
The More-with-Less cookbook called for responsible eating long before it was cool.
Equipped for your needs: My church's magical supply closet
On the seventh floor of Hogwarts, Harry Potter and his friends discover a magical room. My church contains such a room.
North Carolina's absurd anti-discrimination bill isn't the final word
I love North Carolina. I’m not a native, but I’ve been here for a while now. The midwesterner in me still thrills at the possibility of a day trip to the mountains or the beach. I regularly try to convince my friends to move here. It’s a great place, I tell them … except for the state legislature.
Last week, the legislature outdid itself in embarrassing the state in front of the rest of the country, a feat it has perfected in recent years.
Virtual church on a snow day
I was concerned that this was a ridiculous idea that would result in a giant train wreck forever archived in cyberspace. I was wrong; it was awesome.
Names with faces: An ID card turns strangers into neighbors
A lack of ID caused problems for immigrants—as well as for the police who encountered them. Through a series of dialogues, a solution emerged.
The church assembled: Why I love denominational gatherings
How should we Disciples make GA work going forward? I don't know the answer. I do know that we are obligated to one another only by our relationships.
When Joy gets complicated
Sometimes it’s the child’s job to let go of old memories in order to make room for the new. Our task is to hold the old ones and to remind her that she was young once.
Reading and leaping
We laughed with hope as we witnessed a new generation hearing an ancient truth.
Here comes the parade
Last Saturday was a stay-at-home-and-read-a-book-with-a-cup-of-something-warm-in-your-hands sort of day. It was the kind of damp cold that goes straight to your bones and chills your toes so that they don't get warm for the rest of the day. It was not, by any stretch of the imagination, a good parade-watching day.
And yet, there we were, lined up outside the library on Church Street, umbrellas in hand, peering down the street and waiting for the sirens to indicate that the parade had started.
My daughter's Moral Monday field trip
On Monday evening, my daughter and I joined several hundred others outside the Capitol in Raleigh, North Carolina. We were there for the latest in a series of Moral Monday rallies organized to oppose the legislature’s policies toward (among other things) social programs, education, environmental legislation, and voting rights.
The statehouse is a solid 90-minute drive from our house, so it makes for a long evening on a school night.