Category: Challenges
From Inclusion to Integration
This month, the Jewish community is marking Jewish Disability Awareness Month, as it has since February 2008. Throughout February, congregations and communal organizations of all stripes will be holdi... Read More
Hide it Under a Bushel? No! by Dawnn Brumfield
It is disheartening to see that even in the 21st century many black church leaders still hesitate to approach topics of sexuality, in general, and homosexuality, specifically. I find it distressing th... Read More
On Queers, Context, and the United Methodist Church
The United Methodist Church still maintains that “homosexuality is not compatible with Christian teaching.” As a denomination, the church prohibits same gender marriages and the ordination of any ... Read More
James Baldwin and the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing
The 16th Street Baptist Church sits in the middle of downtown Birmingham, Alabama. During the heart of the Civil Rights movement, when Birmingham was known across the nation as “Bombingham,” march... Read More
V-Day: A Universal Love Story?
When Valentine’s Day rolls around each year, why do you celebrate? I was sitting in class the other day and I glanced over at a fellow student’s daily planner. She was looking at the follo... Read More
Strangers in an All Too Familiar Land
I spent the last two weeks in a land named holy by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, seeking peace, understanding, wholeness. My travels took me through countless narratives, religious expressions, po... Read More
A Woman is Acquired
“A woman is acquired [in marriage] in three ways…by money, by document, or by intercourse.” This is how the first mishnah in the tractate Kiddushin begins. In just this sentence alone we gain a ... Read More
What’s the Big Deal About Interfaith Marriage?
I attended the 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Melbourne, Australia. I was amazed by the preponderance of sacred fashion statements (the hats!), the number of New Age practitioners from ... Read More