Category: Challenges
Is “Common ground” Exclusive?
When I came to seminary I immediately jumped in to the world of pluralism and interfaith studies. Much of my own questioning and faith journey had been inspired by people of other faiths, and I was in... Read More
Atonement, Not Attunement: The Beauty of Repentance
I’m all too familiar with Christian guilt. One side of my family is Irish Catholic (they of the famed “Catholic guilt”) and the other side a mix of Appalachian Protestants, from the backwoods Ba... Read More
Muslims in the Media – and What I’m Going to Do About It
“A free press earned its spot in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution because of its role in educating and enlightening citizens, and thus enabling us to practice self-government. But char... Read More
Are You Really Pro-Life? A Christian Critique of a Common Pro-Life Stance
My regular perusing of Facebook has revealed that our social media posts these days convey a pretty narrow range of ideas, updates, and occurrences: Halloween costumes (“Look how cute my kids are!... Read More
Making Our Presence Known
What do you get when you cross an extroverted middle-aged woman with a profound developmental disability and a ton of unsuspecting tourists at the small town diner? The answer: lots of confused look... Read More
Careful Forgiveness: Atoning with Life in the New Year
“Let us forget with generosity those who cannot love us.” Pablo Neruda Yom Kippur is the Jewish day of atonement between humanity and the divine. Jewish tradition dictates that atonement between h... Read More
Religious Freedom to Discriminate: Unraveling Archetypes, Anachronism, and Apartheid for Our Collective Survival – Part V
What if it were no niggas Only master teachers? I stay woke (dreams dreams)…[1] – Erykah Badu Introduction As an Alice Walker[2] Womanist pastoral theologian, I draw on the lives of African... Read More
Love the Other as Yourself: Religious texts and peacemaking
Pope Francis recently denounced the use of religion to justify war, in comments addressed to faith leaders and victims of the conflicts in the Middle East, who are assembled for this year’s World Da... Read More