Category: Congregation
Should Faith Communities Use Trigger Warnings?
A growing number of college campuses are considering including “trigger warnings” on literature and writing that students may find upsetting due to past trauma. The Great Gatsby, for example, may ... Read More
Confession of a Gay Hypocrite
I have a confession to make: Despite all of the ways I speak and write and work for the cause of LGBTQ justice, I recently became a hypocrite to that cause. The scene for this failure was a visit to m... Read More
On Loving the Stranger — Parashat Kedoshim
This week, we are returning once more to Parashat Kedoshim, filled with its many interpersonal mitzvot. In the opening verse of the 19th chapter of Leviticus, God enjoins us to be holy, for God, Godse... Read More
“I Wanted to Be an Iconoclast”: A Protest Against the Pledge of Allegiance and a Call to True Iconoclasm
This past week, my stickler-for-the-rules seven-year-old son got in trouble at school for refusing to stand for and recite the Pledge of Allegiance. This refusal came not from a strong familial protes... Read More
Why Church?
For a class I am currently taking about young adult ministry, we were given the simple prompt, “Why church?” Below is my response to this simple yet profound question of whether or not the Churc... Read More
Seventy Times Seven, or Why Religious Communities Need to Get Smarter About Mental Health, Right Freaking Now.
We are all humans. All humans make mistakes. Mistakes can (and should, in my opinion) be forgiven. That being said, this does not give us license to keep on making these mistakes. There is part of a l... Read More
Streams Run Uphill
In an excellent new book, Streams Run Uphill: Conversations with Young Clergywomen of Color, Ruth-Aimée Belonni-Rosario writes about the promises and pitfalls of colonialism in her own spiritual jour... Read More
On Bringing Sacred Gifts and Our Sacred Selves
Last week’s Torah portion, Vayakhel, opens with Moses’ gathering the entirety of the Jewish people together. After reiterating the singular importance of Shabbat observance, specifically focusing ... Read More