Category: Social Issues
Parashat Emor: Embodied Leadership and Its Discontents
In Parashat Emor (Leviticus 21-24), read this past week in synagogues around the world, we are introduced to the relatives for whom Kohanim (priests) are permitted to mourn, as well as a list of vario... Read More
A Prayer for Homeless Youth
Winter is loitering in Minnesota this year, even though we’ve asked it to move along. Last Thursday brought a half-foot of snow, and April 19th achieved a record low of 21 degrees before the sun ca... Read More
Boston: Meeting Hatred With Love
It strikes me as something of a cliché to start a blog with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. but nonetheless, here I go. I was reading a book on Sunday evening which cites King as imploring, “We... Read More
Happy Birthday, Stella: When Children Die
April 18th, 2013 Today marks Stella Joy Bruner-Methven’s fourth birthday. She died last year, on October 22nd, just days after she turned 3 1/2. Although today is Stella’s birthday, she does not t... Read More
Responding to Tragedy: Insights from Lutheran History
Lutherans have the unique distinction of being the only mainline Protestant denomination named after its founder. While other denominations take their name from their church structure (Presbyterians, ... Read More
Engaging Compassion: Boston and the interrelatedness of our own actions.
Boston. Baghdad. New York. Kabul. Tel Aviv. Gaza… Syria… Burma… Rwanda… Tibet… the sorrow of violent tragedies that I have learned in my generation seems to have crossed all the borders. The... Read More
Tragedy: A Quaker and an Anthropologist’s Response
How does your faith or ethical tradition inform your response to tragedies? In the wake of the devastating blasts in Boston, one Twitter user, Mike_FTW, has gained fame for stating: In times o... Read More
Grieve First, Tell Stories Later: Notes on Tragedy and Ideological Opportunism
On Monday, bombs went off at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, and today we’re tempted to tell stories when we ought to be grieving. The pundits have already started. (Apparently the first rul... Read More