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
“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
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
I recently received an email from the fine editorial staff at State of Formation informing me that I am officially a lapsed contributor and my posting account might be deleted. This is very true. I ha...Read More
If I am finally honest, I admit I am unhappy. I am uncomfortable with the way things are currently in my life. And I rise every day to a simple task of reform: removing brick by unhappy brick, those f...Read More
My boyfriend and I live 307 miles apart (thank you, Google maps, for your precision). Long distance is not the easiest way to start a relationship, let alone to maintain it. When we manage to sneak a ...Read More
No one knows what to say in moments like this. But we utter many things about God. Do we really mean these things? The divine love is not complicit in their deaths. The divine love does not call the...Read More
A man armed with guns walked into an elementary school and killed many people, most of whom were children. My hands shake even just typing such words. The news reports are still being updated, and the...Read More
I’m posting this on Election Day, because it just occurred to me now. I’m also writing today as the only thing I can write as, sometimes: as a Christian. I hope that those of other faiths ...Read More
The writing prompt in this week’s digest to State of Formation scholars asked, “Does it matter that Jesus may have had a wife?” I was surprised by the strength of my own response: a gray, hard-...Read More