Category: <span>Religion</span>

I have been asked to reflect upon extinction. First, perhaps because I write during a terrifying global pandemic, my thoughts turn to the massive explosions triggered as comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 broke up and slammed into Jupiter in 1994. Jupiter is but a speck in space…but so massive 1300 Earths would fit inside. The spectacular collisions made palpable the extraordinarily slim but shockingly real chance life on Earth might be suddenly, unexpectedly extinguished. By 1998 Hollywood had released Deep Impact and Armageddon and NASA had initiated a Near Earth Object Search program.
Considering creation’s ferocious impulse to life—in acidic hot springs at Yellowstone, in deep ocean vents, in acid baths—and two trillion galaxies, I expect life flourishes throughout the cosmos. So, even if life on Earth is obliterated by a massive comet or a nuclear winter, we are probably not talking about the end of all life in the cosmos. Moreover, myriad building blocks of life would likely survive most ea..

When COVID-19 had Americans scrambling to stores and searching online for hard to find facial masks, I simply went to my bedroom where I already had half a box. I have the masks because I live in Detroit 48217, the most polluted ZIP code in Michigan. Oftentimes, I must cover my face in the middle of the night to block horrific odors and chemicals emitted by nearby industrial facilities that seep into my home. It is an unfathomable way to live.
As people living away from factories experience the COVID pandemic, they are getting a glimpse of what it feels like to be trapped in one’s home with a harmful, unseen element that can damage your health or take your life. The coronavirus pandemic mirrors the impact pollution overwhelmingly has on Black people trapped in urban communities across America.
Photo of polluted house by Emma Lockridge My community is within a four-mile radius of more than 29 mega polluting facilities that are regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency and our..

The Committee on the General Assembly (COGA) has a very weighty set of decisions in front of it. The General Assembly, currently scheduled for June 20-27, 2020 in Baltimore, MD, likely cannot be held physically during that time frame. Yet the church is mandated to have one in 2020, and there are legal and financial decisions that need to be made by a representative group of commissioners in order to renew the rotations of leadership and membership of national agencies. Further, many of the reports to this central decision-making body are time sensitive.
So the logical decision, if you have limited resources and capacity, is to pick the most essential or critical items for the institution and have a process to vote on them. Yes? No.
Staff of the Office of the General Assembly made the initial narrowing of the business and the COGA—who are elected volunteers—rightly opened the process a bit, partly as required by the church’s “open meetings” policy. They also effectively conducted a ..

Many people are experiencing our most recent days as if we were in the movie “Groundhog Day”, where the main character finds himself living the same day, over and over again, with no clear end in sight; that is, until he begins to acknowledge his faults, makes efforts to better himself and helps others, and in the process, his suffering ends, his future opens, and he discovers true love.
As with the movie itself, so with the Pandemic outbreak — we find ourselves with an opportunity to learn the reality of our interconnections, and the threat of suffering repeated crises, be they a pandemic or the climate crisis, if we don’t understand our moment and its lessons.
The proof that we can overcome, albeit with sacrifice, has never been clearer. We have a great opportunity in our hands.
Our generation is witnessing how intimately related we are, to be part of the one body, called planet Earth, and how easily we can affect each other. This is our time to harvest wisdom, to act and change..

April is National Poetry Month. Every Monday in April Unbound will celebrate National Poetry month by publishing a poem by a nationally recognized poet that speaks in one way or another to what we are all facing in this time of pandemic.
In the first column, I shared my background and experience with poetry. I don’t need to do that again. As I share these poems, I remember what I learned many years ago in my first poetry class as an undergraduate: a good poem should, usually, be able to speak for itself and does not elaborate introduction before being read. In light of that wisdom I will keep my introductions brief.
The third selection in this series is by Billy Collins. Billy Collins has received numerous awards and was appointed Poet Laureate for the United States 2001-2002. The poem “Days”celebrates the fragility and preciousness of life, of each day. On occasion, I’ve used the first verse of this poem in worship as part of the “Call to Worship”. You may want to check out these o..