As the pandemic continues to spiral out of control, it has consumed news media making little to no room for the fact that the US Justice Department has executed 3 men in the past couple of weeks. In the state of Tennessee, executions resumed in 2018 and has since executed 7 people. This inhuman and barbaric punishment continues to be swept under the rug and ignored while many Christians and Christian political leaders still cling to the practice. But this practice, though complex and complicated by the trauma experienced by surviving murder victims’ families, goes against the fundamental beliefs of the Christian faith.
Here are 5 reasons Christians Should Oppose the Death Penalty:
Christians believe that life overcomes death. Christians hold to the resurrection story of a Savior that overcomes death – a Savior that was sentenced to death and executed on a Roman Cross. We will never know the suffering of the victims of murder, but we can offer needed support to their families and comm..
When COVID-19 officially became a pandemic back in March, states, businesses, and schools were forced to shut down. School districts, administrators, and teachers were stepping into unchartered waters and asked to provide high quality education and teaching for the remainder of the school year to their students. Teachers were asked to become proficient and learn how to teach their students from home through the use of technology. Not only was this something new for parents, but teachers had to become miracle workers and technologically savvy overnight. Teaching my kindergarten students from my home while they sat in theirs proved to be challenging. We no longer had face-to-face interaction. They did not understand exactly what was happening. Teachers were losing sleep and working more hours in order to become better educators and have their students succeed during this large adjustment. Federal, state, and local government praised, thanked, and stated that we were truly essential.
Fa..
As I continue this journey toward ordination, I was asked by the Presbytery of Middle Tennessee to preach during the meeting where my ordination was approved. This sermon was based on Psalm 139 and Mark 5:1-20.
Where are the demons? What are the demons? What are the unclean spirits? Questions Christians have been asking for thousands of years. Demons have been equated with mental illness. Demons and unclean spirits have been equated with “being different,” being differently abled, being “crazy.” In scripture, it is the demons and unclean spirits that disciples were called to cast out. It was the demons and unclean spirits that impelled bodies like the man at the synagogue or the man here in our story from Mark – a man that is commonly known as the Gerasene Demoniac. Here we have a person, that we are told, who has an unclean spirit of some kind, causing his body to be indestructible. This spirit is manipulating his body to the point that he is so strong that people in his community, i..
Reading poetry is one of the ways some of us nourish our faith, a way we set or reset our inner compass and stay focused on the big picture, on the spiritual journey. Over the years, poetry has become an important part of my spiritual journey. In this monthly column, ‘Setting the Inner Compass,’ I will share some of the poems I find nourishing to the soul. All of the poems resonate on their own. Sometimes, like this month, the poems share a common theme.
The three poems in July remind us of the beauty of ordinary things: collard greens, blackbirds, and peaches. In these poems, each of these things affirm, in Lucille Clifton’s words, “the bond of living things everywhere”. The poet invites us to see something extraordinary in the ordinary, something transcendent in the everyday.
I thank the publishers for generously granting permission to use these poems. I offer a very special thanks to Julie Cadwallader-Staub for permission to publish her wonderful poem, “Blackbirds”.
Enjoy.
Pea..
Palm Sunday of March 2011 was unlike any Samir and Fatima (not their actual names) had experienced. For decades members of all the different Christian traditions in Homs, Syria gathered in this central square in the old quarter to share in a Palm Sunday procession. The streets would be crowded with celebrants. Others would fill the balconies, waving palm branches. In a neighborhood where church and mosque were built side-by-side, families of all religious traditions celebrated with one another.
This was not so in 2011. In 2011, Samir and Fatima were among the thousands filling the square, but this time to protest actions of the Syrian Government. This time to protest—demanding increased political freedoms to match the social and religious freedoms already experienced by Syrians across the country; to demand equal access to the increasing economic opportunities that had been developing in Syria over the previous 10 years. There was a glimmer of hope that maybe the impacts of a wide-spr..
Scattered throughout this country are statues and monuments dedicated to the remembrance of specific people in a specific time and place. For the South, it is quite common to stroll through a park and see the bust or a full figured cast of a man in bronze atop a cement pillar with engraved plagues telling the spectators the history behind these confederate soldiers or political leaders. These monuments are tall, robust, clad in “heritage” and “history”. And yet, they mark a moment in time when slavery was the foundational part of the economy, and violence toward Black people was so deeply engrained in society. Confederate monuments are not simply cement and bronze; they are intentionally placed racist markers meant to cement white supremacy within the culture of society.
Here are 7 things everyone should know about confederate monuments:
Symbols of oppression for Black people. During the period of Reconstruction and after the Civil War, organizations like the Daughters of the Confe..
The recent, tragic death of George Floyd and the resulting Black Lives Matter protests currently occurring throughout the United States and the world have fanned the flames of a movement that has burned for over sixty-five years. With new names and organizations entering the movement, the fight for civil rights continues to bring light to the darkness that social injustice and hate crimes create.
The current state of violence aimed at Black people and other minority groups has caused me to reflect on ways in which I have been both supportive of and problematic to the civil rights effort. In response, I’ve decided, among other things, to start this column which will focus on how the Church can positively participate in progressive justice movements. I am calling this column “Justice is a Verb”, which is a nod to Micah 6:8 where we are explicitly told to, “Do Justice”. This passage teaches us that Justice is an action. It is not passive, but something that we are supposed to do. Readin..
On a chilly day in February of this year, I was enjoying a delightful time with one of my daughters, replacing the radiator on her hand-me-down, 240,000 mile vehicle. Changing the radiator in the middle of my southwest Baltimore street made for some unexpectedly wonderful encounters. There was our mail carrier who reintroduced himself after he and I had met at a neighborhood party. An older woman, impressed by my daughter’s dirty hands, said to me, “You need to come and get my son off the couch. He won’t do nothing.” There was the neighbor who used to do his own car work and offered to loan tools should we need any, another neighbor who I learned refurbishes motorcycles (“I’ve been riding them since before I had a driver’s license!”) and the random stranger who drew out an 8” knife blade to help us remove a stuck hose. “Don’t worry,” he said somewhat reassuringly, “I won’t stick you.” I was reminded how, in the midst of so many challenges in our public life, most people in most places ..
In light of the recent Supreme Court Decision that prevented the Trump administration from revoking the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) policy due to failure to provide adequate justification, immigration is back on the top of everyone’s mind. Questions of the border particularly the US Southern Border have come into sharper focus. Moreover, as we enter another intense season, it is clear that President Trump will aim to use immigration and the Southern Border as another wedge issue to encourage voters to support his re-election. This paper reflects on the United States’ southern border and ponders its symbology and proposes a re-examination of how Christians should view the border in light of the gospel.
The border has unique symbolism and conjures thoughts of protection, filtration, separation, or insulation from danger. Borders are a critical part of the functional integrity of a country and allow for governments to track commerce, register individuals, and provide a l..
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