What a horrible day for America. Sincere prayers for former President Trump, for those injured or killed, and for all those terrorized by this senseless shooting.
I have condemned every mass shooting, and I urge everyone to do the same…
Read moreWhat a horrible day for America. Sincere prayers for former President Trump, for those injured or killed, and for all those terrorized by this senseless shooting.
I have condemned every mass shooting, and I urge everyone to do the same…
Read moreI haven’t said much about any of the recent political news concerning the debate, the SCOTUS decision, or who should/should not be the nominees this Fall. I’m still super hesitant to say anything, because there is so much noise and…
Read moreJEFF DAVIS WAS TRYING TO GO TO TEXAS
Jeff Davis, he was trying to go to Texas.
Thought that he could find some Rebels there.
Robert Lee already had surrendered.
Loss lay heavy in the Southern air.
He tried to…
Each week, I have the joy of watching a group of parents and children play in Roberts Forest. A few of these are members of our church, but most of them are simply part of the large number of neighbors…
Read moreThis evening the North Texas Conference of the UMC will ordain an openly gay man who has been faithfully serving the church of my confirmation: Lovers Lane UMC.
And this has me thinking about Ed Upton.
When I first came…
Read moreSEEKING STILL
All my life I’ve searched for inner peace
To make the voices cease
A sweet release
That leads me to a calm
And now and then I find a pathway there
Some moment without care
A jewel rare…
And now, we exhale.
At least, I do.
Now, except for a few more tiny “jots,” the harm is fully gone.
The Original Sin of the United Methodist Discipline regarding human sexuality, the word “Incompatible,” is gone.
Everywhere from our…
I am still holding my breath.
It’s probably my age.
It’s definitely my PTSD.
What is happening at General Conference is truly headspinning and filled with such joy for our FUTURE.
But there is one final sin of the…
I’m going to update this blog post each day during the 2024 General Conference, as a way of keeping folks informed, and offering my own view as to what’s happening.
Some quick background, before we get started…
Feel free to…
There are as many as 100 International Delegates not at United Methodist General Conference this year, many of whom are from Africa.
This has caused many questions. Allegations have been made that General Conference failed to communicate with them quickly…
Read moreGeneral Conference starts today, and I am thinking about this song and what might happen these next few weeks.
I don’t think it’s an accident that I was introduced to this song by clergywomen colleagues. We were all sitting around…
Read moreThis week, the General Conference of the United Methodist Church will begin in Charlotte, North Carolina. This will be the first “regular” General Conference since 2016. I thought I would put down a few thoughts ahead of this potentially momentous…
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Frederick Buechner once described “Prayer” in a way that leaps to my mind this week, in these days after our communal experience of the Eclipse.
Buechner wrote:
“We all pray whether we think of it as praying or not. The…
Read moreThese days after a solar eclipse are probably a good time to remind ourselves of this extended quote from St. Augustine of Hippo.
(picture taken by me during “totality”)
St. Augustine was a wordy writer, so I’ve edited it down…
Read moreIncreasingly, I am convinced the opposite of “faith” is not “doubt,” but “fear.” This is because the deepest level of “faith” is not “belief,” but “trust;” and the opposite of “trust/faith” is “fear/anxiety.”
Instead of faith’s opposite, doubt is a…
Read moreThe greatest trick Constantine ever played on our world was to convince us that the Empire that killed Jesus should actually embrace the religion that bears his name.
Why this isn’t self-obviously shocking to us today is a symptom of…
Read moreDear Donald Trump:
Migrants are not animals.
Migrants are not subhuman.
Using such language about them is a dangerous and fascist tactic, designed to dehumanize and create “The Other.” Real leaders don’t light these kinds of matches and stoke these…
Read moreIt’s now more than a week past Tracy Chapman’s incredible performance at this year’s Grammy Awards Show. I can’t stop thinking about it. And it’s reminded me of my favorite Tracy Chapman song.
Most people’s favorite is likely the big…
Read moreThis very hour might be a really good time to re-read this editorial by Paul Jones. It appeared in newspapers, one day after The Beatles first appearance on Ed Sullivan, sixty years ago tonight.
The cultural historian in me wonders…
Read more