“A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet.” Current headlines aside, I … Continue reading “A person is smart. People are dumb.”
What is the invitation? (A Confirmation Sermon)
Today is Confirmation Sunday! For those who have never been through Confirmation an easy summary is that many of the youth here in this congregation were baptized when they were itty bitties by no choice of their own, but rather by the witness and promise of their families and their faith community to raise them … Continue reading What is the invitation? (A Confirmation Sermon)
Vote For Your Neighbor
When I was first able to vote, elections felt a lot like football games. Winning and losing. Which moral compass would be victorious on Election Day. Losing an election simply meant the country was morally headed against my ideals and we could try again in a couple of years. That was the privilege I was … Continue reading Vote For Your Neighbor
Five years…
Five years ago today, I sat down a group of Volunteer Young Life leaders at Saranac and told them what was taking place in their hometown of Charlottesville, VA. For months prior White Supremacists had been gearing up their presence in the city, the KKK had shown up, small protests on the Downtown Mall. I … Continue reading Five years…
“It comes before the birth…”
Stories and lived experiences I do believe change minds more than anything else. A sheltered world is an ignorant one. Of course new awareness brings its own disruptions and burdens and we will each have our own opinions about when and at what age or how much people ought to know about any given thing. … Continue reading “It comes before the birth…”
The new Young Life document
In every conversation I’ve had with Young Life staff and leadership since “Do Better Young Life” began nearly a year ago, the one attainable ask we all felt we could get from the ministry was public clarity. Perhaps one day that will come. In my view it is harmful for youth to be asked to … Continue reading The new Young Life document
Young Life & Binary Safety Policies
Ministries like Young Life need to understand that gay and non-binary people actually exist. They are real people, humans, they have feelings. We live in a non-binary world despite the specifics of the Genesis poem. Sure there’s night and day but there’s also dusk and dawn. There’s land and sea, there’s also swamps and marshes. … Continue reading Young Life & Binary Safety Policies
Questions.
In recognizing my abundance of posts, let this be the last post for the week: It is regarding questions I have asked people. Regarding election fraud, if you do not trust the courts, the states, the governors, the secretary of states, both Republicans and Democrats when they tell you there was no substantial election fraud, … Continue reading Questions.
Joy is the invitation.
I know so many people who voted for Trump. I believe your support of this man was wrong in a way that transcends partisanship, but for me and my heart, that's not the end of our story. In all the ugliness that has been brought to the surface over the last several years, I met … Continue reading Joy is the invitation.
The Soul of our Vote: a post for Election Day
How are you feeling today? What is happening in your body? How do you feel about the choice before you? What worries sit close to your heart? It’s hard to imagine any person not feeling some sense of anxiousness about what is about to take place in our country.Whether you like Biden or not, the … Continue reading The Soul of our Vote: a post for Election Day