As Walter Brueggemann argues in Sabbath as Resistance, contemporary US culture is based on excessive production. “Our motors are set to run at brick-making speed,” he writes, alluding to the ancient Hebrews in the Exodus stories who made bricks with and without straw, at and beyond quota, so they could meet their enslavers “insatiable” demands […]
Blood on the bench
The story of the Arkansas 8 dominated Easter weekend. Several men have been sentenced to die in Arkansas this month, and the governor of AR, “concerned” about the viability of the execution drugs, rush-scheduled a series of executions. Campaigners rallied to stop them, and have so far managed to hold off four. But one of […]
Honoring the forerunners
Tonight I helped Intersections International to celebrate its 10th anniversary and honor a forerunner in the Christian LGBTQIA and social justice movements. Dr. Randall Miller, now at the Arcus Foundation and formerly of both the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund and the Pacific School of Religion, grasped decades ago that religion can be a […]
A vision for the left-handed world
There’s a running gag on social media. Something terrible in the world happens or society slaps minoritized people with yet another unnecessary restriction, and folks respond with something like “Where’s the spaceship; get me out of here!” It happened again today, when Popular Science published a story about congregating humpback whales near South Africa. “So […]
Unwelcome by design
Sometimes it’s easy to know when you aren’t wanted. What gives that away might not be specific words said. The giveaway might instead be the arrangement of words, the justification of exclusive policies, or the perpetuation of vague criteria like “company fit” that keep the same old kinds of people in and the same old […]
Water is life and solidarity is essential
In the snowy rain today, hundreds of people from all traditions and ethnic backgrounds marched through downtown Washington, D.C., from the Government Accountability Office past the Trump International Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue to LaFayette Square near the White House. We were led by drummers from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the women of Indigenous Women […]
