The true cost to veterans? 44 daily suicides According to just released Defense Department data, suicides among active-duty service members increased by more than 40 percent between 2015 and 2020. The numbers jumped by 15 percent in 2020 alone. A 2021 study by the Cost
Here I sit in quiet stillness. For 30 minutes, there is no scrolling, swiping, messaging, emailing, chores, work, or needs of any form. For 30 minutes, I kneel before a makeshift altar composed of two candles and a vaguely anthropomorphic stone statue. For 30 minutes,
In 2002, when Pulitzer Prize winner, Chris Hedges published War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, he wrote in depth about the warrior culture that is the USA. “The communal march against an enemy generates a warm, unfamiliar bond with our neighbors, our community,
It all starts on the playground What a delight to learn that my 14-year-old grandson and a bunch of his friends had organized their own recreational league basketball team that includes no adult coach and no practices. It’s meant purely to have plain old fun
Straightness is a construct that seems here to stay It’s apparently been wishful thinking that I thought our culture was moving beyond the straight role that was necessary to keep patriarchy going in the U.S. When I wrote Scared Straight: Why It’s So Hard to
James Dobson, the late founder of Focus on the Family and an adviser to five U.S. presidents, became one of the most influential evangelical leaders in the United States from the late 20th century onward. Through his 70-plus books, radio broadcasts and political lobbying, he
Note: This is the text of a letter sent by the author to the Parliament of New South Wales, which includes Sydney, Australia, in support of a bill banning sexual orientation / gender identity change efforts (SOCE/GICE). The state’s Premier, Chris Minns, has voiced his
Theater and dramatics rolled up in song Every Black History Month, there is always a tribute to the Black church and its gospel music. The contribution of LGBTQ+ singers to the canon of gospel music, however, is never front and center in celebration of its
Should you stay, or should you go? It continues to be one of the major crises for religious believers today. What should we do with “these people” whom our denomination has marginalized for centuries? For some it’s LGBTQ+ people. The United Methodist Church, for example,
Every culture has them. And we know what ours are. They’re the stereotypes, the popular definitions, the expectations, the images of what a lesbian, gay man, bisexual person, transgender person, queer person, or any of the others in that alphabet are supposed to be. They’ve