Read the rest of the Via Negativa: The Hunger Games sermon series Jubilee! Circle, Columbia, S.C. Readings for the 18th Sunday after Pentecost: Let my life be given me. (Esther 7:1-6, 9-10, 9:20-22) Have salt in yourselves… (Mark 9:38-50) Be your note. (Rumi) Our first
A pastor I know prominently displays in his home a photograph depicting an impressive lightning bolt during a storm. He said it reminds him where the true power in the world lies – with God – not with humans. It is God who holds the
Garden of Grace United Church of Christ, Columbia, S.C. Readings for Trinity Sunday (First Sunday after Pentecost): 2 Corinthians 13:5-14, Matthew 28:16-20 Is it getting better, or do you feel the same? Will it make it easier on you, now you got someone to blame?
Readings: Exodus 33:12-23, Matthew 22:15-22 I used to think my dad was God. He was a Southern Baptist preacher and each Sunday I’d see him ascend onto the stage and take his place behind the pulpit. There he was – placed high above those of
Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25 He had real grit, that Joshua. When his fellow spies felt like grasshoppers and the Canaanites looked like giants, Joshua and his friend Caleb urged the Hebrews to take them on even though their compatriots threatened to stone them for their advice.
On Sept 21st, I read in the New York Times that the Vatican, under Pope Benedict, the former Joseph Ratzinger of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is considering the decision to bar all gays, even celibates, from the priesthood. My immediate reaction
I was beside myself with excitement. I fidgeted while I waited for the phone to ring. Had other lesbians known that I was waiting for Emily Saliers, one half of the lesbian icon musical duo the Indigo Girls, to call me I’d be the object
I first heard of Philip Yancey when his book What’s So Amazing About Grace? came out in 1997. Even though many people whom I respected raved about the book, I was not interested in reading the book. Why would I? It was written by a man
A number of years ago, at a parent’s night held at the school where I taught theology to junior high students, a parent asked a question no one had ever asked me before: “Who has been the greatest influence on your spiritual life?” I remember
“God Hates Fags!” “Matthew Shephard is Burning in Hell!” “No Tears for Queers!” Those were just some of the signs being held aloft by the protesters at this year’s Gay Pride Parade in Atlanta. The protesters had come all the way to Atlanta from their