Category Archives: justice

A reflection from election day 2011.

I forgot I had written this piece when I was in a slightly more fatalistic place about my church. I’m posting it mostly because it’s worth letting people know I’m neurotic about honoring church/state separation, that I love voting, that I do still worry about my church, that being bivocational is really hard even thoughContinue reading “A reflection from election day 2011.”

A Holy Week Reflection

This is the week in the Christian calendar when we remember Jesus starting his week on “Palm Sunday” riding into Jerusalem as a form of political protest against the Roman empire’s own procession on the other side of the city who were reminding Israelites that even though they were celebrating Passover, a holy reminder thatContinue reading “A Holy Week Reflection”

Shaima Alawadi’s murder: Where is the outrage?

My heart is really aching, and I have to confess that it’s aching with sadness and also a low-grade anger. I was furious along with many others that on the other side of the country a young black man was killed because of what he was wearing (and even if the allegations are true thatContinue reading “Shaima Alawadi’s murder: Where is the outrage?”

5 things I’d like to share with men about women (including you, because I can tell you’re a very progressive man)

I got called out. Gently. But I got called out by a colleague of mine whom I respect immensely. He called me out because the other day I posted an article called 5 Ways Modern Men Are Trained to Hate Women. Now the piece is pretty harsh, and it paints in broad generalizations, and IContinue reading “5 things I’d like to share with men about women (including you, because I can tell you’re a very progressive man)”

The New Jim Crow and the church (another old post)

Note: This is a devotional piece I wrote for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in October 2010. It uses some church-y references that I’m happy to qualify if anyone wants it “translated.” 🙂 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. HeContinue reading “The New Jim Crow and the church (another old post)”

How do we talk across the divide?

Two things happened today that have me asking the question: how do we foster up healthy conversation about issues on which we differ greatly? The first thing was a fairly frivolous issue. I’m at the PANAAWTM conference right now (Pacific and Asian North American Asian Women in Theology and Ministry) and a fun and spryContinue reading “How do we talk across the divide?”

…for you were aliens in Egypt.

Note: This post was originally written for the e-news for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in California-Nevada on March 1, 2012. That is who I am referencing when I say “the region.” Exodus 22:21, NIV “Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt.” Last week there was an articleContinue reading “…for you were aliens in Egypt.”

“But there are lots of people of color who support this policy, so it isn’t racist”

In a recent article about Michelle Alexander’s phenomenal The New Jim Crow, a book on the impact of the war on drugs on Black men and women, James Forman, Jr. of Yale Law School raised a criticism or two, including that he feels the book “ignores the violent crime wave of the 1970s and minimizesContinue reading ““But there are lots of people of color who support this policy, so it isn’t racist””

Finding home (or, A million different Occupies)

I attended my very first Occupy the Hood meeting tonight. It’s not like I was unaware of the movement–my co-pastor and I expressed enthusiasm and concern about Occupy Oakland almost simultaneously almost from the beginning, and when we read this article http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/10/occupy_the_hood.php in October, we were pretty sure this was where we belonged. But thenContinue reading “Finding home (or, A million different Occupies)”