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”
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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)”
Less Warmth From Other Suns
Over vietnamese spring rolls this evening, I shared a story with some fellow-immigrant friends of mine that they noted captures the immigrant experience, so I’m sharing it, with the hope that my parents won’t mind.
Whose womb?
I find myself among a lot of people shaking their heads and sighing, “Kids today…” It’s not my beloved gray-haired church members, though. It’s feminists my age or a bit older, experiencing the profound lack of concern among people in their twenties about the re-emerging battleground that is reproductive rights.
You can’t go with this or that…you can only go with OTHER
I was on a conference call the other night for the committee that evaluates board nominations for all the different arms of our denomination. Someone was giving his report on the makeup of the NAPAD board (North American Pacific and Asian Disciples), of which I’m a member. He said, “Well, their racial-ethnic percentages are great–almostContinue reading “You can’t go with this or that…you can only go with OTHER”
The clutched purse phenomenon and The Warmth of Other Suns
I pulled my suitcase and my laptop behind me as I walked from Lake Merritt BART station towards home last night. I got to my least favorite part of the walk–a stretch with no businesses, poor lighting, and the highway underpass. A guy crossed the street towards me and I deliberately worked to make myContinue reading “The clutched purse phenomenon and The Warmth of Other Suns”
How do we render visible the invisible?
I can feel it already. You’re going to roll your eyes when I say it. You’re going to think I got it from that movie about tall blue people who live in the rainforest. But it’s true–I think one of the most powerful things we can do for people is to SEE them, to renderContinue reading “How do we render visible the invisible?”
Not THAT kind of church
Last night I had dinner with a high-ranking naval officer and her wife who works in an optometrist’s office–a mixed race couple–and heard about the challenges of working at Guantanamo Bay from a woman’s perspective. This morning I had breakfast with a teacher and her wife who’s a drummer–also a mixed race couple–who discussed PauloContinue reading “Not THAT kind of church”
What courage looks like
I can’t believe it was two years ago that I went, a little nervous about what my role was, to support a few kitchen crew members who had been locked out of the Castlewood Country Club for holding on to their right to health benefits. I didn’t yet know that in the previous year, managementContinue reading “What courage looks like”
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)”
Sandhya Rani Jha 