I’m giving myself permission to do a bad job right now. Sometimes when I do that it turns out to be better than when I try to do a good job. I’m sure there’s a lesson in that, but I refuse to learn it. In any case, what I’m about to write is expected to be short, narcissistic, and not …
Disability Theology: A Primer
At Church in the Cliff, we make a big deal about being as welcoming and inclusive of all people as we can possibly be. So it hurt a little when one of our friends pointed out that we’re not very welcoming or hospitable to people with disabilities. In church parlance, it was convicting. She was right. We’re not overtly cruel …
St. Rosetta Tharpe
Rosetta Tharpe is known as “the Godmother of Rock ‘n’ Roll.” I would go farther and say the she invented rock ‘n’ roll. She also fostered advances in the genre after it was born. But she couldn’t have done any of it without the racial and religious context in which she grew up. Rosetta Tharpe used her immeasureable natural talent …
St. Brigid of Kildare
St. Brigid of Kildare did not get to tell her own story. She was most likely illiterate, as were most people in 5th century Ireland. But stories about her circulated after her death and were eventually written down. By men. Men in the Church. And because each of her hagiographies (called “Lives” in the tradition) draws from this same oral …
St. Trayvon Martin
When we think of saints, we typically think of their virtue. Virtue, of course, implies agency. But Trayvon Martin didn’t choose any of this. My guess is that he and his family would rather have him back than to be honored as a saint. I imagine they would trade everything and more to have him back. When we look at …
Boys Will Be Boys
In a couple of weeks, I’m going to a high school reunion. Not my real high school reunion – I’ve never been invited to one of those – but a reunion of my closest friends from high school. As I think about those friends, all men, I’m reminded that none of us are rapists. It is certainly possible that I’m …
The End
I don’t know if I was being clever by ending our Summer of Love series talking about ending relationships, but here we are. Ending relationships is not well or compassionately supported, not in our culture and certainly not in our churches. The irony for churches is that a part of the Gospel, if it is Good News for anyone at …
How To Have Good Relationships – All of Them!
I’ve been married for twenty-five years and I’ve never figured out how. I don’t mean that I don’t know what I’m doing, though that may also may be true. I mean I have never really tried to figure out how one is to be married – and certainly not married well. I suppose this is how we all do it. …
The Slippery Slope of Expansive Love
Much is lost to pre-history, but it seems that the story of marriage begins in property and power. This may seem a cynical and pessimistic view; it takes no account of the love that we share with our partners. But we must be careful not to read our ideas of love and family onto the past. Though the biological phenomena …
This is My Body
(We are so grateful for our intern, Lindsey Mosher Trozzo, who gave us the gift of this homily on Sunday.) This is my body. This is my body that grounds me, that bring me down to earth when I get lost in my head, my hypotheticals, my plans, my criticisms, my should and should-nots. This is my body that reminds …