We all have something to confess. — One year ago, I was wrong. I was wrong in a way that could have put others at risk. This is my confession. I can’t confess for you; I can only confess for me. …

The complacency next door is enabling the hate group “over there.” — On this Holocaust Remembrance Day, I think about how, as I learned about those unfathomable atrocities growing up, I compartmentalized it. I subconsciously thought of the Nazis and their sympathizers as some kind of special breed of evil person and that it happened then but somehow wouldn’t happen again. It’s…

Since it has to be explained, here you go. — Those of us in the white majority often operate with the myth of “all things equal,” the idea that we all share an equal playing field with equal expectations. In this mythical equal space, there’s no reason to say “Black lives matter,” because “all lives matter.” …

…and it’s a problem — In an exchange with some religious authorities of his day (Pharisees), Jesus was accused of breaking Jewish law about the Sabbath when he and his disciples were picking grain. His response included the assertion that “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mk 2:27). In other…

The idea that Christianity is primarily about what we believe in our head has gone unchallenged for too long. — What follows are two different versions of a conversation between Jesus and a rich man. Only one of them actually appears in the Bible. Do you know which one it is? Version #1: A certain ruler asked Jesus, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do…

Perhaps it is only the person of deep faith in God who can question that God in light of suffering. — Do you remember all the buzz around the release of Mother Theresa’s letters in book form after she died? (The book, which contained her personal correspondence with church leaders, published against her will, was released in September 2007). What I remember many in the media picking up on was not…

Nellie Gray is credited with founding the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., which first took place on January 22, 1974, the year following the infamous Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. According to its Wikipedia page, it was originally supposed to be a one-time event, but quickly garnered…

On January 20, Martin Luther King Jr. day, a group of overwhelmingly white men gathered in Richmond, VA to celebrate their right to carry the thing that was used to kill Martin Luther King Jr. They came to speak up for their right to carry…things they were carrying. …

Each year around the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, I try to read one of his speeches that I haven’t read before. This year, my attention was drawn to a speech he gave earlier in his public life. It was August 11, 1956. King delivered the featured speech at the…