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 bad enough that Nazi symbols, rhetoric and general anti-Semitism is still around. It’s bad enough that we still have swastikas being spray-painted on walls. It’s bad enough that we still have arson and terrorist attacks being carried out against Jewish communities (it has happened twice in my county in the…

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.” In this mythical equal space, we can just put the events of January 6 behind us and say, ‘All those BLM protesters were violent too, so let’s just all calm down.’

It sounds impartial and fair-minded to many, apparently. Many people still genuinely do not understand why “all lives matter” is not an acceptable…

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 words, God does not come up with laws and then create humans to keep them. God creates humans, then guards their well-being with things like Sabbath rest.

This is one context in which I think about the problems of the Originalism of people like Amy Coney Barrett. Asked during her…

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 you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good-except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’” “All these I have kept since I was a boy,”…

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 her saintly insistence on working with the poor and forgotten, not her deep love for her fellow sisters, but the revelation in some of her letters that she was “losing her faith.” I’ve read the book myself, and the rumors are not unfounded. The Catholic Church would never fabricate something…

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 attention and support, and officially organized the same year. Extreme weather has not stopped the event which has gone ahead in the midst of at least one major snow storm.

The event and its organizers have an explicit focus on the issue of abortion, as revealed in their stated mission…

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. The contrast with MLK and the civil right heroes marching for equality and basic human rights not afforded them was likely lost on many of them.

Photos and news reports from the rally show some people, almost all men, carrying assault rifles, and many carrying signs decrying any limits on gun ownership…

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 50th anniversary convention banquet of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity in Buffalo. The speech is entitled, “The Birth of a New Age.” It is a speech that insightfully lays out his early vision and strategy.

Here is an excerpt from the end of the speech:

“Never forget that you are…