Spacious Word: Send Me!

In the News American religion scholar (and also my friend) Rebecca Barrett-Fox, has recently pointed out that both ICE and Turning Point USA have been using Isaiah 6:8 in their propaganda. In the case of ICE, this verse is used in a recruitment video: “Here’s a Bible verse that I think about sometimes, many times.…

Spacious Word: Gender Diversity–Male and Female

In the News The Trump administration’s attacks on LGBTQIA+ people–and particularly transgender and gender-fluid people–are not new news. It was January 20 of this year (2025) when the administration issued the “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” order. But even though the order was issued several months…

Spacious Word: Immigration

In the News Unjust and illegal apprehension and detainment of immigrants is in the news every day. As one example, the New York Times “In One Image” piece today looks at the “anatomy of an ICE arrest” based on a photo of Carlos Javier Lopez Benitez being apprehended by ICE agents as he left his…

Spacious Word: The Great Commission

In the News Earlier this week, the administration issued a memorandum on “Protecting Religious Expression in the Federal Workplace.” A more accurate title might be “Evangelical Christians Can Be As Obnoxious As They Want and There’s Nothing You Can Do About It.” Sure, the memo theoretically applies to all religions, but the examples given include…

Mother’s Day in Church

[This post is excerpted and edited from a previously published post.] Celebrating earthly motherhood in worship is problematic on many levels. But lifting up the maternal qualities of God is, it seems to me, a valuable way to observe the holiday. After all, the earliest roots of Mother’s Day can be found in Greek and Roman celebrations…

Power Belongs to God

On Saturday, January 13, at 8:07 a.m., residents and tourists in Hawaii got text messages on their phones and alerts interrupting their television programs telling them there was a “ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii.” “This is not a drill” the messages warned. Alerts like this would be frightening at any time, but considering the…

The Blessing of Wilderness–Reflections for Lent 4

I am notoriously bad with directions. My ability to get lost has amazed and astounded my friends throughout the years. Some of them have found out the hard way that just because I’ve been somewhere before does not mean I know how to get there again. For that matter, just because I’ve gotten somewhere does…

Story-Shaped Theology

This morning I came across this beautiful question in a sermon from Randy Newswanger: Are my understandings of God, my understandings of healing and redemption, my understandings of community and celebration large enough to hold the specific details of your story? I think this question is at the heart of church. We base our shared…