SEEKING STILL
All my life I’ve searched for inner peace
To make the voices cease
A sweet release
That leads me to a calm
And now and then I find a pathway there
Some moment without care
A jewel rare…
SEEKING STILL
All my life I’ve searched for inner peace
To make the voices cease
A sweet release
That leads me to a calm
And now and then I find a pathway there
Some moment without care
A jewel rare…
And now, we exhale.
At least, I do.
Now, except for a few more tiny “jots,” the harm is fully gone.
The Original Sin of the United Methodist Discipline regarding human sexuality, the word “Incompatible,” is gone.
Everywhere from our…
I am still holding my breath.
It’s probably my age.
It’s definitely my PTSD.
What is happening at General Conference is truly headspinning and filled with such joy for our FUTURE.
But there is one final sin of the…
I’m going to update this blog post each day during the 2024 General Conference, as a way of keeping folks informed, and offering my own view as to what’s happening.
Some quick background, before we get started…
Feel free to…
There are as many as 100 International Delegates not at United Methodist General Conference this year, many of whom are from Africa.
This has caused many questions. Allegations have been made that General Conference failed to communicate with them quickly…
Read moreGeneral Conference starts today, and I am thinking about this song and what might happen these next few weeks.
I don’t think it’s an accident that I was introduced to this song by clergywomen colleagues. We were all sitting around…
Read moreThis week, the General Conference of the United Methodist Church will begin in Charlotte, North Carolina. This will be the first “regular” General Conference since 2016. I thought I would put down a few thoughts ahead of this potentially momentous…
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Frederick Buechner once described “Prayer” in a way that leaps to my mind this week, in these days after our communal experience of the Eclipse.
Buechner wrote:
“We all pray whether we think of it as praying or not. The…
Read moreThese days after a solar eclipse are probably a good time to remind ourselves of this extended quote from St. Augustine of Hippo.
(picture taken by me during “totality”)
St. Augustine was a wordy writer, so I’ve edited it down…
Read moreIncreasingly, I am convinced the opposite of “faith” is not “doubt,” but “fear.” This is because the deepest level of “faith” is not “belief,” but “trust;” and the opposite of “trust/faith” is “fear/anxiety.”
Instead of faith’s opposite, doubt is a…
Read moreThe greatest trick Constantine ever played on our world was to convince us that the Empire that killed Jesus should actually embrace the religion that bears his name.
Why this isn’t self-obviously shocking to us today is a symptom of…
Read moreDear Donald Trump:
Migrants are not animals.
Migrants are not subhuman.
Using such language about them is a dangerous and fascist tactic, designed to dehumanize and create “The Other.” Real leaders don’t light these kinds of matches and stoke these…
Read moreIt’s now more than a week past Tracy Chapman’s incredible performance at this year’s Grammy Awards Show. I can’t stop thinking about it. And it’s reminded me of my favorite Tracy Chapman song.
Most people’s favorite is likely the big…
Read moreThis very hour might be a really good time to re-read this editorial by Paul Jones. It appeared in newspapers, one day after The Beatles first appearance on Ed Sullivan, sixty years ago tonight.
The cultural historian in me wonders…
Read moreI want to circle back to a theme that clearly resonated with people in my post on Taylor Swift/Travis Kelce last week. It’s a concept I’ve come to now understand has a name: “Freudenfreude.”
Loosely defined as:
“Taking joy/pleasure in…
I’ve been writing longform over on Facebook for more than a decade now, but never had anything approaching the reaction to this week’s post on Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce.
10,000 shares?
Are you kidding me?
Wowza.
So…
The United Methodist Church is now a Center-Left denomination.
America is a Center-Left Nation.
These are the twin theses I want to put before you today.
After the past several years of bitter and partisan theological infighting, our separation into…
Read moreLet’s talk Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce, and a very specific freaking out happening right now. Because it’s a NEW kind of freaking out. It’s not the same old “Taylor-hating.”
And I think I know exactly what’s driving it.
The world…
Read moreWe saw the “Tina Turner Musical” this week, and a brief moment of the narrative has stayed with me, touched me deeply, and seems to speak deep truth about our need to be entertained, and perhaps even our continued fascination…
Read more