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Trey Nichols

I’m glad for the rapid response of the DA, but I wonder if they would have been as quick if the cops had been white. Calls for defunding the police may follow, but most community organizers understand there is a role for professionals trained in public safety. The role includes muscle. Muscle, however, doesn’t require deadly force. It means moving people out of harm’s danger – either from other…

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Before Reading a Church Management Text

Before Reading a Church Management Text

The one true word is Jesus Christ.  Because of his faith, the work of the church matters.  The church proclaims the faith of Jesus Christ, a Palestinian Jew who was risen from the dead, trusting the witnesses of the apostles and the confession of the saints. In our weekly gathering, we bring our own bodies, transformed by that same faith, before one another, God, sharing our lives with one…

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Leaving behind margaret Sanger

Leaving behind margaret Sanger

Recently, the president of Planned Parenthood penned a letter reconsidering its founder, Margaret Sanger. Sanger was always a a lightning rod, and remains so decades after her death. It is a testimony to her memory that even now she remains such a polarizing figure. Alexis McGill Johnson, as the CEO of the national brand, has the task of balancing the relationship of race and reproductive rights…

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#Alexis McGill Johnson #Eugenics #Margaret Sanger #planned parenthood #Sanger #scapegoat

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Transfiguration 2021

In the story about the Transfiguration, Jesus and his friends climb to a mountaintop where he finds a couple other well known persons, prophets as it were, who welcome him. They start chatting about various prophetic things, like who God is, how the air is different up there, and why the Nazarenes keep losing at baseball. His clothes, at a special moment, become startlingly white, whiter than…

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Next Steps for a More Perfect Union

Next Steps for a More Perfect Union

My political feed that is relatively narrow. Mostly people who share my political beliefs or otherwise keep their opinions to themselves. While there’s some diversity between the intellectuals, the book markers, the activists, the ill-informed, and the peacekeepers. The peacekeepers are the ones who post supportive memes, cat videos, and gingerbread houses.

It’s not political organizing,…

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Masters, Slaves and Sobriety

Masters, Slaves and Sobriety

Years ago, a famous comedian joked about having an empty bank account. He noticed that that if you had no money, the bank would charge a fee. So the less money you have, the more the bank charges. 

He would ask, “Ever been so broke that the bank charges you for not having enough money?” And then create a dialogue. The bank calls you and tells you “you have insufficient funds.”

You say,…

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The Primaries, a reflection

The Primaries, a reflection

A candidate who, broadly speaking, shares my values won the Democratic primary replacing Nita Lowey, my congresswoman. Of course, this is within the narrow Overton Window that is American Politics.

Almost all the primary candidates did. That said, they each would have also quickly encountered the same political constraints in practice so the claims of being “progressive” didn’t weigh too much…

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#Congress #Politics

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Monuments and Black Jesus

Monuments and Black Jesus

It’s been a bad few weeks for monuments.

I’m not overly concerned with whether many stay or go. There are a wide variety of buildings, or permanent structures, that represent our cultural values and aspirations. They become fixtures that we seek to be remembered by, or to force others to remember.

Some will last and some won’t.

I’m glad that the symbols of the confederacy are being…

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Obeservations

Be prepared. Have dog treats. Ready the camera.

It doesn’t matter if the police chief is black.

For every action, a reaction. Prepare for the backlash.

Black Lives Matter.

Cold anger is hard, so I will not judge the rage.

Don’t be fooled, vengeance is justice.

I have tasted the deliciousness of revenge.

There is not a single one, who does not fear the mob.

Who redeems? Let…

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#Black Lives Matter

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All I want

My friend Gary sent me a blog postusing systems theory to explain the dysfunction of the protestors. Ed Friedman, who has instructed generations of clergy, helped identify how groups of immature people can take an organization hostage while “peace-makers” avoid tough issues. Immaturity is common across the spectrum: individuals who whinge at being constrained; and those who think every moment of…

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#Governing #Trump

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Bless the President

Bless the president; Somewhere he heard on the TV light would cure the plague.

Somehow the contagion could be stopped by a simple spray, an injection into the blood.

He got the mechanics wrong. He mistook a surface for the soul. We did not need to be injected with light or a fluid To learn we are radiant and redeemed.

Within the waves from when time begun, the waters of the earth, the lamb’s costly…

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#Poem #Trump

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Quarantine Diary

I’m fascinated by the idea of military discipline in a life.

I don’t idealize it, especially the punitive, harsh, and exacting control of one person over the other. I admire the focus and the identification of what is important and what is not.

Because I do not often share that focus, and I sometimes wonder if a little more would be more liberating.

I made some phone calls today and scheduled on…

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Quarantine

Third Sunday in Easter. Two services. Sixteen people came to zoom. A few were regular members for whom it was their first time getting on. One, a woman who has been suffering from dementia, looked so happy to see the familiar faces. I’d spent several hours over the last few weeks trying to connect her to zoom before finally reaching one of her children.

And there she was, brightly smiling.  I’d…

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Quarantine Diary

The sun is out and it is warm and breezy. Families are riding their bikes. Yesterday I put together a compost bin. The nuts and lugs required grease and muscle, but I used just enough to make it stable. Today I emptied the refrigerator of expired food and placed it in a bowl with the coffee grounds from this morning. I browse the internet for worms.

Went to church and stood in front while people…

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Visiting Israel

A few months ago I was invited on a trip.

The American Jewish Committee (also called the AJC), who has been holding various interfaith events in Westchester for nearly two decades, also invites leaders from throughout the country to experience Israel.

I’ve never been, and I haven’t had the resources to go. I also knew, from a few friends, that this would be a well crafted tour.  I’d go with about…

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Hospitality and the Budget

Hospitality and the Budget

I think churches underfund their hospitality budgets.

And it’s one of the most important responsibilities of the church.

Hospitality isn’t a substitute for outreach or social justice. It precedes them.

By hospitality I include funding a priest to take out parishioners and new members. Dinners that welcome seekers. providing cookies and coffee to organizations that use the parish hall. Ensuring…

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The Church: a Hub for Communities

The Church: a Hub for Communities

We need a new way of explaining our institutions to people unconvinced about church.

For some, a church as a monolithic organization with very clearly defined membership boundaries. In some communities you are a member, for example, if you are baptized and confirmed in a congregation, you show up on Easter and or pay $50 in five installments. In other congregations the rules are more rigorous –…

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