It was a nice, suburban, country club of a church. Not just ordinary niceness, but professionally polished, customer-service-type niceness being provided by a cheerful, uniformed team of multiethnic ambassadors. Some held signs directing the flow of traffic in one hand … Continue reading White Jesus, Black Judas: We See You See Color
During his “I Have A Dream” speech of 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. famously said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color … Continue reading What’s Wrong With Colorblind Christianity?
I stood three feet away from my mother, holding the dark red knotted up ball of yarn. She held one end of the yarn, and began patiently unraveling the knots, creating a new mound of usable fiber. The yarn was … Continue reading Unraveling and Un-othering
We were hosting an introduction meeting with two new contract employees who would be responsible for helping our Fortune 500 organization with acquiring new talent. We could not hire permanent talent fast enough to meet the growing demands for new … Continue reading Othering in America
This morning, my son’s best friend—I’ll call him Danny—got dropped off at our house before school. Normally, Danny rides the school bus that picks him up near his own house. But this week, his parents are driving him over here … Continue reading Un-Othering the Otherers
Every community has its own history. My community, northeastern Pennsylvania (NEPA), isn’t much different. NEPA has its destinations for skiing, hiking, and fishing. We have top schools as well as business incubators to start your business. You would think NEPA … Continue reading We Need to Address The “Othering Crisis”
I’m writing this from the back of a second-grade classroom, where I was called in as an emergency substitute to be the legally certificated adult in the room while a student teacher oversees the class. I sit here at the … Continue reading From the Back of the Classroom
Reckoning with History and Making Things Right Are you at all acquainted with the acrid sensation of shame? Something egregious has happened and you feel it in your body. Maybe you’ve made things worse, maybe you were only watching it … Continue reading Make Truth Our Banner
A young, unmarried woman becomes pregnant. Poor and uneducated, she is sure to face censure from both her fiancé (the baby is not his) and her community (which has been known to execute adulterers). So the woman’s response to her … Continue reading Listening to Mary’s Song
Three-Fifths 