Editor’s Note: This blog originally appeared on April 18th, 2012. If I could, I would drive to my church. The great state of New Jersey does not issue driver’s licenses to undocumented residents (yet), so I usually rely on my pastor for a ride to church. As Define American’s […]Continue Reading →
Editor’s Note: This blog originally appeared on the G92.org blog January 19, 2011. It is a guest blog by Kirsten Strand. Four years ago my family moved from an upper-middle class, mostly Anglo neighborhood to a low-income, predominantly Hispanic community. Four years ago, “illegal immigration” was a nameless, faceless issue. Today, undocumented […]Continue Reading →
We all know that Jesus was a Jew, however, he and his disciples were referred to as Galileans. By knowing that he was from Galilee, people in general, Jerusalem Jews, and especially religious leaders assumed his social context. A context where Phoenicians, Syrians, Arabs, Greeks, Orientals, and Jews were neighbors, […]Continue Reading →
Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared on February 6th, 2013. Jesus: I’m increasingly stunned how He came in the midst of the messiness and margins of humanity surrounded by the whispers of scandal. He was without welcome in His father’s home town, welcomed by the low-class shepherds and Gentile kings, the target of […]Continue Reading →
Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared July 13, 2012. Can’t we all identify? We’re late for work because we can’t settle on an outfit from our jam-packed closet. We’ve already left the drive-thru before we realize they forgot the ketchup packets. Our wallets won’t close neatly because they’re too full of cash and […]Continue Reading →
Editor’s Note: This post originally ran December 14, 2012 on the G92.org blog. Last year my wife and I left suburban NJ for Brooklyn, NY. On a map they seem so close; it’s only in person that you realize how different they really are. Like any immigrant, I looked at my surroundings […]Continue Reading →
Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared on the Denver Seminary Blog one year ago, on Valentine’s Day. Today is St. Valentine’s Day. This morning I was reading from Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals, which has daily scripture readings and prayers, as well as short vignettes of Christian witness in the […]Continue Reading →
It was a couple of weeks before Christmas when I visited Francesca in the detention center where she had been for almost a year. Her mother died at an early age and her father abandoned her and her siblings when he remarried. So she has grown up essentially an orphan, responsible for […]Continue Reading →
Editor’s note: This blog originally appeared on Tim’s blog, Dividing Walls. Permission was given to repost it.
Ten years ago the elders of our church made a bold decision to relocate from a wealthy suburb or Atlanta to an unknown place. All we knew was that we would focus […]Continue Reading →
Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared on Lina AbuJamra’s personal blog in December 2014. Our country is partisan on so many issues these days. The latest divisive issue is the issue of immigration reform. What should the American government do with the millions of undocumented residents of the United States of […]Continue Reading →