suffering

  • On Coffee Shops and Crucifixions

    The extremity of the violence wounding the women at that table was breathtaking and unthinkable and contrary to the will of God who is a God of life, for sure, but it’s not singular. Such things happen all the time… Continue reading

  • How Should White Advocates of LGBT Rights Speak About Black History?

    In 1996, famed Civil Rights leader John Lewis was one of very few Congressional representatives to vote against the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).  It passed the House by a vote of 432 to 67.  The U.S. Senate affirmed it… Continue reading

    How Should White Advocates of LGBT Rights Speak About Black History?

  • The Body of Christ In An Era of HIV/AIDS

    I watched the Oscar nominated documentary How To Survive a Plague a few weeks ago.  It’s been haunting me ever since. Mixing archival video with present day recollections, Plague tells the story of the AIDS advocacy group ACTUP (AIDS Coalition… Continue reading

  • God in the Storm

    This subtle and powerful gift of intimacy with God is what allows for the transformation of suffering and death from an ultimate end into another opportunity for relationship. The storm, though not a test from God, is transformed into another… Continue reading

  • Coping with Emotionally Difficult Material

    Theologians urgently need to engage the realities of suffering and violence in the world in order for contemporary theology to remain authentic. Yet, this can be an exhausting and disturbing process. Theologians need to have strategies in place in order… Continue reading

  • Trauma, Suffering and Childbirth

    The trauma of sexual abuse and rape benefit from a clear understanding of suffering as bestowing no kind of benefit to the victim and as entirely opposed by God. Yet, the suffering of childbirth is a different case. But, this… Continue reading

  • Reflections on Holy Saturday with Shelly Rambo

    The problem with a typical narration of salvation is that we tend to have a linear understanding of redemption. We read the story of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection in terms of a strong start, an awful middle, and an… Continue reading

  • Church Teaching and Violence Against LGBT Persons II

    A recent article in Mother Jones  offers a snapshot of what it’s like to be lesbian or gay in Uganda–arguably the worst place on earth to be lesbian or gay.  Perhaps not coincidentally, Catholics comprise 41% of the Ugandan population… Continue reading

  • A Church That Does Body Counts III

    About two weeks ago, a U.S. led NATO airstrike in southern Afghanistan killed seven civilians while they were going about their daily lives, working in their fields.  Six of these seven civilians were children and five of these children were… Continue reading