Nobody ever expects The Grateful Dead. I mean, I guess there’s that lyric in Chinatown Shuffle, “Get it right, do it nice/But if you make a mistake you’re gonna pay for it twice.” That song ends with the absolute opposite of grace, “If you fall in my direction/don’t expect no help at all.” So count me (pleasantly) surprised to find Pastor Duncan one-third of the way into his new memoir, United States of Grace, dancing his heart out on a... Read more

I’m starting here with a confession. I would like to confess before God and my neighbors that I have a certain level of Schadenfreude watching recent events in the Southern Baptist and Evangelical camps, Russell Moore’s departure and the fall of the Falwell’s in particular. I also have some guilt feeling such joy at the suffering of others, but on the other hand, given how much harm these communities (and individuals) have done to so many people I love, and... Read more

Smart messaging has long been critical to political success. Think “Contract With America” or “Fake News.” Often, these messages carry more emotional impact than anything else, tapping into the affect  and worldview of those who resonate with them. Academics construct messaging also, and sometimes those terms make their way into wider academic usage. One academician who has had greater impact than many is Kimberlé Crenshaw, who coined the term “intersectionality” and also the phrase “Critical Race Theory.” What is rare:... Read more

“Information, however, comes into the cosmos without trumpet blasts and lavish parades. In living phenomena, for example, information settles humbly and unobtrusively into the physical universe without altering the laws of thermodynamics. Just as unprecedented strings of letters and words can be introduced into my word processor without modifying the hardware for the syntax governing the computational process, so also the insinuation of novel informational patterns into the fabric of the universe can happen so unostentatiously that it goes unnoticed... Read more

One year into this pandemic, I’m just now coming to terms with some of the spiritual implications. I’ve been impressed with the creative writers who produced book-length meditations during the pandemic. Myself, for the most part I was lower on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, taking naps and addressing survival issues in our community. But I am starting to see a few things more clearly. One is obvious: we’ve had a ton of people join our church during the pandemic (seventy... Read more

A new book by Ross Murray A Review Ross Murray is well-known for his founding and directing of The Naming Project, a faith-based camp for LGBTQ youth and their allies. This book is a reflection on the many practical and spiritual learnings he has gleaned from doing such cutting edge and needed work. Ross is a deacon in our denomination, the ELCA. His clear spiritual gift is the consideration of how the living and active word of God applies in... Read more

Hi, my name is Clint Schnekloth and I’m a racist. On the gaming podcast I listen to, they always ask game developers how they first got into gaming, so I guess you could ask me, “How did you first get into racism?” I’d start by mentioning my white German family bought farm land originally belonging to the Kickapoo, Sauk and Meskwaki but sold by the French to the United States. Growing up, I was taught dozens of racist jokes in... Read more

  I kind of wish I didn’t have to write this, but I feel some level of responsibility to attempt, in spite of clear evidence concerning the intractability of the re-tired bishop, to offer a bit of explanation, one white pastor to another, on the profoundly unpastoral and frankly clueless nature of the response. So here goes. Let’s start with the very simple fact: Lenny Duncan in his tweet is expressing lament. You can start there. I shared his tweet... Read more

Let’s start with this: silence and silencing are strategies of the powerful. Those with power use opportunities to distance and silence to buffer their preferred status quo, and they rely on the silence of others (typically, the majority) to retain their power and continue their abuse. Even more damningly, once they have used their authority to silence others, they use the silence of others to justify themselves. No one’s complaining, so there must not be anything wrong. The witness we... Read more