In Zora Neale Hurston’s 1928 essay, “,” she writes about her lived experience as a black woman in the South. She talks about her racial awakening, describing it as “the day I become colored.” She uses many metaphors to talk about race, including calling herself a “brown paper bag” alongside other bags
MoreOne Presbyterian’s Experience Participating in International Educational Mission Occasionally something happens in your life that you can only explain as a “God-moment.” For me, teaching in Pakistan was just such an experience. I met Veeda Javaid, the Executive Director of the Presbyterian Education Board (PEB) in Pakistan, at the Synod
MoreA Family Story Lora and Bruce Whearty, elementary school teachers from Montana, accepted a call to serve as educational mission co-workers through the Presbyterian Church (USA) in 1992. They resigned from their jobs, sold their home and most of their possessions, and moved with their two daughters to Vanuatu, a
MoreWith the film Fifty Shades of Grey hitting theaters, it’s time to speak up: Sexual violence is not entertainment. Originally published as an article in the Presbyterian News Service. I’ve had it. This time we cannot roll our eyes, snicker under our breath, or defer to that great US colloquialism: “What
More“Children should be seen and not heard.” I imagine most readers have heard the adage. I can remember hearing that phrase more than once as a child. As I came to understand it, children were some sort of interesting conversation piece – enjoyable to have around as long as they
MoreUnbound: What is your role in the education system? Amy: I am a history teacher for grades 9-12. This year I am teaching a senior seminar, Government, Economics, US history, and World history. I have taught middle school geography, ancient history, and US history in the past as well as
MoreSoft Footballs, Crying Quarterbacks, and Other Offensive Formations Super Bowl week is here! And that means that the NFL is stretched out in all of its media glory for America to adore and, more now than perhaps ever in the history of American football, to dissect. The scrutiny that football
MoreA Concluding Editorial The practice of the General Editor and Managing Editor each doing an editorial for most issues goes back to when Patrick Heery was the Managing Editor. It was a way to highlight the generational differences on some topics. In this case, the gender difference may also be
MoreFive years ago I visited a project of the Livingstonia Synod AIDS Program (LISAP) in northeastern Malawi. Here I met a 12-year-old girl who had recently been freed from a forced marriage she had been in for 4 years. Divorced at 12 – it boggled my mind and broke my heart.
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A Story of Economic Oppression When Americans think about “oppression,” we’re inclined to go straight to civil and human rights. We think of voting rights and voter intimidation, of warrantless wiretaps and law enforcement dispersing crowds of peacefully-gathered demonstrators. We think of countries where citizens do not have freedom of
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