In a moment when our Asian siblings are being harassed, when people of color are disproportionately being affected by COVID-19, when white
Keep Reading
I did not grow up Presbyterian, and I can’t identify as a ‘cradle’ or ‘prenatal’ Presbyterian, or any of the ways that I have heard born-and-bred Presbyterians describe themselves in order to firmly establish their Presbyterian street cred. No, as my
Keep Reading
An Excerpt from the Office of Public Witness’ New Study Guide on Voting Rights and Voter Suppression By Mara Sawdy and Nora Leccese – Read and/or download entire resource here! Introduction At the direction of the General Assembly, we at the Office of Public Witness have compiled resources to aid
More
When I heard the reports and then saw the video of Eric Garner’s arrest, something deep inside me clicked. I’ve been involved in interreligious social justice movements for more than 25 years and thought that nothing could surprise me. However, in those moments I didn’t just see the injustice of
More
Watching the PC(USA)’s Task Force to Review and Help Reform Drug Policy in the United States Months earlier, the process had already begun. Members of a task force appointed by the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy of the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America had convened twice,
More
Reflections on Unity, Reconciliation and Justice This useful companion to the Belhar Confession, published by the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program, weaves together Scripture passages and the Confession’s timely themes of unity, reconciliation and justice. Written by a diverse collection of scholars, theologians and church leaders, it is the perfect resource for
More
A Season Yet to Come Summer is coming…and still we are not saved. Two scripture lessons frame what the Holy Spirit is saying to the church today: Psalm 104:27-34, 35b and John 20:19-23. First there’s Psalm 104, a psalm which is subtitled ‘A Hymn to God the Creator’. It begins
More
A Closing Editorial Race is a word that points to massive dividing lines in the US (and elsewhere). Lake Woebegone is a fictional creation of a gifted radio storyteller, Garrison Keillor. Among Keillor’s strengths are his knowledge of the mainline church in small towns and his genuine affection for the
More
Dog-Whistling and Sin-Talk It happened most recently on a family trip to a museum. This trip was particularly special because the museum had recently accepted my wife’s fiber art piece into one of its shows. I sat outside the gallery on a balcony that overlooked the small theater that was
More
Interview with Stated Clerk Gradye Parsons As part of the finale to our discussion on race, white privilege, and the church, Rev. Molly Casteel – Assistant Stated Clerk and Manager for Representation, Inclusiveness, and Ruling Elder Training – sat down with Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Gradye Parsons
More
Participation of Reformed Churches and Clergy in Demonstrations in Ferguson This essay is an excerpt from Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty’s contribution to Calvinism on the Peripheries: Religion and Civil Society in Europe, ed. by Ábrahám KOVÁCS, co-edited by Béla BARÁTH (Budapest: L’Harmattan, 2009), 295 pp. The events that have unfolded in Ferguson, Missouri,
More
It was a typical muggy August day in Chicago when I pulled up to McCormick Seminary in my U-Haul van, trailed by a car full of college guys – my brother and his friends, who had agreed to help me move into my new seminary housing in exchange for some
More
Unbound Social