BREAKING: Immigration officers in the Chicago area will be required to wear body cameras after the use of tear gas and other actions against protesters, a judge rules.

“O God, it is hard to take in or understand what those created in your image do to one another in these disjointed days.” -Etty Hillesum, d. 1943 at Auschwitz

Oppression is literally a crushing of the image of God in humans. To say or do nothing when power is abused is to contribute to the defacing of God’s image in others. In other words, it is to join with the enemy of God who sought to destroy that same image.

Wake Up Pray Up Get Up Team Up Do Justice (imperfectly, but ethically) Repeat

"We can no longer send thoughts and prayers or likes on Instagram. We have to literally do something. I want to call people to action. The next generation doesn’t want to hear what we have to say, but wants to see what we’re going to do." Read the interview with @RevDocBrenda at

We want the warhorse. Jesus rides a donkey. We want the eagle. The Holy Spirit descends as a dove. We want to take up swords. Jesus takes up a cross. We want the roaring lion. God comes as a slaughtered lamb. We keep trying to arm God. God keeps trying to disarm us.

A lot of conservative Xians would be shocked at the degree to which materialism, greed, & economic malpractice/injustice are condemned in Scripture. The unbalanced way different types of sin are addressed is painfully inconsistent & damaging. More socio-cultural than theological.

Christian churches are not as a rule, model communities of good behavior. They are, rather, [to be] places where human misbehavior is brought out in the open, faced, and dealt with. - Eugene Peterson

Reflecting on this contrarian but fascinating idea from Henri Nouwen: “The Christian way of life does not take away our loneliness; it protects and cherishes it as a precious gift.” I wonder how it could alter things for us if we believed loneliness had a gift element to it

No matter how you vote, you are welcome in our church. I just ask that you would commit to see politics thru Jesus & not Jesus thru your politics; that you would be curious about why your brothers & sisters see things differently. And that you would live humble, prayerful lives.

“No one heals himself by wounding another.” ~St. Ambrose, 4th c.

Oppression is literally a crushing of the image of God in humans. To say or do nothing when power is abused is to contribute to the defacing of God’s image in others. In other words, it is to join with the enemy of God who sought to destroy that same image.

We need sociology and psychology to help us understand our fractures, but it is theology that places them in their deeper and larger context.

Trauma does not heal apart from being spoken and it needs to be heard in the context of a safe relationship where the dignity of the one crushed is restored.

On this day in 1948, Mississippi senator and segregationist James Eastland successfully blocked passage of a bill that would have made racial terror lynching a federal crime.

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My dear Wormwood, One of the most important tactics to keep injustice present is convincing the humans that racism is strictly an overt act of discrimination by an individual. Don’t let them focus on the systemic nature of it. Keep up the good work. Your Uncle, Screwtape

So excited for this new book from the one and only Dr Rev Brenda Salter McNeil!!!

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