My kids were each wearing blue the other morning—Duke blue—when my seven-year-old daughter slipped into my bedroom as I was getting ready for work and saw the narrow blue stripes on my dress shirt. “Oh, good!” she declared. “You’re wearing blue too!” “Yes,” I said, “but I’m about to put on a green sweater.” She…
Category: Theological Reflection
On Symbols, Taking Down the Decorations, and Church Planting as a Way to Say What We Mean
When I was a kid, probably seven or eight, somewhere around Christmas time my family volunteered with a program that offered winter housing in our church for people experiencing homelessness. I remember helping to pour the cereal for breakfast, chatting with some of the people, and experiencing a somewhat confusing set of instructions about both…
The Artist and Gardener, Or, How to (Not) Take Back Our Nation
Like many of you, I stayed up late on election night watching polls and listening as pundits prognosticated ‘what it all means.’ I confess that I have spent most of my free time since Tuesday night reading columns on the right and the left, digging through the sudden avalanche of anxieties projected by ‘Red’ America,…