The Peregrinating Parson

 Every year, I write a "Blessing for the Sharing of Light" for the Christmas Eve service at the church I'm serving. This year, I wrote two, but the light was shared virtually because both of our services were held via ZOOM.  I've been thinking a lot this year about the ways that we portray dark and light culturally, which prompted the blessing I used for the early family service. We as a people will only get closer to building the Realm of God when we deal honestly with White Supremacy and all that derives from it or inspires it. One sick inspiration for it is the notion that light is always better than dark; it comes through the metaphor of light=good and dark=evil that was an ancient philosophical and religious idea that was twisted by those whose greed and thirst for power needed an ideological underpinning.  God’s first words were, “Let there be light!” And there was light.   God separated the light from the darkness, making day and night. We are born with a fea

In 2 Kings 5, the commander of the Aramean army, a man named Naaman, suffered “leprosy.” Whether this was the disease now known as Hansen’s Disease, a more virulently contagious skin disease such as impetigo, shingles, or chickenpox, or an autoimmune disease that manifests on the skin, such as psoriasis, eczema, or even pemphigus, is beside the point: in almost every culture of the time, any sign of infection on one’s skin marked one as “unclean.” For what it’s worth, the description later in the chapter of skin “as white as snow” suggests vitiglio, which is thought to be an autoimmune disease and may be heritable, but is definitely not contagious. At the urging of an enslaved girl from Israel, who insisted that a prophet there could heal the general, the King of Aram sent a wealth-laden Naaman to the King of Israel. I suppose the King of Israel was suspicious of this sudden appearance of an enemy general—that would be natural, of course. So rather than acquiescing to the request tha

Nine Minutes I did something today I’ve never done before: I went to a demonstration to show solidarity with a group of people who aren’t like me. I didn’t take a sign. I just showed up. I’ve been to PRIDE events. I’ve been to educational events for racism, economic justice, and immigration justice. I’ve been part of a drama troupe that tackled all of these things and ecological justice, too. But until today, I’d never exercised the particular First Amendment right to gather to demonstrate my horror at a reality that does not directly affect the quality of my life but does diminish—in fact, is potentially and dramatically lethal to—the quality of life of my siblings who are black and brown. In Conway, New Hampshire there were not many black and brown siblings in attendance at this demonstration in solidarity with the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Atatianna Jefferson, Ahmad Arbery, and far too many others who have died because of white supremacy. The whole event was organize

Of all the commentary about the Senate trial of the current occupant of the White House, I think only Sherrod Brown has come close to identifying the reason 52 Senators failed to convict and remove him from office. Brown wrote , “For the stay-in-office-at-all-cost representatives and senators, fear is the motivator. They are afraid that Mr. Trump might give them a nickname like ‘Low Energy Jeb’ and ‘Lyin’ Ted,’ or that he might tweet about their disloyalty. Or — worst of all — that he might come to their state to campaign against them in the Republican primary.” 1 I don’t think that’s the entirety of their fear, however. If it were, Lamar Alexander, I think, would have voted with Mitt Romney because he’s retiring anyway. Pat Roberts and Mike Enzi are also retiring; given the overwhelming case made on abuse of power, it’s hard to see how even the most diehard supporters of the president would risk their integrity to vote against conviction and removal if their re-election were not