The Revolution Will Not Be Romanticized
This conversation illuminated an increasingly noticeable pattern, especially among my peers: put simply, the more we get “radicalized,” the more we’re tempted to romanticize. This is particularly pronounced in the work of advocacy and solidarity. We sometimes seem to think that to be true advocates we must believe rosy stories of those we work with or for.
A New Daily Advent Reader for Peacemakers
This is the Advent reader I’ve been waiting for: diverse, timely, and topical. Along with my friend Claire Brown, I’ve been working throughout the end of October and early November to assemble this remarkable list of contributors for a daily Advent reader focused on what the Advent season has to say about peacemaking. Subscribers will […]
Tenx9 Nashville Podcast: Interview
As you may know, I’m the founder and curator of Tenx9 Nashville, a Belfast-originated monthly community storytelling night where 9 people have up to ten minutes each to tell a real story from their lives. It’s been going on here in town since September 2013, and this summer, we finally got around to launching a […]
Where I’m From: A Poem
For four days at the end of June, I attended the annual summit of Narrative 4 in Limerick, Ireland. Before arriving, we were asked to craft a poem about where we’re from. Here’s is mine, in three parts, as I wrote it in June 2017.
Gospel Rewrite: Jesus and Violence
Jesus is arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane and then appears before Pilate. But this version goes a little differently than the one you’re used to.
Gospel Rewrite: Jesus and the Death Penalty
Placing her in the center of the group, 4 they said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of committing adultery. 5 In the Law, Moses commanded us to stone women like this. What do you say?”
Gospel Rewrite: The Holy Family Becomes Refugees
Joseph and Mary flee with the young Jesus to Egypt. But it doesn’t go as planned–at least not in this rewrite.
Thank God for Lisa: A Story of Why I’m Affirming
As I became friends with Pádraig and Paul … I recognized something that I knew well from my own life—love. Genuine love. I watched the way they touched each other’s faces and hands with tenderness, said each other’s names with affection, missed each other when the other was away—and I knew exactly what all that felt like. I no longer saw what difference it made if it were for someone of the same sex.
They are Muslim, We are Christian
Reposting a story I wrote for OnFaith on dining in the home of Palestinian Muslims, originally published April 3, 2017. As we prepare to step inside their home, a friend says, “It is a different world in there.” They are Muslim, and we are Christian. We come from white American privilege, and they from the poverty […]
Behind Prison Walls
Last September, the good folks over at Plough published two revised stories from the appendix of Where the River Bends. I’m reposting here. Was Jesus serious when he said, in Matthew 25, that we’ll find him in places like prison? If he spent his time with the least of his society, discipleship would seem to require […]
