Adapted from Chapter 4, “Isolated and Othered” “Pick a color,” she said. “Write down your color.” I was at a writers’ workshop in Minnesota, and this was our prompt. I wrote down “pink.” No one else will pick that color, I thought to myself. Then we were told our assignment: head outdoors and look for the color we had chosen.  I couldn’t find anything pink. It was cloudy, with no streaks of a pinkish sunset brushing the sky. I spotted peach-colored raspberries ripening on the vine. Spiky lavender thistle blooms swayed high above the grasses. I detected tiny maroon slivers of crushed stone ..read more

Shots fired in the hallway.  People screaming.  One class can’t lock their door, so they block the entrance with furniture. The door gets kicked in. Eventually, the shooter is stopped.  Everyone is taken to a safe location to meet up with parents. But the location isn’t safe.  An angry parent shows up with a gun and starts shooting.  Some run, some freeze, some huddle together screaming and sobbing in fear. Thankfully, this wasn’t a real school shooting.  It was a required emergency drill for all teachers and school staff in my county (including my wife who is a t ..read more

Editor’s Note: This piece was previously published on the FORUSA.org website and is reprinted here with permission. According to legend, the organization I lead, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, was founded in August 1914 when a British Quaker and a German Lutheran shook hands at a railway station in Cologne. With England on the cusp of joining World War I, they pledged, “We are one in Christ and can never be at war.” After Germany sunk the Lusitania ship in May 1915, American public support for joining the war swelled. But not everyone got on board. Political activist and theologian A.J. Mus ..read more

Editor’s Note: This piece was first published on Jemar Tisby’s Substack, Footnotes by Jemar Tisby, on March 27, 2024 and is reprinted here with permission.  The disturbing origins of this custom Bible and the campaign to stop its proliferation. During Holy Week, Donald Trump posted a video promoting sales for the “God Bless the USA” Bible. The name is borrowed from a 1984 song of the same name by country singer, Lee Greenwood. Trump’s shameless peddling of God’s word for profit garnered intense backlash and commentary online, but the saga of the “God Bless the USA” Bib ..read more

Sometimes I’m hesitant to post my wedding anniversary celebrations on social media, fearing I may be sending the unintentional message of “See? We did it right. You should be like us.” Living in the evangelical world. you learn quickly there’s a focus on “traditional family” roles. It’s also called “living out God’s ideal,” “God’s plan,” or – my favorite – having a “Biblical marriage.” In other words, evangelicals believe there is a preordained designed ideal of marriage and family. I was taught the dangers of single parenting, stay at home dads, divorce, and of course, same-sex marriage. If y ..read more

In this article, I discuss how a prominent Christian musician’s trajectory away from engagement in the world is emblematic of a growing part of moderate evangelicalism.  In June 2008, I and several hundred others of my radical anarchist-leaning Christian friends at PAPA (People Against Poverty and Apathy) Festival camped out on a Mennonite farm in rural Illinois. Days of sessions about everything from community to living to circus tricks culminated each evening with fantastic concerts. I distinctly remember one night in particular where we all stood transfixed and transported by a silky f ..read more

Editor’s Note: You may wish to enable captions on the video.   TRANSCRIPT: We got into good trouble on Good Friday.  Twenty-five people were arrested for a nonviolent direct action at the headquarters of Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest weapons contractor, where the weapons being used in Gaza are made.   Hundreds of other joined in the action during Holy Week as members of the Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimage walked over 20 miles, roughly the length of Gaza, from the Liberty Bell to Lockheed Martin. Here’s why we did it.  The event was part of a global movement with simi ..read more

Editor’s Note: This piece first appeared on the RLC blog on April 6, 2020 but is perhaps even more relevant four years later. We share it again in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. on the day following the 57th anniversary of his death.  In the global crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, public education about the symptoms of this disease is critical. When we recognize that something which impacts anyone of us can quickly impact all of us, we know everyone must learn the signs of what the disease looks like before it is too late. As we watch public health officials at press conferences ..read more

Editor’s Note: This piece first appeared on the RLC blog on April 4, 2022 but is perhaps even more relevant two years later. We share it again in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. on the the 56th anniversary of his death, 57 years after his historic Riverside speech.  Here are a few highlights from our event at The Riverside Church this past weekend, on the anniversary of Dr. King’s historic speech, “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence.” We had 27 faith leaders read portions of King’s original speech, including his daughter, Rev. Dr. Bernice King. I’ll also highlight a few of King’s qu ..read more

Editor’s Note: This piece first appeared on the RLC blog on April 6, 2022 but is perhaps even more relevant two years later. We share it again in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. on the the 57th anniversary of his death.  “I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” Those are the words of Dr. King in 1967, in his historic speech “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence,” delivered at Riverside Church in New York City. This past weekend dozen ..read more