A few days ago, I had the opportunity to sit around a table with a group of clergy and a local politician. It was a good conversation. Thoughtful. Honest. The kind of conversation I wish happened more often. But there was one phrase that came up that always makes me cringe. "We need a separation of church and state." I know exactly what people mean when they say it. They're usually pushing back against the growing influence of Christian Nationalism or warning against one reli

Nonviolent resistance is not new. It is as old as the prophets who stood in the public square and refused to be silent, as old as Jesus who disrupted unjust systems without raising a sword, as old as communities of faith who have said, again and again, this is not how it has to be. As a United Methodist clergyperson, I am shaped by our Social Principles , which remind us that faith is never meant to be private or passive. The Social Principles call us to affirm the dignity an

Rev. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw Quote: "...hold fast to that which God had given you; let no power, no injustice, no obstacle, no scorn, no opposition, let nothing extinguish the flame... never take your truth down to the world's level." A colleague of mine, Jenny Smith , wrote a poem—a poem she didn’t want to write. She said it felt too big, too heavy. And yet, she wrote it anyway. Because sometimes, silence is a luxury we can’t afford. Her poem, posted on her Facebook page , beg