I’ve seldom seen a new book of nonfiction spawn so much lengthy and serious coverage as Matthew Desmond’s Poverty, by America. Every periodical that I read regularly seemed to come out with long reviews or excerpts from the book. Right off the bat, though, I confess that this probably says a lot about my choice ...
Of the many historic figures of the Reformation, John Calvin is probably the one for whom I have the least affection. This is natural since my branch of the Jesus Movement (as our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry calls the Church writ large) is Anglicanism, and Anglicanism bears little resemblance to the type of Protestantism espoused ...
Indulge me, please, as I revisit the topic of stock buybacks. It might seem more appropriate for a publication like The Wall Street Journal, but when you look beneath the surface you’ll see that it’s a moral issue. Buybacks, a common practice among big corporations, are great if you’re on a company’s board, in ...
When weeks go by without posting a blog, I fantasize that readers wonder why. Alas, like most fantasies, this one probably exists only in my mind. Still, I owe you an explanation for my long silence. I was preoccupied with three things: Holy Week and Easter — A pretty flimsy excuse, honestly, because ...
About 30 years ago I was dining with a French family I knew, and the conversation turned to our countries’ differing attitudes about safety nets for the poor. France, then and now, has what amounts to a minimum guaranteed income for its citizens. My friends explained that the French tolerate only a certain ...
When I think of the working poor, the image that comes to mind is the housekeeper in a hotel chain who I pass in the hallway on the way to or from my room. Housekeepers are usually female and women of color. Their work is hard physically and can be demeaning because guests often treat ...
Last Monday, I flew to New Orleans for the ordination of a friend at St. Anna’s. I had time on the round trip to read The New York Times front-to-back on Monday and Thursday and discovered two pieces I want to tell you about. I’ll start with the second one, Frank Bruni’s final column for ...
Earlier this week, my wife Lucy called my attention to an opinion piece in The New York Times many of you might have seen. The writer was Dr. Sabrina Strings, an African-American associate professor of sociology at the University of California-Irvine. She recalled attending a meeting five years ago with experts on public health and ...
About 20 years ago, I was introduced to the work of an organization called The Rural & Migrant Ministry. It was led by an inspirational and determined Episcopal priest named Richard Witt, and it was my good fortune to be assigned to work for his ministry upon my ordination as deacon. Because I speak Spanish, ...
It is my growing conviction that in Jesus the mystical and the revolutionary ways are not opposites, but two sides of the same human mode of experiential transcendence. I am increasingly convinced that conversion is the individual equivalent of revolution. Therefore every real revolutionary is challenged to be a mystic at heart, and one who ...
