This (timely!) article by CJ Green was originally featured in Issue 7 of The Mockingbird: The Church Issue. Don’t tell me you’re going to read Stephen King next, my mom said when I started high school, suspiciously eyeballing my more grown-up selection of books. At the time, I didn’t know who Stephen King was, but […]
When the Romans Got Infected
Grateful for this post by David Evans: Even though the media has called these months dominated by COVID-19 “unprecedented times,” historians have been quick to point out that epidemics and plagues are anything but unprecedented. Modern historians have reminded us of the Spanish Flu of 1918; medieval historians would ask us to consider the Bubonic […]
The Reproachful Lectures of a Father: People-Watching in Gilead
If mid-twentieth-century Gilead were a real place, I would certainly buy a bus ticket there. This fictional Iowa town of Marilynne Robinson’s soon-to-be four novels has captured my imagination from the beginning, with Gilead (2004), followed by Home (2008), and Lila (2014). I can’t wait for the release of Jack (2020), but in the meantime, […]
Overcoming Unbelief: John Updike on Feathers and Faith
Fusty Churches, Creaking Hymns, and Revived Faith
Why Richard Rodriguez and I Keep Taking Our “Inner Atheists” to Church
Belief and Disbelief in the Same Person
A Splendid Failure: A Preacher’s Guide to the Pulpit
This article by Paul Walker was featured in Issue 7 of The Mockingbird: The Church Issue. The sixteenth installment: “The Sports Issue” is in the works! My hat is off to every preacher of every stripe and persuasion, regardless of the depth, insight or content of the sermon. Every sermon exacts a spectacular cost from […]
Under Robert E. Lee’s Shadow: Growing Up in The Lost Cause
It was announced last Thursday that the six story tall statue of Robert E. Lee on Richmond Virginia’s Monument Avenue is going to be removed. It is a response to the murder of George Floyd and the following week of protests and riots in the city. The news says that the rest of the Confederate […]
Pentecost Plans (near Minneapolis)
A couple of weeks ago (which now feels like years ago), my husband Ryan contemplated the familiar yet still mysterious story in Acts 2 and tried to prepare his Pentecost sermon. He was also working to coordinate with the other pastor of our Oromo brothers and sisters from Ethiopia who meet in the church building weekly. […]
