One year for our little church’s Christmas pageant, I cast Elli as Mary. After all, Mary doesn’t say anything the night of Jesus’ birth in any of the stories. So it didn’t matter that Elli couldn’t speak or sing. We draped her in blue fabric (why is Mary always wearing blue?), pinned a head covering…

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I met Terry 17 years ago, when Scott and I first started dating. Terry and his wife were Scott’s roommate’s parents and had unofficially adopted Scott into their family. As Scott’s fiancé, they opened their arms and hearts to me too. I used to tease Terry each November because as holiday decorations appeared with more frequency…

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The glow of petal pink and glitter sparkle are faded under a Gaussian blur of dust and years. The petals’ edges have browned and curled a bit like the pages of an old well-loved book. The green leaves on the three stems brag a youth their brittle stiffness can’t defend. We’ve been married nearly 16…

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“WHY?” His voice was angry, his body taut. “Why are you taking it away for so long?” I said nothing. Kept driving through the misty rained last-night streets towards school. Two of the three of my kids missed their school buses. One of them forgot a band instrument. I was still in gym clothes, though…

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dark telephone pole

Plenty, and it Starts with Taking Racism Seriously The news has been dreadful for the past two weeks. (It’s been dreadful since the beginning of time, I know, but it’s finally overtaken our country’s consciousness in the last two weeks.). Our church had a time dedicated to prays this morning — anyone who was willing…

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Women are subordinate but not inferior. The weaker sex. Created equal in value while called to a role of lower (or no) authority. Evangelical Christians call these ideas about women (and men) “complementarianism” or the complementarian view of gender roles. We’ll talk about what this word means in a minute, but first a couple of notes. I’m an…

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