What Happens When a Christian Extremist Assasinates the President?

Perhaps, you are like me and the mere thought of this makes you shudder. However, we need to wake up to this reality and danger. In the past couple of months, one man went to the pentagon with a gun because of his hate for the government; another man flew his plane into the federal [...]

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Does Condeming the Lives of Others Make People More Likely to Be Immoral?: Mark Souder, Ted Haggard, and Rent Boys

This past week, conservative Republican, Mark Souder resigned when the affair with his staff member became public. He becomes the most recent tragedy in the story of the Religious Right and the crusade for family values. The situation is ironic, because Souder was someone who fought against sex education in favor of abstinence only education, [...]

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Defending Street Preachers, Scientologists, Islamic Dress, and Westboro Baptist Church

This past month in Great Britain, a street preacher was arrested for preaching against homosexuals in the town square. It was stated to be hate speech, which is illegal under British law. This past year has also seen the burka made illegal in the country of France, even though this dress is important for many [...]

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Arizona to Ban Ethnic Studies Classes: Keeping History and Literature White

History has often said to be the story of the victors. Who are the victors in U.S. society? Well, it has traditionally been the White European population. Because of this, many modern historians and educators have found it very important to really focus on the histories of ethnic minorities and oppressed people. I know in my own U.S. History classes it is easy to focus solely on the large leaders and victors and not focus on the lower classes, oppressed, and ethnic minorities.

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Why “Drill Baby Drill” Has Disappeared from the American Consciousness

This past month, there was the largest oil disaster in the United States since the 1980’s with the Exxon Valdez disaster. This horrible accident happened just weeks after Obama announced more offshore drilling projects (which he now is considering halting). In the midst of the huge ecological consequences of this disaster, we need to realize what this can teach us as a nation.

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Words of Wisdom from a 12 Year Old on the Dangers of Climate Change

This past week, we celebrated Earth Day at the school. So, I was trying to bring up awareness about environmental issues with my students. We talked about how we can reduce consumption in our own lives and what the future will be like when they are older- both positive and negative possibilities. Many of the [...]

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Arizona's New Immigration Law: Leading the Country in Xenophobia

This past week, the state senate in Arizona passed a bill making it legal for the authorities to detain anyone who they have suspicions of being an illegal immigrant. I wonder who they are going to suspect and detain? Perhaps, dark skinned people, people who speak English with an accent, or who are from a [...]

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The Problem With Glorifying the Past: When Our Memory is Skewed

Don’t you just wish you could go back to the days of the Founding Fathers? Hmm…well, I guess if you are a white Protestant male landowner. It wouldn’t be so nice if you were African-American, a woman, a religious minority, or poor. While I think the Founding Fathers were brilliant men and really set up a very good system of government, let’s not deify them.

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Why We Need To Be Vigilant Yet Careful to Speak of Persecution: Franklin Graham Dropped as Speaker from Pentagon Prayer Event

Today, I was researching some about the religiously persecuted around the world. Some of the stories shock us, sadden us, and give us a great desire to do something to change it. For example, in places like Iran where people can still be killed for converting to a different faith. To places like North Korea [...]

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Turning Good Into Evil: Lincoln and Slavery and Obama and Health Care

Right now, I am teaching my U.S. History students about the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation, when Lincoln freed all the Confederate slaves. While I was teaching this, I came across a very strange cartoon-which is very relevant to today. In the cartoon, Lincoln is seen stepping on the Constitution and being influenced by [...]

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Moving On From the Past to Embrace the Future

Last week the newly elected Republican Governor of Virginia, Bob McDonnell, made a declaration to celebrate Confederate History Month in his state. This doesn’t greatly surprise me. I was born in South Carolina. However, it seems like we could have evolved beyond this by the year 2010. Since I am a history teacher, I know [...]

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If Dr. King Were Here Today (He Would Be Hated Much More Than Obama)

Many people like to say that Martin Luther King was one of their heroes. However, I think many people forget what he really stood for. Ironically, Glenn Beck the other day talked about the greatness of Martin Luther King. Really?? If he was alive today, he would be attacked as a socialist, “evil” progressive, and [...]

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How the Resurrection Makes Us One With God, the World, and All Humanity

2000 years ago, the resurrection changed everything about the way Christians see God, death, life, and redemption. It also changed the world; it changed the course and direction of the world-from death to life. Somehow, it also changed the way that we interact with humanity and the world-through the lens of the kingdom of God. [...]

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Why We Celebrate Palm Sunday

I have never quite understood the celebration of Palm Sunday. After all, weren’t many of the people worshipping Jesus on Palm Sunday the same ones calling for his death a week later? Wasn’t the whole premise of their worship based on a distorted view of the message of Jesus? In my Ancient Civilizations class, we [...]

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When We Become the Eucharist

Anyone who has spent any time in the church is familiar with the Eucharist or communion. In Christianity, we take the bread and wine because of the deep, powerful significance Christ put on it right before his death and resurrection. As we take in the bread and body of the Lord, we become one with [...]

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I Finally Remember Why I Worked on the Obama Campaign

In the midst of increased troop levels in Afghanistan, a freeze on domestic spending but not on military spending, a delay in closing down Guantanamo, and at times over-compromising on what seems like everything, I have at times been disappointed by the Obama administration. However, last nigh with the passing of health care reform, I [...]

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How to Bring Down the Abortion Rate: Ensure Universal Health Care

Abortion is one of the most contentious and divisive issues in our nation together. There is no other issue that causes more passion and division. However, it seems we often been focusing on the wrong issue-pro-choice or pro-life. At the end of the day the legality of abortion will not be the biggest factor in [...]

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Our New Jim Crow Laws: Immigrants and Health Insurance

When the congressman from my home state shouted out “You Lie” to Obama, he wasn’t doing so to defend veterans, help out the needy in the community, or protect the religious or political liberties of his constituents. No, he was yelling out in his childish rant to protest the mere thought that a certain group [...]

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Finally….the U.S. Confronts Israel

The U.S. has stood by Israel side for a long time, which in many ways has been a very positive thing. However, our unconditional support of Israel and its policies has also led to more conflict and dampened the peace process. It has also dragged us into the middle of much more worldwide conflict. While [...]

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The Uncomfortable Question in the Gun Control Debate: Can the "Good Guys" Be Trusted With Guns?

I still remember it clearly. It was about a year ago, and I experienced my first real, intense case of road rage. We were in a small town called Ciudad Colon which is about 15 minutes from my house. A large bus had blocked our car and the car in front of us from getting [...]

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Rush Limbaugh is Moving to Costa Rica?

Believe it or not, Rush Limbaugh said this week that he will move to Costa Rica if the health care reform bill is passed. What is so great and ironic about this is that Costa Rica has a “socialized” single-payer system. In fact, about 9 to 10% of your salary goes directly into the government [...]

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-My Heroes

The people who accomplished the most in history were not the ones who lived lives of ease, comfort, and luxury. They were the people who were willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of a cause. Perhaps, we are not all called to live this type of existence. However, I can’t help believing we all need to take a step further in that direction. Living a life of sacrifice for the sake of justice and peace does not sound appealing at first. But out of the darkness comes a light too wonderful and great to even begin to imagine.

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-Lindsey Graham: A Politician with Character

Currently, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham from South Carolina along with Senator Schumer of New York are trying to put together an immigration reform bill, which would tighten border security, but would also make a pathway for many of the immigrants who live here illegally to become citizens. There has not been much positive coming out [...]

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-The Progressive and Subversive Voice of Jesus (The Rich Man and Lazarus)

In the midst of Christian leaders lining up with the elite and making themselves the allies of the rich and powerful, we lose the sense of the very subversive voice of Jesus, a voice that spoke out for the poor, A voice that spoke out for the oppressed, outcast, and downtrodden. One of the most [...]

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-Invictus: An Amazing Story and an Even More Important Message for Today

Recently, the amazing retelling story of Nelson Mandela’s rise to power and struggle to bring his nation together was made into a wonderful film. Essentially, the story tells about the great divide and tension in the country of South Africa between the native Africans and the European immigrants who had ruled the land by oppression [...]

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-Standing for the Pro-Life Position to a Dark and Cruel Fault

Recently, a call was made to the Vatican to excommunicate doctors in Brazil who approved an abortion of two fetuses carried by a 9 year old girl who was raped by her stepfather. The head of bioethics at the Vatican refused to condemn the doctors and said their position was justified. Many deeply conservative pro-life [...]

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Creative Justice: Avatars and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

This past week, I saw something very interesting in the news. A group of Palestinians were dressed up as Avatars to non-violently protest a wall the Israeli government is planning to put up in their territory. Ironically, it worked and Israel adapted their plans and changed the location of the wall. This creativity is something [...]

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Obama Has It Backwards: We Need to Reduce Military Spending

“A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: “This way of settling differences is not just.” This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation’s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of people normally humane, of sending [...]

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My First Quaker Experience: Preserving the Essence of the Christian Faith

I went to a small town about 4 ½ hours away this past weekend called Monteverde. It was started by a group of American Quakers who fled from the United States in the 1950’s to escape persecution for their pacifist views. Raquel and I decided to go to their small meeting, and we experienced a [...]

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-It Was Really Hot Here Saturday in Costa Rica (We Must Be Approaching Global Meltdown)

For the sake of our world, let’s look at the facts instead finding some obscure and highly subjective reasoning to base the health of the environment. Unless we choose to take a more objective and scientific approach, we will watch with complete “happy denial” as the world we love is slowly demolished.

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