Opinion

While the coronavirus is an equal opportunity killer, the poor and people of color are disproportionately suffering and dying from COVID-19. These communities were least prepared to respond to the virus for reasons rooted in racism and inequality.

Perhaps we shouldn’t applaud being called “essential.” A government with the power to designate us as “essential” also has the power to designate us as not.

It’s been over two months (75 days to be exact) since we’ve had an execution. There are only two other times since the turn of the century the state has gone that long without executing someone. But last Tuesday (May 19), that pause came to an end in Missouri.

A friend sent me a card in the mail. Tucked inside her note was a folded coloring sheet. She had already colored half of it and asked me to color the other half, then return to her. I was instantly smitten with the idea.

Will your church say anything about Ahmaud Arbery this Sunday? Did your church say anything about Breonna Taylor last Sunday?

The growing concern that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo got his inspector general fired to remove the threat of an inquiry into a Saudi arms deal should worry advocates of international religious freedom.

Sports journalists often point to the careers of great athletes who didn’t win a championship and call their greatness into question by asking, “Where are the rings?” Christians, by contrast, must look at the careers of great athletes and ask, “Where is the love?”

Some people wanting to reopen their church amid coronavirus restrictions say churches should be treated like Costco. So, I decided to test this theory out. What if my church service could operate like a Costco?

The mythos of American self-making — that with the right amount of grit and cunning, the individual can determine his own truth and fate — lends itself to the view that civil bureaucracies and establishments, by contrast, are inherently sclerotic and corrupt: the information they provide automatically suspect.

More than 25 of my many years were spent in school. In those years I read, accumulated, and appreciated many books. I came to regard those books as friends. We became so familiar I could recognize them on the shelf while sitting at my desk several feet away.