Blog Entries Planning to Leave Hey Due to Policy Changes Here is an Email I wrote today to the support team at hey.com. I sent this and post it here because I have been a very outspoke supporter of this company, paid for their books and products, have their stickers on my computers, moved teams on to their platforms,
The Theological Becoming Co-Workers With The Truth When George Fox was initially on his spiritual quest to understand the true nature of faith and Christianity, he was living in the midst of full-on Christendom, that is state-sponsored Christianity or Christianity twisted to become comfortable acting as “the religion of empire.” Fox, and then Margaret Fell, among the
Blog Entries Systems of Death and the Subversive Seed (John 12:24) Watercolor from John Jay Alvaro Watch it on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/arGhrrsFTxc The Subversive Seed This week, we saw the shooting of 8 individuals, 6 were Asian-Americans reminding us again of the ongoing and increased racism Asian-Americans and other communities of color have faced in the last year.
Featured A Summary of The 5 Interlocking Evils Reposting this to my blog for safekeeping. Originally published via my “Resisting Empire” newsletter on Oct 30, 2020. How do you name immorality? Do the words sin and evil find their way into your vocabulary or have they been shunned long ago because of the overuse of these words by
Featured The Problem with (Quaker) Values Originally published on my “Resisting Empire, Remixing Faith” Newsletter. As you may have seen, there is another flair up in the news about another Quaker school being caught in a debate around Quaker values. This time it is Brooklyn Friends School when the head of school sought to decertify the
Blog Entries Western Friend Review of Resisting Empire There’s a really great review of my book Resisting Empire: The Book of Revelation as Resistance in this month’s copy of the Western Friend by David Tucker. After reading resisting empire – or more accurately, while reading it – I found myself delving into the text of Revelation, the literature
Blog Entries Love as A Model For Change Before Covid19, and certainly even more now, the systems that were meant to take care of us, protect our most vulnerable, and be focused on the best interest of the people rather than for those in power have all failed and can no longer be trusted or relied upon. We
Blog Entries A New Newsletter is Coming Hi Friends, I wanted to let you know that I am launching a new newsletter soon called “Remixing Faith.” It will pull together writings and research dealing with faith, resistance, cultural change, and collective intelligence. I am doing this to continue to develop my own writing, as well as create
resisting-empire Unmasking Liturgies of Empire One of the things I am currently focused on and really hungry to know more about is the concept of liturgies of resistance. A concept I originally discovered when studying the Book of Revelation. I think this is one of the keys to our ability to resist and survive empire
Featured Hope in a time of Empire: The Lynching of Ahmaud Arbery & the Vision of Jesus in Revelation 1 This is a message I prepared for First Friends Meeting where my family and I attend. Rev. 1:12 Then I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands I saw
Blog Entries Join The Online Study of Poverty, Empire, and the Book of Revelation in the Time of Covid19 Friends, I am hosting an online study of my new book, “Resisting Empire: The Book of Revelation as Resistance,” and the Book of Revelation in the time of Covid19 and I want to invite you to consider participating. I am interested in these three questions with this course: how does
Dress Down Friday Dress Down (Good) Friday Edition I trust that you are all staying safe and well. I am sending love and blessings to each of you in this trying and uncertain time. I take hope in knowing and believing in the Christian story. Knowing that God experienced and experiences human suffering. That uncertainty and waiting is
Bag of Tricks My Interview on the Rework Podcast Friends – I had the really amazing opportunity to be on the Rework Podcast recently, and the interview just published today. Rework is a podcast about work, life, and tech and is put on by the folks at Basecamp. Wailin Wong, one of the co-hosts of Rework, reached out to me
Blog Entries Take a Break, Make a Pour Over With Wess Last week, my staff spent time making a number and coordinating a number of daily videos for the campus community around self-care practices. There was this one with Faculty Member Jim Hood, doing a walk in the Guilford Woods that people really loved, and another one from my colleague, Evelyn
Blog Entries Using Roam Research in Academia I have fallen in love with the note-taking, research, “second brain” app called, Roam Research. It is a simple application that enables me to take notes and do research in ways that I have not been able to do with other note-taking systems. As someone who loves to read, research,
Featured Listen to My Interview On the EasterPod This past Sunday, I am on a new episode of the EasterPod, a podcast by Corey Easterday. This one is extra special for me because Corey is not only a friend and a great person, leader, and creative entrepreneur, he was also in my youth group when I was first
Blog Entries Caring for Self and Others in Times of Trouble: Some Spiritual Tools and Tips This was shared with me from Alexander Levering Kern, graduate of Guilford College and Executive Director Center for Spirituality, Dialogue, and Service (CSDS) at Northeastern University. He and his family attends Friends Meeting at Cambridge, Massachusetts. I think you will find it helpful. Please share with others as you see
Blog Entries Holding Family Meetings To Keep A Sense of Routine and Connection in the Midst of Covid19 A couple of years back, we came across a book called “The Secret of Happy Families,” which I am not necessary recommending but there were some handy ideas in the book. One of them was the idea of a weekly family meeting, and a basic layout for what that meeting
Blog Entries The No. 666 & Resisting Empire: Inverse Podcast Interview Last week, my interview with the Inverse Podcast was published. The conversation with Drew Hart (Professor at Messiah College, Author of The Trouble I’ve Seen, Changing the Way the Church Views Racism) and Jarrod McKenna (Australian theologian and activist) was a lot of fun and broad in terrain. The
Family Systems The Power of Presence This is a long quote from one of my favorite books, “A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of Quick Fix” by Edwin Friedman. I’ve been thinking about it the past couple days with all the news about Covid-19 and thinking about the importance of pastors, leaders, parents,
Blog Entries Register Now for Online Webinar: Leadership Amongst Friends Dear Friends, I am co-facilitating an online course for Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre, UK on Leadership Amongst Friends with Zélie Gross and John Gray, two British Quakers. The six-week course runs from 20 April to 31 May 2020. I’d like to invite you to consider joining us this year
Blog Entries Interview with A People’s Theology I recently had an interview with the @peoplestheology (https://twitter.com/peoplestheology) podcast on my new book and what the book of Revelation can teach us about how to resist empire and what it means to build the multitude. Give it a listen and let me know what you think.
Productivity Elizabeth Gurney Fry’s Checklist I’m am interested in checklists, setting annual goals for myself, and working on specific habits I want to create or break. For example, I am currently working on a 2020 goal of “building a consistent habit of exercising.” So far I have been successful at this goal, going to
Blog Entries Revelation as Resistance: Moral Imagination in an Age of Empire How would you answer if I were to ask you, “What one book of the Bible are you least interested in studying, reading, discussing, or teaching others about?” When I considered this question in the spring of 2013, as the pastor of a Quaker meeting in the Pacific Northwest, I
Poverty Beastly Economics & King’s Vision for the Poor People’s Campaign “…we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing‐oriented” society to a “person‐oriented” society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism
