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Essays by 2021-22 Emerging Writers
On the sacred space of bathrooms for queer and trans folks
June 23, 2022
All anyone really wants in a bathroom is some privacy. But Kai Ngu also found bathrooms a good place to think, and shares some thoughts here.Read more »A Bitter Pill
June 20, 2022
Natarsha Sanders recounts her battle to accept a difficult diagnosis, and to get the necessary treatment. Love and medicine get her there.Read more »Postcolonial Faith: Grappling with the Legacy of Missionaries in my Family
April 4, 2022
Kai (Sarah) Ngu considers the legacy of their family's relationship with an American missionary and how Christianity contributes to their parents' ongoing feelings of racial inferiority.Read more »When Overachieving No Longer Satisfies
March 24, 2022
To exchange the “ideal overachiever” title assigned to me for the “sacred human” title chosen by the God who created me, something needed to change.Read more »Women of Color in Ministry Are Not Scarce, Just Unsupported
February 3, 2022
Angie Hong reports on the experience of women of color in ministry and offers concrete steps toward helping them thrive in churches dedicated to increasing diversity.Read more »In Defense of Meddling
January 27, 2022
"Most people want their social circles to do a little bit of meddling, even if they would never articulate it that way."Read more »Essential Workers, Insufficient Funds
January 17, 2022
Those working in retail, the food industry, childcare, and eldercare are essential workers and deserve a living wage for the essential service and hard work they provide.Read more »Why “Brainwashed” Is a Lazy Accusation
January 13, 2022
Rather than dismissing someone as "brainwashed," what might we learn by approaching others with curiosity?Read more »A Church Made of Words
October 18, 2021
Sophia Stid, a poet, explores the difficult, ongoing task of finding the words for faith, in a world where words are multivalent and sometimes misused.Read more »A God Who Cleaves: Coming Out, Parents, and Queerness
October 11, 2021
"After college, I began to discover new tools for interpreting the Bible that allowed me, for the first time, to imagine myself as a whole person within my faith."Read more »
Essays by 2020-21 Emerging Writers
To Kneel in the Soil: Responding to a Climate Generation in Crisis
June 3, 2021
How do we answer children's fears about the ongoing climate crisis? Maybe the best we can do is engaging them with living soil.Read more »Reggae Lament
May 31, 2021
For J. Jioni Palmer, reggae often loosens up emotions, providing an opportunity for spiritual lament in a genre known for its optimism and uplift.Read more »Living Faith in Stereo
May 20, 2021
"The Lenten practice of looking with complexity continues to sustain our beautiful, terrible lives, to ground our hope in the pockets of possibilities for the world as it could be, and to make possible the art of living faith in stereo."Read more »The Devil Advises Me and Other Young White Clergy
March 4, 2021
Tweak your sermon. Update the church website. Dust your divinity school diploma. Do more self-care. And most of all, get serious.Read more »For the Love of God and Family
February 22, 2021
Being the Black father of Black boys in America today means more than giving "the talk." The threat of gun violence from many sources brought this father to a heartbreaking decision.Read more »
