Tag: hope

Like most of us watching the news recently, I was shocked and horrified by the shootings in the Uvalde school on May 24th. In a country numb from hundreds of shootings, I was surprised I could still feel anything about them at all.

O’Tuama woke me up to a dimension of my community’s shock and anger: those we kept in chains—literally in the form of their ancestor’s slavery and in the present racist prison system, or figuratively in the various legacies of slavery (ie. voting rights)—are looking us in the eyes, clothed, dignified, and simply by existing in this way, asking to be heard. I see that the rage felt by so many fans is not unlike the Gerasene neighborhood council telling Jesus to take a hike.

Even though I am challenged almost daily in my beliefs, in my existence, in the reason for my being and living here in the United States, I love that I am transforming.

For decades I had a very hard time with one word in the Christian vocabulary: hope.

Negativity doesn’t create an environment of hope; it robs us of joy.

Trees are visible symbols of fierce hope.

It would appear that religion and science are at war with each other. As a Christian behavioral scientist, this both frustrates and saddens me.