Featured Articles
Meeting Big Brother at the ICE Office
Not long ago, I was part of a group from our church that accompanied Javier to the local office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Others from our congregation, pastors included, had made the trip multiple times before to accompany church members who had also been summoned. This time, my first, there were six of us in the van that took off at 6:30 a.m. from the parking lot of our church: two of our pastors, another elder and me, and Javier and his wife.
Featured Articles
A Father’s Library, a Professor’s Virtue, and Sanctification
I was raised with a freedom to ask questions about my faith. I didn’t have the sort of fundamentalist baggage that I now discover many of my evangelical peers have. I definitely never had any hang-ups about origins in the book of Genesis or rigid application of rules from the Bible. I was never anxious about the imperfections of the biblical text.
The Difference Between a Time and a Season
While I grieved for the broken relationship between church and pastor, I was also excited about this opportunity for myself. After the initial three weeks
This Wasn’t Supposed to Happen
I remember vividly the day my death-denying illusions were shattered—it happened when I was a senior in high school. A friend had driven home from
Wonder and World-Mending: The Relevance of Denise Levertov to Our Present Darkness
“O Taste and See” was written two decades before Levertov would explicitly identify as a Christian, yet she already intuited that focusing on this world
Learning How to Lament From Jesus
Still, when I compare Old and New Testament lamenting, I can’t shake the sense that the coming of Jesus changed the role of lament for
The Case for “Messed Up” Stories
There was a time in my career when the father of one of my students (in a different decade and a different state) requested a
Your Leap of Change
All of us spend much of our lives constructing the protection we think we need to survive and thrive. These layers of defense work well
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Daily blog by our regular bloggers & guest contributors.
Should I be Grateful Death Destroyed the Partisan Divide?
My mom died never knowing the rise of Donald Trump in American politics. On June 16, 2015, about 20 months after her death, Trump rode
Can These Bones Live?
Transplant team members will get emails announcing that so-and-so is in the operating room with Dr. Wonderful receiving their long-awaited heart/lungs/kidney/liver.
Fall Religious Reality TV Round Up
Though it might be artificial, manufactured, and overproduced, reality television can still offer a lens into religious belief and religious practice, and like many other
On Creeds and Confessions I
You can’t dismiss creeds and confessions because of their “politics.” They typically emerge out of crises which typically have a political dimension.
It’s Not About the Fish
“Well Chad, I’ve never really thought about that before,” was the response to a question I asked the late and dear Chana Safrai during my
A Different Kind of Veteran
Fred made history when he disobeyed orders to report for detention because he believed his constitutional rights were being violated.
A Prayer for Veterans Day
We pray for a time when peace will reign and swords become plowshares once more, that war be known only in history books.
Sacred in the Small: Finding Wonder in Everyday Creation
Look at the phages of the soil. They neither invest in the stock market nor stock shelves in your grocery store, and yet your heavenly
Reviews
Standing Closer to Suffering: A review of Everything is Tuberculosis
A tuberculosis outbreak began in the Kansas City, KS area in January of last year (2024). The outbreak is ongoing, with seventy confirmed active cases
Communion is Everything
I have been waiting for this book for more than twenty years. You see, when I first read Mark Gornik’s 2002 book To Live in
Joyful Companions for These Dark Times
by Angela Carpenter John Hendrix’s The Mythmakers defies simple explanation. On one level, it is the true story of a friendship and a testament to
The Life of a….Prodigal Sheep?
I vividly remember my first “women supporting women” moment. My friends and I were sitting in the back of the school bus in the Spring
When the Church Wounds
I started reading When the Church Harms God’s People over six months ago. Typically, it takes me two or three weeks to read a book
Rooted: Sustenance for Transformation
I often avoid driving the road that passes by the land that once was my grandpa’s orchard. The apple trees are gone now, the old
They Saw a Game: Review of The Unbiased Self by Erin Devers
When I taught Social Psychology in the spring, I began the semester with a story about a football game between Dartmouth and Princeton in 1951.
A Sustaining Vision: The Soulwork of Justice
In an era when social justice movements often burn bright and fast, leaving exhausted activists in their wake, Wes Granberg-Michaelson offers something desperately needed: a
Poetry
Passing the Peace
On good weeks it happens twice. Once on Sunday morning, sunlit sanctuary …
Bearing Witness
ICE arrested someone on my block. Walking my dog, I saw the witness first …
Be opened
to the absence of your own voice filling your inner silence …
A Famine of Words
It says right there in Amos chapter eight: “The time is surely coming,” syas the Lord …
After Denise Levertov’s Essays
My mind stops, one foot in the air …
Awake
An olive tree, aflame in my mind, awake in the wee hours …
Podcasts
“Be Opened” by Deb Baker
In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma talks with Deb Baker about her poem “Be Opened.” Deb lives in New
“A Famine of Words” by Steven Peterson
In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma interviewed Steven Peterson about his poem “A Famine of Words.” Steven is
“After Denise Levertov’s Essays” by Caroline J. Simon
In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma interviews Caroline J. Simon, PhD, about her poem “After Denise Levertov’s Essays.”
“On Absolution” by Lila Tindall
In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma talks with Lila Robinett Tindall about her poem “On Absolution.” Lila is
“Grafting Apple Shoots” by Betsy Howard
In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma talks with Betsy Howard about her poem “Grafting Apple Shoots.” Betsy serves
“Winterscape with Hair Gel and Citrus” by Marci Rae Johnson
In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma talks with Marci Rae Johnson about her poem “Winterscape with Hair Gel and