Mark Feldmeir God loves the stranger and commands us to do likewise I cannot suggest what that should mean for you. One cannot legislate love. I can only remind you that in Scripture it is accepted without controversy or question: God loves…
Mark Feldmeir “Give me your tired, your poor” “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my…
Mark Feldmeir Homesickness – the longing for home. Frederick Buechner points out that the word “longing” comes from the same root as the word “long,” in the sense of length and time, as in, “it’s a long line,”…
Mark Feldmeir Three suggestions So, what can we do? Where do we go from here? Can I offer three suggestions? First, if you’re white, listen to people, especially to people of color, who are…
Mark Feldmeir Something more systemic? If we want to understand racism in the U.S., as uncomfortable as it might be for us, we have the moral responsibility to open our eyes and see our society…
Mark Feldmeir How we think about racism is largely determined by our own particular race. Axiom: How we think about racism is largely determined by our own particular race. For my friend stranded in the unlit parking lot, fearing the black man who ultimately came…
Mark Feldmeir Two Stories I do not presume to have arrived on the issue, or to be “woke.” I simply want to share with you what I have discovered on my own journey toward…
Mark Feldmeir How can we talk about race without the defensiveness, reflexivity, and scapegoating that accompanies such conversations? Baltimore, Ferguson, Charlottesville, Charleston. Trevon, Tamir, Sandra, Philando, and Freddie. Kaepernick, Serena, Barkley, and Lebron. White supremacy, white privilege, white fragility, and woke. “Hands up, don’t shoot.” “I can’t breathe.”…
Mark Feldmeir When the cost of error is too high, the wise hedge their bets. Axiom #1: When the cost of error is too high, the wise hedge their bets. If, for ideological reasons, we cannot agree that human activity contributes to climate change, then…
Mark Feldmeir An alternative to self-interested values For Jesus, a politics of love manifests itself in the form of compassion, which in Latin means literally to “suffer with another.” Genuine compassion evokes a deep concern for the…
