This expansive, like-hearted community transcends race, orientation, gender, religious tradition, political affiliation, and nation of origin—and finds its affinity in the deeper place of our shared humanity, which is the True North of his writing. This collection lovingly pulls together some of John’s most widely-read and most beloved essays on faith, politics, grief, and the elemental parts of being human.
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I’m done being represented by a needy, belligerent, barely literate mobster.
I’m done with unrepentant racists and anti-science religious zealots.
I’m done with confederate flags and Fox News and MAGA cultism.
For my entire life I assumed something that perhaps I shouldn’t have: I thought Christians were supposed to care about people. Not necessarily agree with them or believe what they believe or even like them—but see them each as specific and unique image-bearers of the divine, to want and to work for Shalom for them: wholeness, happiness, peace, safety, rest.
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I am a newly retired optimist. I used to believe that things would always be okay: that no matter how bad circumstances seemed in the world, I trusted that people would do the right thing, that goodness would prevail, that the rational center would hold.
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I am a Christian.
Actually, it’s more accurate lately to say that I am still a Christian.
No one likes to eat alone; to approach a table filled with people, only to be told that despite the open chairs there isn’t room for you. The rejection stings. It leaves a mark. Yet this is exactly what the church has been saying to far too many people for far too long: “You’re not welcome here. Find someplace else to sit.” How can we extend unconditional welcome and acceptance in a world increasingly marked by bigotry, fear, and exclusion?
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