An Old Emergence

God of peace and light, we come into your presence today as a community dedicated to hearing from you. Our hearts are heavy with care for the hurt in our world. We think of our sisters and brothers in our global community. In Haiti and Chile there are members of our body struggling to see the Holy amidst destruction and pain. We pray for our extended family in Cuba as they worship with us this morning in spirit. Our hearts cannot help but dwell on the hurt in our own community that we’ve experienced over the last two weeks. Show us comfort Lord. Give us healing. We pray desperately for your divine peace. Yet we cannot help but thank you for the moments of celebration. Today we celebrate the decision this week to advance equality in our nation’s capital, even as we work toward the same goals in our own community. We also ask your blessing on the tithes and offerings of money that are to be brought. May what we give be used to bring your peace and light into each of the lives our communi

I believe... Those two words are incredibly profound. With them, lines have been drawn for conflict, unions have been formed in peace, and entire faith traditions have been established. When I wrote those two words a few seconds ago, I had fully intended to jump into a long discourse about the many beliefs I hold. For some reason, that now seems inappropriate. Yes, this blog is my bully pulpit to speak about my many beliefs, but that's not really what I want to do tonight. Last night I came home from my "Christianity in the Entertainment Industry" class in a absolute frenzy of frustration, anger, and sadness. This class is forcing me to apply everything I have learned over the last two and a half years of being a student of religion. I am having to cautiously weigh the opinions around me in order to form coherent statements that support my own minority opinion (as far as this class is concerned) about the world, especially as it relates to Christianity. I won't go int