A year ago today…

…a bigot-coward shot up a church in Charleston, S.C., and killed nine church-goers, with whom he’d been studying the Bible. Prayer and Bible study continue at the church. Here. Read this, from the daughter of a woman killed at the church.

Why does violence in a sacred space feel so very wrong?

Mike the Heathen sends this, “Violence and Sacred Space” at The Wild Hunt. The piece includes this: …Pagans can respect the sacred nature of a Christian church, even if they don’t follow the religion; and vice versa, a Christian can recognize the sanctity of Wiccan circle or Heathen temple. “The intrinsic lines” separating the sacred …

White supremacists: Their name is Legion

Read this fascinating report at Religion News Dispatch from R. Drew Smith, on white supremacy’s strangle-hold on our psyche. Smith says that rather than view the likes of Dylann Roof, the Charleston shooter, as an anomaly: I argue instead that white supremacy is a much more central part of American socio-religious culture than generally acknowledged …

Anonymous announces a million-person march on July 4

You can read about it here. Citing the historic happenings of the recent weeks, the press release says: Anonymous, in conjunction with the Occupy and Black Lives Matter movements – hereby calls forth a Million Person March for the only day when it could possibly happen, Independence Day. We call on every American of good …

Forgiveness is not ours

Listen to this conversation among religious leaders who talk about what forgiveness should look like in Charleston, S.C., where two weeks ago a young white man, espousing white supremacist ideology, shot and killed nine people studying their Bible at Emanuel AME Church. I appreciated everyone’s contribution to this conversation, but I am drawn to the …

Please read this essay

It hurts to read it, but please. Read it. Prayers to Mother Emanuel. And thanks, Bishop Selders, for the link.

Anti-intellectualism is killing us

Jac sends this, an interesting Psychology Today essay by David Niose that includes this: America is killing itself through its embrace and exaltation of ignorance, and the evidence is all around us. Dylann Roof, the Charleston shooter who used race as a basis for hate and mass murder, is just the latest horrific example. Many …

The tragically short lifespan of outrage

I was thinking about those children from our south, the ones fleeing gangs and drugs and horrible conditions who last year were being held on our borders in holding pens, the ones our state of Connecticut officially refused to make room for. Where are they, I wonder? I certainly haven’t followed up. Have you? And …

Iowa Rep. Steve King speaks post-Charleston

And the asshat says — predictably — MORE GUNS! I’d say we should pray for him, but honestly, life’s awfully short and he may be past saving.

Taking down the flag is only a first step

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, reversing an earlier stance, has called for removing the Confederate flag from Statehouse grounds, after a white suspect shot and killed nine people in a historic black church in that state last week. Here’s a quote from her announcement on Monday: “For many people in our state, the flag stands …