It Is A Dangerous Day

This Common Prayer Project Has Taken Years Of Energy, But We See It Not As A Way To Leave Our Individual Churches, But As A Movement We Hope To See Permeate The Larger Church.

When The Church Takes Affairs Of The State More Seriously Than They Do Jesus, Pax Romana Becomes Its Gospel And The President Becomes The Son Of God.

Sometimes People Call Folks Here At The Simple Way Saints. Usually They Either Want To Applaud Our Lives And Live Vicariously Through Us, Or They Want To Write Us Off As Superhuman And Create A Safe Distance. One Of My Favorite Quotes, Written On My Wall Here In Bold Black Marker, Is From Dorothy Day: "don't Call Us Saints; We Don't Want To Be Dismissed That Easily

The Death Penalty Has Succeeded In America, Not In Spite Of Christians, But Because Of Us. The Bible Belt Is The Death Belt. Wherever Christians Are Most Concentrated Is Where Executions Are Happening, And That's Deeply Troubling To Me.

It's Impossible To Separate Our Contemporary Practice Of The Death Penalty From Our History Around Race And Slavery, And Specifically, Lynching. Where Lynchings Were Happening 100 Years Ago Is Where Executions Are Happening Today. And That's A Haunting And Eerie Thing.