Have you noticed the stress of living in close confinement during this time when we're all well advised to stay at home? It's not easy, I suspect, for any of us, but for some it will be a matter of life and death and injury and lasting scars. So I'm posting today a reflection I wrote for future posting in the blog of the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women (COSROW) of the United Methodist Church. I hope we all might be praying for adults and children who are experiencing violence in their homes in this challenging and uncertain season. You can learn more about how to respond to … [Read more...] about Matter-of-Fact Violence Against Women
prison
Unlikely Christmas Caring
Over the next few days, 52 police chiefs in 52 police departments around the nation will receive an envelope from Women at the Well, a church inside the Iowa women’s prison. The envelope contains Christmas cards and a letter from me, the pastor of this amazing church. The Christmas cards are handmade. Some include hand-drawn trees and figures. Others have images and words cut out of a prior season’s cards and rearranged on a piece of construction paper, cardstock, or scrapbook paper. Most have a handwritten note. Words like “Thank you for your service,” or “My prayers are with you and your … [Read more...] about Unlikely Christmas Caring
The Uneasy Empty Chair
For 25 years, there's been an empty chair at the Thanksgiving table, my friend said (I'll call her Carol). Perhaps not literally. No one expected Carol's nephew to show up, so perhaps there wasn’t actually a place set, knowing it would stay empty, at the big dining table where the family would gather. But Peter's absence diminished those feasts. The chair he should have occupied was empty. No one would lovingly prepare that odd corn relish that, for years, Peter had said was his favorite. He was definitely missed. For the first few of those years, there was some story. He had to be … [Read more...] about The Uneasy Empty Chair
Yes, but will we welcome them
Many of us have hailed the news, over past months, that President Obama has commuted the sentences of hundreds of federal prisoners, most of them incarcerated with draconian sentences for nonviolent drug offenses. President Obama has granted clemency at a rate far in excess of other recent presidents. This reflects, it seems, a growing bipartisan recognition that mandatory minimum sentences have not served us well. Great news, we might say. But will we welcome them? In other news, we are beginning to see the release of juvenile offenders whose mandatory life sentences were declared … [Read more...] about Yes, but will we welcome them
“Show Us the Church Is for Real”
On a hot July morning, we trudged across a blank courtyard and up unadorned cement steps to a stark upstairs room. Some thirty of us outsiders found seats in clumps, waiting, until eighteen men in blue streamed into the room, our hosts, residents there at the men’s state prison in Chillicothe, Ohio. They circulated among us as we stood to greet them, with handshakes and some (initially) tentative hugs. So began three days of truth-telling and vision-casting, wreathed by razor wire. What was the truth that we heard again and again, from these incarcerated men? The church has failed us. A … [Read more...] about “Show Us the Church Is for Real”
Excruciating Intimacy
Who has touched you today? It’s a question, for me, usually answered with a very short list, if actual physical touch is in view. My list expanded this week as I participated, as a staff member at the prison, in a yearly training aimed at enhancing our safety. We practiced techniques to fend off an attack, and to end an altercation. There’s an intimacy to this, with a lot of touch—much of it harsh—as we repeat defensive and directive moves, always with a partner. We get up close and personal with fellow staff members, female and male, in ways that don’t happen even with close friends. … [Read more...] about Excruciating Intimacy