![](https://sojo.net/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/headshots/jwl_headshot_7.14.14_1.jpg?itok=vRRcGQiZ)
Joseph Wiinikka-Lydon is a teacher and writer focusing on religious and philosophical ethics. His work looks at virtue ethics, moral injury and violence, and how selves are formed through violence. Formerly an assistant professor at Birmingham-Southern College, Joe has taught at Sewanee: The University of the South and Denison University. He is currently a researcher at the new Center for Ethics as Study of Human Value at the University of Pardubice, a European Union funded project that looks at ethics as a way to better understand human identity and how philosophy and ethics may help address major social and political challenges. Outside of the academy, he has worked with SURJ-Birmingham, AL, and is currently lending a hand to start the “Across the Threshold” Project, a vehicle to help white individuals come to terms with racism and white supremacy through the use of shared story and narrative.
Posts By This Author
Kingdom Come Undone
![](https://sojo.net/sites/default/files/styles/large_square/public/blog/12308724683_d41fb31017_b.jpg?itok=cGuAl2n_)
Image via Forsaken Fotos/Flickr.com
The most religious states — a comparison based on questions like church attendance, identity, and prayer frequency — more often than not coincide with the poorest states, the states with lowest life expectancy, and the states where it is most dangerous to be LGBTQ and/or a person of color.