Citing dangers to LGBTQ+ and immigrant communities, the Oregon-Idaho Conference of the United Methodist Church voted last month to move next year's annual conference out of Idaho.
At this year’s annual conference — a meeting where representatives from Oregon and southern Idaho United Methodist churches gather to vote on and make decisions — held at the Cathedral of the Rockies in Boise, Idaho, the Rev. Heather Riggs of Montavilla United Methodist in Portland brought a motion to the floor to change the location of next year’s conference.
Dozens of clergy and laity gave public comment, arguing why they believed the event should remain in Idaho or move to Oregon in 2027. The vote was close, but the end result was that the conference would either move to Oregon or be held virtually.
Where do you think Ye keeps his Dove Award?
Oh, you forgot Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, has a Dove Award—the Christian music industry award—alongside other illustrious winners like Kirk Franklin, Michael W. Smith, and Amy Grant? Fear not, the rap duo of Andy Mineo and John “Wordsplayed” Itiola are here with witty one-liners to remind you.
As long-time staples in Christian hip-hop, each has left a distinctive mark on the misfit subgenre.
Mineo spends a ruthless amount of time honing his craft, and it shows. He has helped lead CHH past cheap musical imitations of “secular hip-hop,” and past cheap lyrical imitations of Reformed sermons. Over trap beats, Latin drums, or the occasional electric guitar, he’s written the fullness of his life—from doubting God and deconstructing to his relationships with his parents.
Wordsplayed has consistently infused CHH with some much-needed levity. He toes the line with witty lyricism, mocking everything from the music industry to Creflo Dollar, internet pornography, and himself—all with a wink. Through lo-fi beats, infomercials for his Patreon, and stand-up comedy sets, he’s given every too-serious fan of CHH the type of laughter that provokes introspection.
These days, it's rare for a political speech to capture my imagination. But a few months ago, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke at the World Economic Forum declaring with moral clarity and candor that there’s been a “rupture in the global order” tied to a “brutal reality” where the strong can act without constraints and the weak must endure the consequences.
I remember the first time I heard the term “empire.” It was when I read anti-imperial literature written by revolutionaries who defended my home, the Philippines, from Western domination. I learned from their witness that empire is a structure of sin. I also learned from fellow Filipino Christians that if one calls themselves a “disciple of Jesus,” imperial power must be concretely challenged and resisted, as it does not cohere with the way of Jesus.
A shorthand for “imperial power” among social justice Christians is the term “empire.” When Christians use this term, we are not just describing a historical structure of domination, but we are comparing and contrasting the politics of empire with the kingdom of God (Matthew 5:3-12; 20:25-26).
My wife is a novelist, and she’ll tell you that the best surprise ending should feel initially shocking but inevitable in hindsight. That’s an apt descriptor of this horrible Graham Platner arc.
Editor’s note: This story includes reference to suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org
Ryan “R.L.” Stollar, a theologian and advocate whose work focused on children, abuse survivors, and homeschooling, died by suicide this week, leaving behind a legacy of tenacious and occasionally combustive activism. He was 41.
Stollar co-founded the blog “Homeschoolers Anonymous,” which garnered scores of media attention in the 2010s as more homeschool alumni began sharing stories of their experiences. He later helped found the organizations Homeschool Alumni Reaching Out and the Coalition for Responsible Home Education, both dedicated to resources and advocacy around safer homeschooling in the U.S. In 2023, Stollar published The Kingdom of Children: A Liberation Theology with Eerdmans.
“We [adults] need to give children the freedom to be their own theologians — to discover and love who God is and what God values on their own terms,” Stollar wrote.
I was a Mary Oliver skeptic for a long time. The first time I read “The Summer Day,” with its lines about feeding sugar to grasshoppers and considering your “one wild and precious life,” I found it preposterously sentimental. At the time, I resented being told it was more honorable to spend my time strolling through fields and hand-feeding bugs than to pursue my preferred activities of browsing library bookshelves and hovering over record store discount bins.
Then, a few years ago, I was helping my uncle water his garden when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. There, balanced on a hosta leaf, was the biggest grasshopper I’d ever seen, about the size of a field mouse. I knew, without a doubt, God had made that grasshopper. More than anything, I wanted to feed it some sugar. That was the moment Oliver’s poetry finally clicked for me—a divine nudge to notice the world’s natural beauty and its intricate systems.
In the Hand of Dante is all over the place. The narrative advertised by its title, of medieval Italian poet Dante Alighieri’s struggle to write his epic poem, The Divine Comedy, competes for screen time with a neo-noir story in which a fictional version of Nick Tosches, the late author of the book on which this film is based, is recruited by a crime boss to authenticate the poem’s long-lost original manuscript.
Oscar Isaac plays both Dante and Tosches. Gerard Butler stars as an unpredictable, “I woke up and chose violence” hitman who accompanies Tosches to Italy, as well as Pope Boniface VIII, who exiles Dante from his native Florence. (The two belonged to opposing factions vying for control of the great Italian city-state, with Dante supporting civic independence from the Vatican.)
Last Tuesday, on the final day of Pride Month, Matthew Vines of The Reformation Project published an opinion piece for The New York Times called “I’m Gay, Not Queer. It Matters.” In it, he argues that in a national landscape growing increasingly hostile toward LGBTQ+ people, our movement would be better served by pivoting away from the word “queer”—both because of its umbrella quality, which “lacks clear limiting principles,” and because of its “adversarial charge” that implies we are, by nature, subversive and anti-normative. “Because the word ‘queer’ can describe any departure from social norms,” Vines argues, “it becomes an open door through which almost anyone can walk.” Because of what Vines reads as an overly expansive nature within the queer category, the public’s trust and understanding of the core parameters of what it means to be gay are being eroded. Vines asserts, instead, that his own self-acceptance came from acknowledging that “there is nothing inherently radical or subversive about being gay.” As such, he does not wish to be described as queer, with all the unwanted implications it brings.
In 1 Kings 19, God appears to the prophet Elijah. At this point in the biblical story, Elijah is the last remaining prophet who follows God, and many in the nation of Israel have stopped listening.