Minister and author Rev. Lillian Daniel recently published a memoir about a difficult period in her life. Defrocked: Good News from a Bad Pastor for a Better Church recounts Daniel’s journey through a ministerial fitness review conducted roughly a decade ago, following a sexual boundary violation she committed with a church employee during her senior pastorate.
Daniel’s creative reflections on the wonders and travails of ministry have helped define the modern landscape of mainline Protestantism. Her writing in Defrocked is characteristically clever, winsome, and charming. The book is laugh-out-loud funny at times and genuinely tear-jerking at others. There are mirthful, unguarded moments and recurring inside jokes, many involving alcohol, little winks between the author and reader that make you feel privy to secret knowledge. The prose is breathtaking: elegiac, disarming, self-aware, rippling with exegetical wisdom and authenticity. That the tale is narrated by such a talented storyteller makes the book’s omissions all the more maddening.
Bob Dylan has spent more than six decades knocking on heaven’s door. On Wednesday, the door opened at the Vatican, where the legendary musician had a private audience with Pope Leo.
Leo and Dylan, fellow travelers from the U.S. Midwest, were seen meeting together in the pope’s office at the ornate apostolic palace in photos shared by the Vatican’s newspaper on social media.
California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Thursday he will commute the death sentences of all 548 inmates currently condemned to execution in his state, the largest death row in the Western Hemisphere.
The announcement, in a three-page letter addressed to “all Californians,” came as Newsom, a Democrat who is expected to seek his party’s presidential nomination in 2028, neared the end of his second and final four-year term as governor.
Newsom, who previously served as mayor of San Francisco and lieutenant governor, declared a moratoriumon executions in March 2019, about two months after first taking office as governor. California last put a prisoner to death in 2006 when Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger was governor.
I was part of voting in Tuesday night’s blue wave. I voted for Abdul El-Sayed, whose senatorial race had been called before I went to bed, and I woke up to the news that my current member of congress, an eight-term incumbent Republican, had been unseated.
Tuesday’s midterm election results were a victory for creating a government by, for, and of the people. At a time when many of our political leaders were openly threatening to disrupt or even sabotage our electoral system, voters overwhelmingly chose change and candidates who champion safe, secure, and fair elections.
From Texas to Iowa, numerous Christian candidates have campaigned with their commitments to faith and social justice front and center.
Long before voters headed to the polls on Election Day, faith leaders across the country had been working to build relationships with the election officials and volunteers working to make voting safe and secure.
There’s a lot of buildup leading up to Election Day—and rightfully so. Many of us in the faith community have helped by volunteering as poll workers, serving as poll chaplains, working to “get out the vote,” and praying that all will be able to cast their ballot in fair elections.
But in the face of the threats and efforts we’ve seen to disrupt these elections, the hard work of preserving, strengthening, and ultimately transforming our democracy isn’t over on Election Day; it must continue through the post-election period to ensure that every vote is counted and certified, and that a new Congress is seated on Jan. 3, 2027. As Christians, we don’t engage in this process out of loyalty to a certain candidate or political party; instead, our loyalty is to a God who calls us to stand up for human dignity and advance the common good. During election season, that means ensuring voters have a right to decide their leaders—and shape our shared future.
In September, a psychologist wrote these words in their monthly newsletter:
“As it turns out, character DOES matter. You can’t run a family, let alone a country, without it. How foolish to believe that a person who lacks honesty and moral integrity is qualified to lead a nation and the world! Nevertheless, our people continue to say that the President is doing a good job even if they don’t respect him personally. Those two positions are fundamentally incompatible. In the Book of James the question is posed, ‘Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring’ (James 3:11 NIV). The answer is no.”
Now, I should note, this newsletter is actually from September of 1998, as news of President Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky burbled into view. It was written by the late James Dobson, president of Focus on the Family, who excoriated Clinton, the Democratic Party, and “the media” for giving Clinton a pass. But he saved his harshest words for the American people who, to Dobson’s indignation and outright astonishment, continued to support Clinton even after learning that he’d cheated on his wife.
There has been more than enough anxiety, stress, and even trepidation around the midterm elections—not to mention a barrage of political ads fueled by record-breaking spending. As I’ve previously written, this is far from a normal year for midterm elections.
In his letter to the Philippians, Paul instructed the church to “be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (4:6-7). That “everything” includes uncertain and potentially volatile elections.