I just wanted to have a nice dinner. I’ll spare you the details, but while on a family vacation, I ended up saying this to a random person I got stuck next to at dinner one night, “I really don’t need you to explain the history of Christianity to me.” I’m not one to start fights, but I sure to get invited to a lot of them. They're hard to Read More
Family
How to Talk About Abortion in Church
Abortion. Does the word stir up emotions? Does it cause you unease, even anger? You’re not alone. Say “abortion” in a public setting, and undoubtedly the reaction will be strong and visceral. Say it in the pulpit? The idea is enough to make even the most prophetic among us quake and quiver. Our discomfort with discussing abortion, Read More
Should I Have a Kid?
“Did you always know that you wanted to be a parent?” A few weeks ago while recording an episode for our podcast Kindreds, my co-host asked. We talked at length but in short, the answer was, no. When I was young and single, the idea of having a kid was something that seemed like an eventual, yet distant given for my life. But when the question Read More
Parenting and Politics: How I’m Showing Up
When I was ten weeks pregnant I gave an impassioned speech in front of the Supreme Court during the Hobby Lobby hearings about why universal access to contraception was part of my own religious understanding. I’d wanted to share about my own planned pregnancy, but at that point I wasn’t far enough along to feel comfortable telling that in a public Read More
A Lament for My Daughter
Get Compassion:Reflections on Childbirth and Privilege
Jessi Klein wrote an Op-Ed in last Sunday’s New York Times entitled “Get the Epidural” in which she takes on the arguments for “natural” childbirth and makes an astute point about its premise: “It’s interesting that no one cares very much about women doing anything ‘naturally’ until it involves their being in excruciating pain.” Thinking back to Read More
From Navel to Knees: Naming the Unspeakable
“Ayuda!” My feisty seventeen-month-old daughter has mastered the art of asking for help, in Spanish no less. When Sam turned one my husband and I enrolled her at Spanish immersion childcare center not far from our house. During the week her sponge-like brain is absorbing a language different from the one she hears at home. Effortless bilingualism, Read More
Human Beings, Not Wombs in Waiting
The CDC's recommendations on alcohol are well-intended, but I find the frame problematic on many levels. Read More
Silent Night, Holy Night: Reflections on Mother and Child
Advent is a season of expectation, hope, and preparation for the miracle of God’s entry into our world as a vulnerable infant. But do we pause often enough to ponder the birth itself? The nativity stories found in our sacred texts tell us little about it, though what we know is Mary was a relatively young woman, she was pregnant at an unexpected Read More
