WHITicizms

Sermon offered on Good Friday, April 18, 2025Orinda Community Church, United Church of Christ When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.”John 19:26 At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means,“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.”Mark 15:34 Kilmar Armando…

In those days, a decree had gone out calling for mass deportations that began when the new government had taken power.

A re-adaptation of an adaptation I wrote in 2019 of the gospel of Jesus according to Luke, chapter 2 In those days, a decree had gone out calling for mass deportations that began when the new government had taken power. This action was in addition to restrictions on migration and policies of family separation enacted by previous administrations, the latter that were to be banned into the next…

I delievered this sermon on June 16, 2024 at Danville (CA) Congregational Church UCC, Fourth Sunday After Pentecost. Special musical guest was Minister Elana Bolds, Visions of Hope Ministries, Richmond, CA. General Orders, No. 3The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality…

Lessons from World AIDS Day: “We are the Church Alive, the Church with AIDS”

The designation of December 1 as World AIDS Day feels at once macabre yet also hopeful. I must admit, though: I have to work a bit to get to the hope part. On this day, we are confronted (again) with the utter devastation HIV-AIDS has wrought on humanity, with a particular viciousness toward the marginalized groups who took and continue to suffer the brunt of the disease. And we also celebrate…

I am sick of feeling like this and knowing that my queer kin never, ever get a break from feeling this dis-ease. They are killing us with one tweet, one piece of hateful legislation, one assault rifle at a time.

The mass shooting at a gay bar in Colorado Springs this week arouses within me a kind of uneasiness—the kind that never really goes away, but lingers always beneath the surface. It is an uneasiness that we, as individuals within one or more minority groups organized by a cobbled-together set of letters, are never really ever safe. And by “we” I mean myself to an extent, but really I mean the most…

I ironed some black fabric

I ironed some black fabric. I didn’t know what else to do.  I didn’t know what else to do with my grief, with my tears,with my feeling of utter impotence to do a damned thing that would make any bit of difference. And so I ironed some black fabric, my tears falling, meeting the heat, helping to smooth out the wrinkles.  I ironed some black fabric, looking at their pictures as the hot steam…

The most resilient people I know are transgender people. Period. All that many trans and gender-variant/gender non-conforming people have survived—much less survive on a daily basis—is remarkable in and of itself. Yet the fact that they have chosen and continue to choose, with audacious intention, to be VISIBLE and find ways to THRIVE inspires me time and time again. Their visibility is, no…