What follows was inspired by a few things. One, words of Christian theologian Willie Jennings spoken soon after the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor: Jennings’ observations on anger and God surprised me and further illuminated my own long struggle with a grieving outrage that sometimes feels debilitating. He also gave me permission to feel my anger as part […]

Please sign and consider reposting in social media this link:https://www.change.org/NoMoreSheridanRoad Sheridan Road in Chicago is named after General Philip Sheridan, whose career included time here during the Chicago Fire and fighting for the Union during the Civil War but was rooted in the so-called “Indian Wars” of the Great Plains. 150 years ago, on Jan 23 1870, he directed Major […]

Except the Names It’s a dangerous thing, cannibalizing another’s life for one’s own purposes. It’s done all the time. I hold the sign naming the dead black man as protest, in protest. Yet I am enthused, energized, and (must I say this?) enjoying myself. Something isn’t in sync. And then, looking around at the other signs, the other namesI imagine […]

So this morning my conscience sez to me… In our struggles against Trumpagelicalism, let’s pause a sec. You feel betrayal, yes. You feel wounded. You, at your best, feel anger and even rage at what is being done to your immigrant, POC, poor, and other neighbors by Trumpagelicals. You’re dismayed continually at the corporate takeover of science and environment by […]

An Uprush of Emotion is usually the way I (and I suspect you?) identify meaning. Good or bad. Admitting this may be both difficult and more ambiguous an admission than it appears. An Evangelical such as John Piper might negatively (and emotionally) assign emotion/meaning linkages to his term “effeminacy,” a fascinating reality distortion in both its anti-womanist and self-blinding qualities. […]

“What does community mean to you?” A self-inquiry by Jon Trott, offered as a message at JPUSA Church 04/23/2018 What does community mean to you? Every one of us has our own list of answers to this question. Not all of those answers are “spiritual” sounding. Not all of us agree on even the questions. But still… what does community […]

Violence against blacks by police. Yesterday, one black man murdered in Minnesota and one murdered in Louisiana. Many yesterdays here in Chicago. Not a time to hear my own white male voice. Where race is concerned this is doubly true. I thought I’d simply post four black novelists’ words here instead. Need it be said that black fiction is often truer […]

Robert P. Jones’ new book begins with a chapter entitled “An Obituary for White Christian America.” And it doesn’t get better from there. But his premise is driven home even for those of us who’d rather be in denial about the demise of our beloved subculture. Architecture hardly seems a promising genesis point for the topic, but by giving both mainstream […]

I am a Bible-believing Christian who has served Christ full-time in the inner city of Chicago since 1977. I met Christ as a sixteen-year-old in 1973, praying the prayer on the floor of a Jesus Person’s Montana farm house. I pray that first love empowers me daily. I am not going to claim that unless you vote the way I […]

  ‪#‎NRADeathSquad‬ by Jon Trott Easy enough to conceal who you are with the hip-carried friend Sending someone else far away from this place, this life, their universe of time and rhyme gone — snap — watch it congeal on the sidewalk near Leland and Malden I heard the bang-bang-bang-bang-bang And the girl start screaming that they shot her baby […]