When the pandemic reached our shores in early 2020, promises of time spent at home and opportunities for self-betterment were prevalent. Diets, home workouts, meditation protocols, and Bible verses were forwarded and then forwarded again. Fast forward 6+ months and the tenor of conversations have shifted. Disaster models now predict high levels of anxiety, depression, […]
One of our alumnae, Lisa Etter-Carlson (MATC ‘11), is the co-founder of Aurora Commons, a “neighborhood living room” (day shelter) in Seattle. Here, she calls us to see how the COVID-19 pandemic exposes systemic racism, poverty, and the criminalization of poverty—particularly among the unhoused. As this Pandemic has spread, it has exposed and exploited the […]
As a mostly able-body heterosexual, middle-class white cisgender male, my life oozes with privilege. I am acquainted with the sanctimonious anger of Brett Kavanaugh, the smug sexism of Mark Driscoll, the pompous arrogance of Donald Trump, the assumption-rightness of John Piper, and the murderous racism of Derek Chauvin. Yet, Jesus indicates that with God’s help, […]
“But we have no patterns for relating across our human differences as equals. As a result, those differences have been misnamed and misused in the service of separation and confusion.” -Audrey Lorde in Sister Outsider For the past nine years, I have the privilege of teaching Being the Word on the Street: Developing Intercultural Competency. […]
Mississippi. M-i-crooked letter crooked letter-i-crooked letter crooked letter-i-humpback humpback i. We all know it spells Mississippi. Mississippi is a state in the Deep South, flanked by other southern states, but different than Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Georgia, Louisiana. I think uglier in their hate, savagery, viciousness, murderousness. I know this Mississippi, and I am terrified. The […]
“Moonias! Moonias!” (“White Man! White Man”) the children screeched as I stood outside their home on the Maskwacis First Nations Reservation. As a Community Social Worker, I had been summoned to investigate a child abuse allegation. I was twenty-two years old and it had never occurred to me that the color of my skin was […]
Am I living my own story, or living someone else’s? -Dr. Howard Stevenson Earlier this year, Dr. J. Derek McNeil sat down for a conversation with one of his life-long friends, Dr. Howard Stevenson, about trauma and resilience, especially as these topics relate to African-American men and boys. Dr. Stevenson is a clinical psychologist who […]
We live in a culture constructed on the scaffolding of systemic racist ideas, the racialization of ethnicity or safely siloed in our own ethnic communities. The murders of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Ahmaud Arbery; as well as the Make America Great Again anthems, have illuminated where we are in regard to equity and justice. […]
Scott Erickson is a multi-hyphenate artist: a touring painter, co-author of two books, and a performer of autobiographical, multimedia, interactive plays. As Andrea Sielaff, researcher for Resilient Leaders Project at The Seattle School, conducted qualitative interviews about what contributes to resilience in ministry, Scott was identified as an exemplar of resilience by one of his […]
When I returned from a week away around the Memorial Day holiday and learned of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of police officers, I sat in stunned silence and then I wept. There seems to be no end, no respite from the violence and oppression, no collective awareness, repentance, or change. I was preparing […]
Over the past months, we’ve watched the pandemic unfold, contouring to the same or worse racial disparities that are usually found in our society and health systems. The same barriers to access exist now in Black and Native communities as existed last fall. The same internalized biases exist in exhausted healthcare works as existed before. […]
On January 22nd of this year, I attended Jamar Tisby’s lecture at Seattle Pacific University based on his book, The Color of Compromise. He began with the story of a speech by White civil rights lawyer Charles Morgan Jr at the Birmingham Young Men’s Business Club in Birmingham, Alabama the day after the murder of […]