Robert Hasselblad

YouTube video by Montview Church Shining-Rev Nadia Bolz Weber Jan 11, 2026

view at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ippi...

NADIA BOLZ-WEBER "SHINING" EPIPHANY SERMON
"We don’t achieve light, manufacture our own brilliance. Can manufacturing our own brightness obscure God’s gentler light – a lamp unto our feet? Maybe the light finds us rather than the other way around."

A Timely Look at Isaiah 60 in dark times.

The Tune of Things, by Christian Wiman Is consciousness God?

“‘Mind is common to all things.’ ‘Consciousness is a singular of which the plural is unknown.’ ‘I don’t know who God is, godding inside of me.’ What if all these statements reach toward one truth?” —Christian Wiman

Of Course the Virgin Mary Would Trample ICE Queer Catholic artist Libby Kercher's recent depiction of Mary trampling a serpent labeled ICE emphasizes Mary's role as the patroness of the oppressed.

Emma and I co-wrote this piece looking at using the Virgin Mary within protest art for @sojo.net

sojo.net/articles/opi...

YouTube video by To Be Read a Story My Grandfather Reads You a Poem

My Grandson Matteus recently created a short video of me reading my poem, "In the Wards" about my grandfather during the 1918 Influenza Epidemic. Also appeared in #themacguffin 2021. For his you tube channel on the work of Story. Enjoy!

When Texas Governor Abbott demanded rainbow crosswalks across the state be removed, Oak Lawn United Methodist Church in Dallas painted the steps of their church in the rainbow colors.

We spoke with their senior pastor, Rev. Rachel Griffin-Allison.

Event flyer for "How Faith Communities and Librarians Can Advocate for the Freedom to Read on November 5, 2025 at 4 p m eastern time."

Join us Wednesday @ 4pm ET / 1pm PT!

We're teaming up with @amlibraryassoc.bsky.social's @uabookbans.bsky.social to discuss how faith communities and librarians can come together to advocate for the right to read.

Register here: support.interfaithalliance.org/a/how-faith-...

#PacificLutheranUniversity Resisting Christian Nationalism Dr. Seth Dowland

Thursday, September 25, 2025 4:00pm PDT
Dr. Seth Dowland, scholar of American religions, will discuss the dangers of growing Christian nationalism, strategies for resistance.

Register at calendar.plu.edu/event/resist...

There is no going back. The past for which we may be nostalgic will not return. Our task is to take what we have now and transform it into something that will take us to a hopeful future. We are in the process of recreating ourselves. Let us do it with faith and imagination.

“ Write it. Write. In ordinary ink
on ordinary paper: they were given no food,
they all died of hunger. "All. How many?
It's a big meadow….”

Szymborska wrote this after WW2. What changed? Starving people is a war crime. Starving people is a war crime.

t.co/9Elc3lTWud

A. Krieder's PATIENT FERMENT OF THE EARLY CHURCH provides insight into the Church before Constantine.
which grew not by evangelism but creating communities of committed to radical patience, even during persecution, and yet grew in ways that may seem odd to us centuries away and often too impatient.

And also from this poem, near-biblical words:

Consider the world and its poor, its suffering--
you see how it is when something speechless
begins to think into you, to manifest, to bear down

on you as our doubles-self dissolves?
Shall we cower and beg together now?

This morning, I read the necessary poem for these days: From #TessGallagher poem I WANT TO BE LOVED LIKE SOMEONE'S BELOVED DOG IN AMERICA

Oh America, allow me one day
of your righteous disdain
of poverty; I have a longing, a passion
to belong to something heedless and full
of mock conscience.

I send my energy against chaos. All that I do has a single intent: to calm and strengthen. I direct the authority Spirit has given me at the center of the conflict. And when I do, I feel the chaos diminish, even if only slightly. Join me. Focus on the core of chaos and release your love.

Wish this could be attended remote.

A haven for creative joy. Very glad to have found this little bright flame of collective positive awareness!

A graphic depicting both version of Rep Mary Miller's deeply xenophobic tweets. The top says "Fact check: The United States was not founded as a “Christian nation.” We have no official religion. And this xenophobia and racism has no place in Congress." The original version of Rep. Miller’s tweet incorrectly referred to Giani Surinder Singh as Muslim. She then updated it to clarify that Giani Surinder Singh is Sikh. The tweet was deleted, but Rep. Miller still has not apologized. The bottom says "Rep. Mary Miller must Apologize to both the Sikh and Muslim communities and for attacking religious freedom!"

Shame on Rep. Mary Miller for this disgraceful xenophobia.

No, America was not founded as a "Christian nation" — in this country we have freedom of religion for all people of all faiths and beliefs, including in the halls of Congress.

Christianity has long revered saints who would be called ‘transgender’ today (The Conversation) — There are at least 34 documented stories of transgender saints’ lives, three of which had widespread popularity in medieval Europe.

OPINION: Christianity has a transgender history to pull from and many opportunities to embrace transness as an essential part of its values.
religionnews.com/2025/05/28/c...

In a similar vein, Rev. Andy Yee reminded attendees at recent NW Washington ELCA synod convention

OUR SOCIAL IMAGINATION EMBODIES OUR THEOLOGY

NW Washington Synod / ELCA
‪@lutheransnw.bsky.social‬

This is true now and at all times. Reach within for God's abundance that is already ours. We are greater joined in common hope than separate...and if we don't stand together, we may fall apart.

I will be attending in support of neurodiverse creatives in my own communities (family and faith) and for greater awareness that our common humanity is great enough to embrace and connect us in diversity.
Location Mount Vernon WA Library Community Room
Time 1 pm on Saturday May 31

I am thrilled to welcome, on May 31, Daniel Bowman Jr, author of “On the Spectrum: Autism, Faith, & the Gifts of Neurodiversity” and upcoming graphic novel “The Autism Journals.” Join Daniel as he shares about neurodiversity in the arts.

Wisdom like Charleston's provides Sabbath encouragement for me today.

Live into the assurance that this truth is wider and deeper than we can ever fully know.

One kind act can heal a hundred hurts. We do not have to be rich or powerful to help. What we do adds up; it makes a difference. Your help may be the tipping point. So roll up your sleeves and joyfully do what you can. You are Spirit’s partner in change.

"[Pope Francis] did more than any of the other popes combined for LGBTQ people," says Father @jamesmartinsj.bsky.social.

stateofbelief.com/2025/father-...

Is this not the original meaning of the cross, the instrument of death by which the Roman Empire tried to rid itself of every troublemaker and speaker of truth?

So True Sir! And then this from April issue of #PoetryMagazine

A wonderful tribute to Mary Oliver from neurodivergent poet #RoseZinnia

Read the whole poem here:
www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/rose-z...

Today (April 9th, 2025) marks the 80th year anniversary of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s death at the hands of the Gestapo on April 9th, 1945, just two weeks before his concentration camp was liberated by American soldiers.