Jeremy Rutledge

As we continue to celebrate #BannedBooksWeek, may I encourage you to support your local, independent bookseller?

(photo: People's Book, Takoma Park, Politics and Prose, Washington)

a prayer for the peacemakers

(photo: the poetry of Naomi Shihab Nye and Yehuda Amichai on the altar, October 8, 2023)

@peoplesbooktakoma.com is actually there for the people

(don't buy a book just anywhere when you could buy it from good people)

Opinion | The World Must See Gaza’s Starvation

"I want Sela and Ayla and all of the children we see at our clinics to grow up in a place where they feel safe and cared for, where textbooks replace rubble. . .where they go to bed with full bellies. . .Every child deserves that, regardless of who they are or where they live."

Aitana Bonmatí: A Pioneer Striving For Change On And Off The Field She wears the number 14 shirt made iconic by Johan Cruyff and in her own way, Aitana is creating legacies within Cataluyna which may influence future generations as much.

"I believe that this character for gender and social equality runs in my family, and I am proud to have parents who have instilled these values in me. I do not like to remain silent or stand quiet before injustices."

¡Vamos Aitana! ¡Vamos España!

(Spain play Germany at 3:00 p.m. EST today.)

Middle East: 25 countries call for end to Gaza war – DW – 07/21/2025 Twenty-five countries, including Britain, France and a host of other European nations, have said that the war in Gaza "must end now." DW has more.

I'm grateful for good people of every faith and philosophy, and in every country, calling for an end to this nightmare.

We're with you @stephencolbert.bsky.social

As I prepare for Sunday's sermon on telling the truth in an age of lies, I've been listening to two of our most powerful ancestors: James Baldwin and Toni Morrison.

It occurs to me that tuning out the talking heads and tuning in the truth-tellers is something anyone can do.

From Masterpiece to Nature, Finding Our Roots to Rick Steves' Europe, Austin City Limits to the News Hour, Sid the Science Kid, and Wild Kratts. . .

PBS is a national treasure. Please join us in contacting your senator!

protectmypublicmedia.org/rsc-emails/

“What to the Slave Is the 4th of July?”: James Earl Jones Reads Frederick Douglass’s Historic Speech We begin our July Fourth special broadcast with the words of Frederick Douglass. Born into slavery around 1818, Douglass became a key leader of the abolitionist movement. On July 5, 1852, in Rochester...

Today we remember what Douglass said and feel the contradiction from which he would not let us turn.

"The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. . .This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn."

Not in our name. Not in our name. (Proverbs 24.1-14)Jeremy Rutledge, Circular Congregational Church June 29, 2025 When I was invited to a White House symposium on poetry by Laura Bush, I asked a few fellow poet-fri…

Visitors stood and walked out. I was untroubled by it, thinking it a good thing for people to hear that some churches are deeply opposed to war.

While some seek to censor our history or ban it, our artists & the museums that display them find ever more powerful ways to tell the truth. In so doing, they buoy us all.

(Ringgold's "Coming to Jones Road..." & William Johnson's "Three Freedom Fighters" at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston)

morning prayer

We don't need a king. We have each other.

In Charleston, SC and across the country.

A friend, Diane Tate, took this photo in Amsterdam. The banner's message is right in every way you can be right.

I'm grateful for friends of every faith and philosophy who raise their voices in love and solidarity.

Cradles and Graves in Pedro Almodóvar’s “Parallel Mothers” The Spanish director’s latest film, starring Penélope Cruz and Milena Smit, examines the traumas of his country’s history through the story of two women giving birth at the same time.

On the flight home from California, I watched Almodóvar's "Parallel Mothers" and was overpowered by it.

Its feminism versus fascism, then and now, is a vision.

A year ago, we met students camping out, holding vigil for an end to the war. They were Jewish, Muslim, and Christian.

It is very important to remember this.

Happy Pride Month, everybody!

In the words of the O'Jays: People all over the world (everybody) / join hands (join) / start a love train, love train!

World Central Kitchen | WCK Forced to Halt Cooking in Gaza as Supplies Run Out After serving more than 130 million total meals and 26 million loaves of bread over the past 18 months, World Central Kitchen no longer has the supplies to cook meals or bake bread in Gaza.

"Our mobile bakery—recently the last working bakery in Gaza—has no flour left."

Friends of every faith and philosophy, join us by calling your representatives and urging them to do everything they can to push for the delivery of essential food and medicine.

How the Right Has Reshaped the Narrative Around George Floyd

The production of lies is fast and furious. The manufacture of white grievance. The amplification of ignorance. But the truth remains:

He couldn't breathe.

I grieve the senseless killings. The shootings. The bombings. The starvation.

May good people, of every faith and philosophy, use all of our energy, creativity, and love to push for a just and lasting peace.

4/4 The corrective makes all the difference.

Friends, this is what's at stake in the current political battles over women's history, Black history, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

3/4 Closer to home, I didn't know about Rolla Bennett, a Black member of our church, jailed and executed for joining Denmark Vesey in the struggle to free enslaved people — how he was also one of our most powerful examples.

2/4 I didn't know about Brister Freeman, a free Black man who befriended Thoreau — how he was also part of the story of Walden.

1/4 I didn't know about Elizabeth Palmer Peabody's bookshop and its bright circle of women — how they were also founders of American transcendentalism.

As Israel blocks aid, Gaza’s mothers watch their children starve After more than two months of an Israeli blockade, the Gaza Strip is running out of food, and few are more vulnerable than its children.

"Each day when she bathes her three boys, she is alarmed by how brittle their bodies feel."

May we, people of every faith and philosophy, raise our voices in this moment. May we remember our humanity.

“The revolting nonsense which is vented every Sunday. . .” Circular Congregational Church, different today than it was in Emerson’s time. “The revolting nonsense which is vented every Sunday. . .” (Matt. 23.23)Jeremy Rutledge, Circular Congregational…

"Emerson observed that the clergy in Charleston were very ordinary and fretted what he called, 'the revolting nonsense which is vented every Sunday from the pulpits. . .' By which he may have meant there was lot of puffery that had nothing to do with justice, mercy, and faith."