Whether we are ordained or lay, we are called to equip others for work in God’s service. In so doing, we multiply what can be accomplished.”

Does “attend at your own risk” welcome the child carrying an emergency epinephrine auto-injector (medicine for severe reactions), or does it remind them that this space that should be sanctuary is another area of potential danger?

Recent speeches in the Kansas City area by an American Baptist leader urged Baptists to reclaim the historic understanding of true religious liberty for all. Aidsand Wright-Riggins, the former head of the American Baptist Home Mission Societies and now mayor of Collegeville, Pa., delivered the 2019 Shurden Lectures, an annual event held by the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.

Every religious tradition has cleansing rituals for moral injury. Altar calls, baptism, confession and reconciliation, and penitential pilgrimages all have their secular counterparts. People with moral injury often seek paths to healing, many of which do not involve the Church. I hope churches can reclaim this ministry of healing and restoration. I hope each church can help people connect the dots between moral injury and rituals of cleansing and reconciliation.

Anti-Semitism is real and serious, but it is not anti-Semitic to criticize injustices perpetrated by the state of Israel and its supporters.