Monday Thought

For three guys who attended a daily chapel service every morning before high school, the religious imagery during the climactic scenes of Blade Runner might have felt a little too overt. I’d seen the movie for the first time at the Angelika Film Center in New York City – a late-night showing of the director’s […]

How learning to appreciate other religions changed my Christian faith — and made it stronger Scandalized: that’s how my 1994 self would feel were he to time-travel to the present and see me guiding students at TCU or Brite Divinity School through the beliefs and practices of Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and other religions. It’s a […]

Raised by German immigrants in a small West Texas town, I grew up hearing “Hitler was right on the race issue” over dinner. At sixteen, I ran away. I was queer, punk, and half-feral when an insular, all-Black church rescued me. For ten years, I lived a cloistered, communal life, trying and failing to become […]

Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets starts with a blank screen, and then a sermon: “You don’t make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets. You do it at home. The rest is bullshit and you know it.” Later, we see Harvey Keitel as Charlie, the tortured protagonist of the movie, in […]

Twentieth century philosopher and theologian Paul Tillich delivered his sermon “The Shaking of the Foundations” to a world more or less in tatters and ready to hear his version of the Word. In the late 1940s, as in the 1920s, world leaders and citizens resolved to prevent future mass death and violence on the scale […]

This piece is adapted from the opening chapter of Orthodox Churches and Politics in Southeastern Europe: Nationalism, Conservatism, and Intolerance, published by Palgrave. On June 28, 1389, warriors under the command of Serbian princes managed to kill an Ottoman Sultan on the battlefield of Kosovo Polje (Field of Blackbirds). But the tide turned, the Serbs […]

Last year, I spent New Year’s Eve on a plane. On December 31, I took a 10-hour flight from London to New Delhi. I’ve been stuck here ever since, thanks to the pandemic. I told the British guy I was seeing at the time that I booked it because tickets were three times cheaper than […]

Hi there! You are new here. And I’m very pleased to meet you. You got here just in time—maybe a little late, but here nonetheless. I’m hoping that you are well, that you landed in a safe spot that is equal parts cozy and loving. That is built to meet you, however you are, whenever […]

My wife learned the hard way that I lead a double life. The day we got married, my whole extended family came over for dinner. We’re Muslim, so at sunset, we all lined up for the evening prayer. She’s not, so she stayed at the table. I queued up with the family and prayed. When […]

In which your co-editors, Sunny Sone and Mike Kanin, attempt to tell you a bit about themselves and, in so doing, hope to tell you more about Preachy: FROM: SunnyTO: Kanin Hi Mike! Hope you are well, post-phone call. I wanted to get the ball rolling on this convo. Maybe, to start, you could tell […]