Fully Human

Fully Human

“What does it mean to be a human being?”  This is one of those questions I heard in the opening lecture to the required philosophy class in college.  It was the kind of thing that made me not like philosophy.  I wasn’t interested in hearing historical and contemporary...
Community

Community

For decades I’ve heard Barbra Streisand’s voice crooning out words I know to be true: “People, people who need people, are the luckiest people in the world.”  Of course, I think that people needing people aren’t just lucky; they’re human.  I think we all need other...
Unholy Ghost

Unholy Ghost

In the summer of 2002, I was a graduate student in religion who was tired of reading theology.  In search of summer fiction, I walked into a large bookstore and stumbled into a book that hit closer to home than I ever could have imagined.  There it was in the main...
Overlooked

Overlooked

  Growing up in the Sunday school programs of black churches and in Catholic elementary school, I was taught that although there were many disciples, but there were only twelve apostles.  That is, there were many people who followed Jesus, but there were only...
Needing The Past

Needing The Past

  My father was a student of history and ensured that I would be as well.  More specifically, he was a student of African American history.  I knew who Mary McLeod Bethune and George Washington Carver were before I went to first grade.  I read Carter G. Woodson’s...