David Swanson

  • The wilder life gets the more prone I am to reach for thick, meaty books. What are you reading these days?

  • What are a preacher’s priorities during these cruel and chaotic days? Here are ten things I’m trying to remember each time I step into the pulpit.

  • “Discernment helps us come to know our true identity in creation, vocation in the world, and unique place in history as an expression of divine love.”

  • It’s tempting, for me, when confronted with such objectively degrading slander to respond in kind. I want to see those who engage in such blasphemy as less than the humans they are; it gives me license to respond to cruelty with more cruelty… Of course, the instant we succumb to dehumanization, the battle has been lost.

    – Reconciliation and Warfare

  • “Race is not primarily about hate and ignorance. It’s about greed. It always has been. And it is the purpose of this book that you might understand the unholy relationship between race and greed, best understood not as a marriage but in terms of parentage: race and racism are children of Mammon.”

  • “Essentially, the point being made is that the Palestinians did not exist, or were of no account, or did not deserve to inhabit the country.”

  • Reconciliation and repair:

    Where others can only see valleys filled with dry bones, God’s reconciling communities will discern watersheds to protect, redlined neighborhoods to resource, and tyrants disguised as politicians and technocrats to defy.

  • Made this for supper tonight. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️! Here’s a gift link.

  • Lot’s of avian activity in Jackson Park on this warm January morning – juncos, bluebirds, cardinals, goldfinches – including this handsome robin chowing down on sumac berries.

  • My article about the church’s mission during chaos has been posted: Pt. 1 and Pt. 2.

    But while the church’s mission remains the same, its circumstances don’t, and I’ve been wondering about the particular expressions of mission which will be important to emphasize in the tumultuous days ahead.

  • My article about the church’s mission during chaos has been posted: Pt. 1 and Pt. 2.

    But while the church’s mission remains the same, its circumstances don’t, and I’ve been wondering about the particular expressions of mission which will be important to emphasize in the tumultuous days ahead.

  • It was cold and snowy in Jackson Park this morning, but this red-tailed hawk, hermit thrush, and downy woodpecker made my Tuesday walk more than worth it.

  • Got to walk into a (very chilly) new year with my favorite person this afternoon.

  • Happy New Year! Because the days to come will challenge those committed to justice and reconciliation, I’d love for you to join Dr. Natasha Sistrunk Robinson, Latasha Morrison, and me as we root ourselves in Christ’s hope for the work ahead.

    Register here.

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