To All My Nonbelieving, Sort-of-believing, And Used-to-be-believing

I'm A Tennessee Boy. I Grew Up In East Tennessee Most Of My Life, Then Came Up To Philly To Go To College And Fell In Love With This City, And Particularly, My Neighborhood On The North Side Of Philadelphia.

The Work Of Community, Love, Reconciliation, Restoration Is The Work We Cannot Leave Up To Politicians. This Is The Work We Are All Called To Do.

The Monastic Folks Have The Spirit Of Being In The World But Not Of The World, Sort Of Peculiar People Who Have Gone To The Desert To Live On The Margins Of The Empire.

The Problem Is That The Chicken-soup-for-the-soul Stuff May Feel Good, But None Of That Typical Stuff Helps When Somebody In Your Neighborhood Is Murdered.

There Is Extreme Poverty In Appalachia, Where I Was, And Increasingly Poverty Is Not Just An Urban Thing.