Anne Robertson has written an astonishing exposition of the second of the Ten Commandments: “Thou shalt not make graven images.” Her study is deeply grounded in scripture. But her work is to mobilize her expansive imagination in order to show the demanding contemporeneity of this innocent-looking mandate from Moses. Amid her work she offers a trenchant critique of our idolatry of nationalism with an eye on our “worship of the flag,” and our idolatry of guns with a knowing riff on the NRA.

I am broken this morning. Just yesterday over 600 workers in meat plants in Mississippi were arrested at work by ICE. It was the first day of school. Hundreds of children came home to no one, crying, wandering parking lots, and if they were lucky a friendly neighbor took them to a shelter set up in a gym. Today those children will join the thousands of children we are traumatizing daily in the hopes that our cruelty will make the U.S.

The thing for those Christians outside the UMC to understand about our very ugly and amplified pain is that those who have never had a church affiliation typically don't make distinctions between this church and that.

What word comes to mind when you think of the Bible?

Some think of sacred, holy words—words of truth, comfort, and inspiration. Some think of words indicating confusion, question, and doubt. Others think of words of exclusion, bigotry, and restrictive laws. And a growing number of people prefer not to think about it at all.