Blog

For the last 6-7 years I’ve had a color printout of the 1930s-era redlining map of Columbus on the bulletin board in my church office.  Like all good maps, it serves as a useful guide for understanding where we are and how we got here.  In this case, it illuminates what areas of our city have historically received the most favorable terms for investment (green areas) and which have been denied (red areas), with race as a key determining factor.  (Blue and yellow areas were in between,...

What’s the difference between a tourist and a pilgrim? 

I think I first asked myself this question while studying in Cairo, Egypt during my senior year of college (half a lifetime ago, oh my).  The semester included trips to many common destinations – the pyramids, a boat trip on the Nile, old mosques and churches.  Amidst the tourists, I noticed what felt like another genre of visitor – those who approached these sites with a certain level of reverence, curiosity, and wonder.  Those who came as learners, even worshipers, as if ready to be changed by the place and the stories it...