Setting Prisoners Free

"How can we LOVE our neighbors, if we don't KNOW our neighbors?" "How can we be Salt and Light, if we keep ourselves insulated from the world?" "How can we imitate Jesus if our doors remain shut and we don't allow anyone in?" "How can we LOVE our neighbors, if we view certain people as 'the other' or unworthy?" Love is hard! It takes effort! It takes time! Love is governed by freedom, not by law! It embraces things that are difficult. Love means stepping into situations we'd rather avoid. It involves forgiveness. Love requires movement! It means going! Love takes courage! It means embracing those we'd rather turn our backs on! Love helps us conquer our fears. If we don't know our neighbors, I believe we can't truly love our neighbors the way we should or could! Love goes way beyond typing "I love you" on a keyboard, it means getting out from behind that screen and going deep into th...

Here are a few songs that address injustice, homelessness, poverty, and gentrification... Living Colour singing about gentrification... Whereas this song stems out of New York City's East Village, it speaks to the lasting and traumatic effects of gentrification everywhere. This song is extremely relevant because I have seen the painful consequences of gentrification in Uptown, causing me to address and mourn over it repeatedly on this blog: see  Uptown: Choose Love "Open Letter (To A Landlord)" Now you can tear a building down But you can't erase a memory These houses may look all run down But they have a value you can't see... This is my neighborhood This is where I come from I call this place my home You call this place a slum You want to run all the people out This what you're all about Treat poor people just like trash Turn around and make big cash Prophets of Rage singing about tent cities, homelessness and i...

I felt stirred to write something after recently listening to a podcast by April Diaz called The Global Fringe .  Dr. Daniel White Hodge was being interviewed. He was speaking about living a profane faith (which is the name of his own podcast ) in this jacked-up world, and in it, he made a very thought-provoking and sad statement about Uptown! I live in Uptown, so this comment was very real and challenging for me... The Comment and Challenge! "...what disturbs me the most, are honestly, white liberals and white progressives, I never know where they stand. Never ! I hate going into Bucktown or Uptown, here in Chicago. Because I'm like, man, all the little white progressives, all that "I stand with her!" They'll be the first to curse me out! They'll be the first to call the cops on me. They'll be the first ! So, at least I know where right-wingers stand. I know exactly where an alt-right person stands. I know exactly where a neo-nazi stands....