Setting Prisoners Free

We're all broken We're all scarred  We're all guilty  We all need healing  We all need compassion We all need forgiveness We all need liberation  We all need love We all need the grace and mercy of our loving God We all need to be forgiving, merciful, and compassionate to others who are broken and scarred. I'm broken, working with broken people, assisting broken people in a broken world. When we understand this, we reduce the harm we're doing to ourselves and others. "Hurt people hurt people" is so true, but when we understand and acknowledge how deep our scars are and how we need to come together to heal those scars, the world becomes a stronger, beautiful, and more just place.  I've been a taxi-driver. I've now been working with those experiencing homelessness for over 20 years. I've been in doing prison and jail ministry on-and-off for around 30 years. When someone's incarcerated, homeless, or struggling with addictions it's hard to ...

On my daily walk to work, I pass what once was the Wilson Men's Hotel. This iconic building, with its many tiny rooms and cheap rent, housed men that couldn't afford to live anywhere else. Many had lived there for decades - it was their home! I watched this rich developer start converting this old hotel into luxury apartments, causing all the elderly poor residents to scatter. Despite the promises that none would end up homeless, many did. What was most painful during this ordeal was how one 84-year-old blind man showed up on our doorstep, confused, with nowhere to go.  This story isn't unusual: the empire is at work! A couple years ago, just down the street was Uptown Tent City where a  large mass of city officials and police forcefully moved everyone who lived under these viaducts. About 10 years ago, ordinances were used in City Hall by those in charge to evict a bunch of homeless old men from CCO. Throughout the years, a group of "positive loiterers" stand in ...

It's beyond George Floyd It's beyond Sandra Bland It's beyond Zachary Bearheels It's beyond Laquan McDonald It's beyond Tony McDade  It's beyond Breonna Taylor It's beyond Tamir Rice It's beyond the officers who commit these cold-blooded murders. It's beyond the officers who stand by and protect the one using the knee or pulling the trigger. It's beyond those in power justifying it while degrading the victims. It's beyond the unfair or lack of sentencing. It's beyond these 7 beautiful people mentioned above. It's beyond the thousands of known and unknown murders committed by the very ones who are paid to "serve and protect". It's beyond "I can't breathe", "16 shots", and "hands up, don't shoot!" It's beyond, as these individual names speak of something far greater and deeper. These killings are just the tiny tip of an enormous iceberg. It's never just about the brutal murder ...