A light shines in the darkness.

When you last read words from me, I was scrambling to say something about the tragedy in Aurora, CO. I didn't go to church this Sunday (gasp!) because I was taking a friend to the train station instead (excuses!) but my parents told me that the guest preacher (our pastor is on vacation) did not mention the shooting -- at all. Not in his sermon, not in a single prayer.

This is unacceptable.

When 12 people are massacred on Thursday night, you'd better be talking about it on Sunday morning. We, the United States of America and we, the body of Christ, are all bleeding and broken because of this senseless act of terror and violence.

The world is unpredictable and scary sometimes, and church is supposed to be the place we go to heal from that. We can't heal from it if we're ignoring it.

It is particularly interesting to me that one of the ELCA's greatest preachers, Nadia Bolz-Weber, lives and preaches in Denver, CO and ministers to Aurora residents on a regular basis. Even if this tragedy had not befallen her community, I know her words on the subject would have been just the catharsis we seek; her proximity to the massacre is particularly poignant.

Here's a link to her sermon. I'd recommend listening to it, as opposed to just reading it. Following the sermon, you'll hear her congregation, House For All Sinners and Saints, singing. This is particularly important because her sermon tells us that we sing praises to our God in the face of disaster not to say that God or that we endorse the damage that has been done, but rather defiantly, "to put evil in its place...to draw a line and say here and no further."

And Nadia also preaches that in the face of evil, we weep. We weep for the loss of life in Aurora this week. We can weep because we are the "bearers of the resurrection," she says. A light shines in the darkness, and the darkness shall not overcome it.

Just listen to it. And weep.

The Dark Knight Rises

I just got home from seeing the midnight showing of Christopher Nolan's absolute masterpiece The Dark Knight Rises. I wish that this post could gush about how incredible of a film experience it was.

Instead, it comes out of my heavy heart as 14 people are dead and more than 50 are wounded because of a shooting rampage in a movie theater showing this film in Aurora, CO.

I'm trying to figure out what there is to say. So far, I just have tears.

The world is not safe. This is what we have learned from Christopher Nolan's three brilliant films. We have learned that there are forces at work in the world that seek only to break the spirit -- of individuals and of communities. We have learned that, though we look out at a bleak landscape, there is hope for us. There is always hope.

But there was no Batman to save the lives of these innocent moviegoers, tonight. There were no fancy machines to sweep them to safety. There was no justice. There was only fear.

All I can think about is how many Americans went out tonight to be among the first to experience this cinematic adventure. And how 14 of them are never coming home.

I am so very grateful for my life and for the lives of the people that I love. I am already in fear for your lives all the time -- my dearest ones can recall being harassed about text messages that their planes have safely landed or their cars safely parked in garages late at night. Oh, you are just so precious to me.

And though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will not fear, for You are with us -- always with us...

Why Rape Jokes Are Never Okay

I DID NOT WRITE THIS. It is originally from www.menspeakup.org -- a website that seems to no longer exist? I'm not sure what's up, but I'd post this every day if it would get into even one person's head. 

To all those men who don’t think the rape jokes are a problem:

I get it—you’re a decent guy. I can even believe it. You’ve never raped anybody. You would NEVER rape anybody.

You’re upset that all these feminists are trying to accuse you of doing something, or connect you to doing something, that, as far as you’re concerned, you’ve never done and would never condone. 

And they’ve told you about triggers, and PTSD, and how one in six women is a survivor, and you get it. You do. But you can’t let every time someone gets all upset get in the way of you having a good time, right? Especially when it doesn’t mean anything. Rape jokes have never made YOU go out and rape someone. They never would; they never could. You just don’t see how it matters.

I’m going to tell you how it does matter.

And I tell you this because I genuinely believe you mean it when you say you don’t want to hurt anybody, and that it’s important to you to do your best to be a decent and good person, and that you don’t see the harm. And I genuinely believe you when you say you would never associate with a rapist and you think rape really is a very bad thing.

Here is why I refuse to take rape jokes sitting down…

Because 6% of college-aged men, slightly over 1 in 20, will admit to raping someone in anonymous surveys, as long as the word “rape” isn’t used in the description of the act—and that’s the conservative estimate. Other sources double that number (pdf).

 A lot of people accuse feminists of thinking that all men are rapists. That’s not true. But do you know who think all men are rapists?

Rapists do.

They really do. In psychological study, the profiling, the studies, it comes out again and again. Virtually all rapists genuinely believe that all men rape, and other men just keep it hushed up better. And more, these people who really are rapists are constantly reaffirmed in their belief about the rest of mankind being rapists like them by things like rape jokes, that dismiss and normalize the idea of rape.

If one in twenty guys (or more) is a real and true rapist, and you have any amount of social activity with other guys like yourself, then it is almost a statistical certainty that one time hanging out with friends and their friends, playing Halo with a bunch of guys online, in a WoW guild, in a pick-up game of basketball, at a bar, or elsewhere, you were talking to a rapist. Not your fault. You can’t tell a rapist apart any better than anyone else can. It’s not like they announce themselves.

But, here’s the thing. It’s very likely that in some of these interactions with these guys, at some point or another, someone told a rape joke. You, decent guy that you are, understood that they didn’t mean it, and it was just a joke. And so you laughed. Or maybe you didn’t laugh. Maybe it just wasn’t a very funny joke. So maybe you just didn’t say anything at all.

And, decent guy who would never condone rape, who would step in and stop rape if he saw it, who understands that rape is awful and wrong and bad, when you laughed? When you were silent? That rapist who was in the group with you, that rapist thought that you were on his side. That rapist knew that you were a rapist like him. And he felt validated, and he felt he was among his comrades. 

You. The rapist’s comrade.

And if that doesn’t make you feel sick to your stomach, if that doesn’t make you want to throw up, if that doesn’t disturb you or bother you or make you feel like maybe you should at least consider not participating in that kind of humor anymore, not abiding it in your presence, not greeting it with silence…

Well, maybe you aren’t as opposed to rapists as you claim.