by Laura Stephens-Reed | Feb 23, 2024 | Feature-, Opinion
My son, who is ten years old, is just starting to get into board games. Not long ago, he asked the question I have been dreading: can we play Monopoly? Because he is my only child, I humored him. My strategy was to buy as many properties as possible and load them up...
by Laura Stephens-Reed | Dec 13, 2023 | Feature-, Opinion
The congregations I grew up in often had an undercurrent of shame. The most obvious example of this was the purity pledge I was urged to make as part of a True Love Waits campaign. If I engaged in sexual activity before marriage, I would smudge the image of God within...
by Laura Stephens-Reed | Nov 16, 2023 | Feature-, Opinion
I was approaching college graduation and preparing for seminary when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went on a shooting spree in the Columbine High School library on April 20, 1999. The news coverage played for days in my dorm’s lobby. It was all unfathomable: the loss...
by Laura Stephens-Reed | Oct 18, 2023 | Feature-, Opinion
What do John Lennon, Johnny Cash, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Jim Morrison and the Red Hot Chili Peppers all have in common? They have graced the cover of Rolling Stone, a monthly magazine founded in 1967 featuring music, politics and pop culture. What does the church...
