The Great Irony
One of the books I took along on my recent trip to Guatemala was the Tempe Public Library’s copy of Darling: A Spiritual Autobiography by the Mexican-American writer Richard Rodriguez. He’s a...
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Six Lessons from MLK
Earlier this year, around the time I saw the unforgettable film SELMA and while many of us were doing some soul-searching following the tragic deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, I read the...
View ArticleMaking Violence Untenable
One of the best, most important books I read in 2014 was The Locust Effect: Why the End of Poverty Requires the End of Violence by Gary Haugen and Victor Boutros. My review appeared in PRISM, and I...
View ArticleResponsibility and Reform
“The saints are responsible for the structure of the social world in which they find themselves. That structure is not simply part of the order of nature; to the contrary, it is the result of human...
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Between the World and Me
Between the World and Me is a sad book. A profoundly bleak, sad book. I sought out Ta-Nehisi Coates’ new bestseller at my local bookstore with a measure of persistence; it was sold out the first couple...
View ArticleA History of Violence
When people learn I was born and raised in Guatemala, I have come to expect one of two reactions. First, wide eyes and a “Wow, that must have been crazy.” Second, though far less frequently, maybe a...
View ArticlePolitical Discipleship
“Those who would stimulate the Body of Christ to wrestle seriously with justice, peace, and political discipleship must do so with a genuine concern to build up the people of God in love. This must be...
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The Justice Calling
A few years ago, I wrote a thing for RELEVANT that appeared under the title (not chosen by me) “Serving Justice vs. Saving Souls.” Part of what I was trying to do in that piece was “to bridge the...
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Public Faith in Action
“Christian faith has an inalienable public dimension.” That’s the fundamental assumption underlying Public Faith in Action: How to Think Carefully, Engage Wisely, and Vote with Integrity, the new book...
View ArticleThe Fix
The Fix is a book for people who know enough to know there are no quick fixes. Unlike so many of the globally-minded books I read in my twenties, this one is not for idealists. It’s a book for those...
View ArticleThe Philanthropic Revolution
Not too long ago, a disgruntled aid worker took to The Guardian to air some grievances about the unwillingness or inability of international humanitarian organizations to properly measure the...
View ArticleAfter Anger
“There’s an enormous amount of outrage in the world that’s converted into angry plans of attack and destruction. A great deal of social action and political reform is fueled by anger; the results are...
View ArticleBooks About Guatemala by Guatemalans
Four years ago I shared five recommendations for books about Guatemala. At the time, a Guatemalan friend challenged me to consider why all of the authors were gringos. It was and is a valid question....
View ArticleSeeking Refuge
On September 2, 2015, the world was confronted by a photograph. Taken by the Turkish journalist Nilüfer Demir, the photo depicted a toddler lying dead on a beach. He had drowned in the Mediterranean...
View ArticleA Spirituality of Fundraising
In my work with Hoiland Media, many of my clients are nonprofits. They vary in size and scope, and their communications needs ebb and flow over the course of the year. But there’s one time of the year...
View ArticleDay 1
Let me tell you a story. On November 11, 1982, I was born in Guatemala, a small country in Central America. (Don’t worry, I’ll skip some details to keep things moving…) At some point in my schooling, I...
View ArticleThe Far Away Brothers
In 2013, stories about unaccompanied minors started coming across our airwaves, feeds, and timelines. These children, we learned, were fleeing Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras in record numbers....
View ArticleVocabulary and Courage
“We think because we have words, not the other way around, and the greater our vocabulary, the greater our ability to think conceptually. The first people a dictator puts in jail after a coup are the...
View ArticleThe Givers
It’s been five years since the release of Baz Luhrmann’s interpretation of The Great Gatsby, the 1925 novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Here’s what I remember about the film. I remember the CGI, the...
View ArticleTwisted Words
“Why do you boast, O mighty one, of mischief done against the godly? All day long you are plotting destruction. Your tongue is like a sharp razor, you worker of treachery. You love evil more than good,...
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