Category Religious Musings
What I talk about when I [don’t] talk about God
Today I received feedback on my final sermon for preaching class. It was positive overall, though the professor ended on a comment that embodies the kind of criticism I’ve grown to fear as a Presbyterian layperson in the midst of future Preachers. She wrote, “While I am delighted to see such an improvement in your […]
Tu me manques
The French verb manquer, meaning “to miss,” has a lesson to teach us. For some uncertain but arguably romantic reason, this verb places special demands on students of the language. It requires an advanced level of grammatical aerobics, extra attention paid to the maddening subject-verb-direct object agreement. Instead of Je manque mon chien, je manque ma mère, je […]
Lobster and Learning about Religion
This time last week I was up to my elbows in butter, crushing a crustacean’s exoskeleton with a nut cracker and debating the merits of saving the claw for last. I tackled my very first lobster and it was a gourmet experience unlike any I have known before. When our waitress delivered my lobster, I […]
The untold story of African AIDS relief
The (award-winning) untold story of African AIDS relief Pleased to share a freelance piece I wrote with Eveline Chikwanah, a Zimbabwean journalist, about the intersection of religion and AIDS relief in Africa. We found out yesterday that we were awarded honorable mention in a joint reporting contest through the International Center for Journalists. Yippee!
Your truth and mine, and everything in between
It’s laughable really that I’ve staked my career in religion journalism thus far on a claim that I can be more objective than those who have come before. More insightful, more decisive. That I will write from outside of situations, while remaining ever true to the people inside of them. It’s laughable because I’ve spent […]
Are you there iPhone? It’s me, Kelsey.
Woken up again by 5 a.m. demons, it was the iPhone on my bedside table I reached for and not to God in prayer. For what do now-I-lay-me-down-to-sleeps mean to someone who can sift through twilight tweets and instagrammed images of star-filled skies? An ever-present God has been replaced by an over-stimulating pocket-sized piece of […]
Seeking the end of the story
Religious studies scholar Charles H. Long calls religion a personal orientation to the world, an effort at coming to terms with one’s place in the universe. This idea, that religion brings significance to the mundane ordinariness of the average person’s life, feels right, especially to someone who has stood in Marquand Chapel at Yale Divinity […]
Kelsey Elizabeth Dallas 