Beth Wise

Tag: social justice

FYI West Dallas Mass Evictions

I wanted to have a place to put all of the information coming out about the mass evictions that are eminent in West Dallas. I will update this blog as more articles and information come out. You can also facebook follow the two organizations at the bottom of this blog to stay in the loop…
Faith and Deeds

I’m teaching Sunday school this month. My first day was yesterday. Usually, teaching Sunday school is a hellish experience, more akin to a cage fight than the idyllic picture of children learning quietly about Jesus around a table. We are lucky if we can get through the lesson without someone using the word ‘boobs’ or…
Why So Serious?

Alex and I got the opportunity to go to a fancy restaurant on Saturday evening. We’ve been watching entirely too much Food Network and I felt a hankering to eat somewhere other than, say, B.J.’s Pizza. We went down to Fearings Restaurant, which happens to be inside the Ritz Carlton. Don’t worry, we weren’t pretentious…
On Why My Feelings Need to Share the Stage

Do you know what I realized last night? During elementary, middle, and high school, I only had ONE teacher of color. Yep, Señora Batts, middle school Spanish teacher, was a Latina woman. Other than her, I cannot think of a single instructor, band director, principal, coach looked like me. Even at Texas A&M, I can only…
Shooting Nerf Guns at Moving Cars

Truth: I would not have wanted to parent my father when he was a child. He was a complete mess. As a toddler, he climbed over the fence and started to walk towards the circus. As a teenager, he rolled the car out of the garage and took it on a joy ride. He replaced…
You Are Clothed with Strength

To the beautiful women of DISC– I have a confession. I think I’m addicted to you. God planted you firmly in the soil of my heart quite some time ago, but every time I get to spend an afternoon with you, the roots of my love for you extend a little deeper. There is something…
A King and A Kingdom

I have a confession. A confession that will probably inflame friends on both sides of the ocean-sized aisle that separates the left from the right in America right now. Sometimes, I listen to Rush Limbaugh. I listen to him because he is, in a word, ridiculous. I cannot imagine that a personality that pompous is…
My Very First Protest

About a month ago, on a Friday night, I drove to my friend Karen’s apartment and we car-pooled down to an elementary school in Oak Cliff, which is a neighborhood in south Dallas where several unarmed black men have been shot by Dallas police. We were responding to a facebook invite that we had gotten to…
Don’t Mother-Teresa Me, Bro

I have a confession. I have a big head. I mean, physically, as in my head is ginormous for my relatively short, apple-shaped stature. In high school band, I always had to take the walk of shame to the boy’s line to get my already nerdy marching band hat (in case you’re counting, that would…
Mexico City: Masters of MacGyver

(TRUTH: I have never actually the show MacGuyver. In fact, I had to google his name to make sure I was spelling it right. There is something intriguing to me about someone who can whip things out of their behind and save the world. Somedays, I feel like MacGyver (although without the annoying accent). Circumstances in…
There is more room! There is more room! There is room for all of us!

I just finished reading Jesus Feminist by Sarah Bessey. It kind of rocked my world (in probably a different way than you would think). If you’re my friend, I’m going to force you to read it, so watch out. It’s an important book. Important for women. Important for men. Anyway, Sarah Bessey writes beautiful prose.…
Jesus Loves the Criminals

A few weeks ago, I finished a book at the behest of a friend. He had been bothering me to read it for about a year, but non-fiction is hard for me, ya’ll. But I finally picked it up at the library. I devoured it. I think it took me three days. And that’s with…