Rebecca David Hensley

  A still from Jeep's 2021 Super Bowl advert shows the tiny US town of Lebanon, Kansas. Jeep Dear Bruce Springsteen: I applaud your efforts to encourage a group of football-loving Americans to become, presumably once again, the ReUnited States of America. It is true we need healing – deep, honest healing from the seemingly insurmountable chasm(s) that divide us. But Bruce, oh  Bruce – to become   the ReUnited States implies that we at some time were the United States in the first place. And I suppose there have been moments when we have been… Like in the days and weeks following 9/11, when we seemed to “unite” as good American patriots around our fear of foreign terrorists… right up until we “united” around our hatred and xenophobia toward our Muslim siblings (regardless of their national identity). Or maybe we were “united” under our color-blindness of the Post Civil Rights era, where we celebrated the victory of the full inclusion of our African American sibli...

Dallas, TX - March for 15-year-old Jordan Edwards, killed by police on April 29, 2017. Somedays, I wish I didn’t care. I wish it didn’t disturb me so deeply to see many of the people I grew up with – who loved me into who I am – blatantly clinging to their love of (worship of?) the demagogue currently occupying the presidency. I wish they didn’t see him as their savior or try to justify his words and actions with tired references to flawed biblical characters like King David. I wish they would stop touting him as a Christian example because of a willful ignorance of seeing anything other than abortion as a pro-life issue. I wish they would care about the lives of children who have been born as much as they care about protecting the lives of those who have not. I wish they would take the very brief moment to educate themselves enough to know that abortion rates historically have gone down under democratic administrations – not because they are shutting down abortion c...

Neo, My Friend October 13, 2000 – December 18, 2019 A friend: Someone who is there through all your joys and sorrows – and perhaps more importantly, through all the mundaneness of the times in between. In ministry, we often speak of the importance of “presence.” Especially when people are going through difficult times – loss of a loved one, divorce, difficult news of a health diagnosis… We often say presence is the greatest gift you can give someone in these times. Words aren’t necessary, because words will always fail in moments of our deepest grief or most intense joy. If presence holds as much weight as we give it, then certainly our furry companions have mastered the art of ministry (and friendship) in a way no human ever could: Every day presence. I want to tell you about my furry companion – my friend – Neo. Many of you had the fortune of knowing him in real life (and even caring for him at various times while we were traveling). Others know him through his adventur...

This article was originally published in   Engage , a resource of the Institute for Youth Ministry at Princeton Theological Seminary. The face of immigration at the U.S. southern border is becoming increasingly Central American – and increasingly gendered. Though poverty and lack of economic opportunity are factors for migration from the entire region, these immigrants are primarily concerned with survival – as women facing brutal and widespread gendered violence, and as mothers sending their children and teens to escape extreme violence, murder, or recruitment by gangs and drug trafficking rings. [1] And if migration has become gendered in terms of the compounded burdens on women, so also must our theological response become gendered. In her book From Feminist Theology to Indecent Theology , Argentinian feminist theologian Marcella Althaus-Reid critiques the Church and traditional forms of theology for destroying “the sacrality of daily life” of indigenous women: Latin Am...

How do we decolonize ourselves from the “Methodist Industrial Complex”? This is a question which is being seriously deliberated upon at the UM-Forward gathering this weekend. As I am kicking myself for not drumming up the money to go, I’m asking that question for myself as I tune into the livestream of a gathering of what I hope and pray becomes the new iteration of Methodism – a Church that centers POC + Q + T voices. How do I decolonize myself from the “Methodist Industrial Complex”? Hmmm… Earlier this week, I attended the 2019 Clergy Session of the North Texas Annual Conference. While this meeting usually happens during the afternoon before opening worship of our Annual Conference meeting, I had hoped that by moving it to another date, and expanding the time from 2 hours to approximately 5 hours, part of our focus would be on conversation around the future of Methodism. Sadly, though not shockingly, on this front I was disappointed. That said, I was THRILLED to be present ...