I had the privilege of delivering the sermon at my house of worship (Unitarian Universalist) on Sunday, July 20, 2014. This was a tremendous opportunity to reflect on what I'm learning at the Boston College Graduate School of Social Work, and share my thoughts with a congregation of people I love. 

Good morning.

If you had a chance to ask me what I was preaching about, and I said something like, “How humans are neurobiologically and evolutionarily predisposed to spirituality, and how this can be demonstrated through brain science; It’s very similar to what we know about attachment theory and trauma theory.” 

I am really sorry. 

I started graduate school this year, and they try their best to make us talk like that.

I will talk about all that a little bit—but I promise I won’t talk like that. 

Mostly, I am going to tell you about discovering a definition of faith that speaks to both my intellect and to my heart. And why I believe that faith—by that definition—guides our healing from despair.

My colleague Lauren Taylor of Defend Yourself! and I wrote an editorial that appeared in the online edition of the Washington Post on Monday after critics blasted newly crowned Miss USA for promoting self defense as a method of preventing sexual assault.

We said, 

"Of course we believe that only one person is responsible for any act of violation: the perpetrator. But we also believe in the power and agency of women. In a dangerous world — in the face of what the American Medical Association has called an “epidemic” of sexual violence — there are things all people can do to increase safety for ourselves and for one another.

This is why we believe the White House was wrong to omit self-defense from its prevention recommendations to college campuses. And why we think Miss USA was right to endorse it."

Read the rest of the editorial here.