Mockingbird Monday: What To Kill a Mockingbird Can Teach us about Political Correctness

When Atticus comes face-to-face with the political, religious, and social demon of racism, he does not mince his words. In a conversation with his brother Jack, he calls it “Maycomb’s usual disease”; and when he is forced to confront it at the trial of the black man falsely accused of rape and assault, he calmly […]

Mockingbird Monday: The good Reverend Sykes & what it means to care for our neighbors

Maudie laments that most church people “are so busy worrying about the next world they’ve never learned to live in this one…” she continues, “you can look down the street and see the results.” We find a beautiful answer to her commentary later in the book though. One of my favorite scenes in any story […]

Mockingbird Monday: A visit to the missionary tea – can compassion begin with confession?

Harper Lee’s harshest criticism of Christian church practice can be found in the missionary tea meeting in chapter 24 of To Kill a Mockingbird. It is the candid scene where the town women gather in the Finchhome to discuss the work of a missionary (J. Grimes Everett) and the recent events of the Robinson trial. […]