I don't think I'll ever get over being the child of Oklahoma laborers and of two children raised in the Great Depression by single mothers. It's why my ears have been attuned to the place of the poor in scripture, the solidarity of Jesus with the oppressed, the mutilation of his body, and the grace of God for those who labor and are heavy laden. It's also why I cannot extricate politics from theology, even if the politics I imagine is one of the New Jerusalem.