"We preach the gospel and keep politics out of the pulpit."

Even on the surface level, I've never understood this line because the majority of stories within the gospels is about a man who talks endlessly about ending the systemic oppression of people by the state and stops at nothing to convey the totality of worth and value each and every person inherently possesses.

The reality is that the people who want to keep politics out of the pulpit are the privileged few who benefit from the very systems used to oppress others. To be unaware of your privilege — your systematic privilege — in this day and age, is willful ignorance that is complicit with the very oppression that Jesus raged against.

If you, as a pastor, are not willing to discuss politics — literally, how you see the world — then you need to step down. If you did not know that politics transcend party affiliation and governmental ideology, then you need to step down. You are not qualified to lead. You are not part of the problem. You are the problem.

You are the reason that a racist bigot possesses an 87% approval rating from the evangelical community. Your silence is complicit. Politics are not binary. Repudiation against the bigoted, xenophobic, racism of Donald Trump does not mean support for democratic ideologies. If you didn't know that, that's not ignorance; it's stupidity.

The reason it feels this way is because George Floyd was not inadvertently manslaughtered. He was lynched. In front of our fucking eyes, he was lynched. He was lynched by systematic failures borne from this country's original sin that we are still fighting against hundreds of years later. He was lynched.

And if you're not willing to, like Jesus, talk about the systematic oppression of people by the state, then you are not fit to lead. You are not fit to lead. You are not part of the problem — you are the problem. Step down.

I’ve yet to meet a single person who doesn’t want to reopen the economy as long as it’s the safe, responsible thing to do. Poverty is violent, and with more than 30 million people out of work, the consequences of the sheer number of unemployed people are catastrophic. And so is the virus. Despite what elected officials portray, the devastation of the two are not mutually exclusive nor is the solution binary.

Which is why we need more data — better data. To make better, more informed decisions.

In Governor Ricketts's statement about the reopening of the Nebraska economy, the only statistics he provides are the number of hospital beds and respirators available. He added that testing capacity has risen to 1,000-1,500 tests per day.

According to medical experts, the minimum number of tests needed for a state to safely reopen is 152 tests per 100k people — every day. For a state of Nebraska’s population, that number is 2,940. Every day. Nebraska’s tested only 36k people total — a small fraction of the recommended amount.

More concerning still is that, statistically, Nebraska has some of the highest rates of incidence per capita in the country.

But I couldn’t find any data on the governor’s site about the number of tests per population, the rate of incidence per capita, or even the rate of incidence per test — despite the well-recorded controversy of using contractors who’s rates of positive tests are anomalously low compared to every other testing contractor.

So here’s what I found on my own, using the data sources from Johns Hopkins COVID dashboards:

1. Nebraska has the 12th highest rate of COVID cases per capita in the country.

2. Nebraska has the 11th highest positive rate of incidence per test.

3. And despite those high rankings, Nebraska is only 31st in tests per population.

So, comparatively, in the country with the most cases and the most deaths in the world, we are also amongst the hardest-hit states.

Objectively, compared to rates medical experts recommend, it’s even worse:

Nebraska’s incidence rate is 84% higher than the rate of incidence medical experts recommend before reopening an economy. Compared to other developed countries with verifiable COVID data, it’s off the charts: Nebraska’s rate of incidence is 163% higher than Germany and 513% higher than South Korea.

We deserve transparency, integrity, and honesty from our elected leaders — especially when those truths are inconvenient, especially when they’re a matter of life & death. Nebraskans deserve better.

Just four days after MLK Jr was assassinated on April 4, 1968, a National holiday in his honor was proposed.

It took 15 years for it to become recognized federally.

It wasn’t until 32 years after his death that all fifty states finally recognized the holiday in the year 2000.

The final holdout, South Carolina, had empowered its citizens to recognize one of three confederate holidays instead.

16 years later, we elected a man who spearheaded the birther movement— demanding the birth certificate of the first African American President in US history.

And after a white nationalist protest in Charlottesville VA erupted in violence, he said there were good people on both sides.

He referred to African & Haitian nations as shithole countries and banned 1.6 billion Muslims from entering the US.

And all of it feels like we’re just screaming blah blah blah past is prologue into an endless abyss.

Malachi Koop originally wanted to be a pastor. Now, he’s pursuing his MBA—an unlikely transition for someone who attended a small Bible college as an undergrad.

“The reason I wanted to be a pastor was really to help people,” Koop says. “That mission hasn’t changed, it just looks a lot different now.”

Koop discovered soon after graduating from the Moody Bible Institute that he could make a difference through business. He launched a social enterprise that sold unwanted books and then used those profits to financially support organizations serving at-risk youth in Chicago, Illinois. The startup ultimately failed, but it opened Koop’s eyes to the gaps in his skill set.

“One of my big takeaways was that I was too naive going into the process,” Koop says. “I hadn’t taken any business classes in college. It set me down this path of thinking really seriously about going back to school and getting my MBA.”

It was around that time Koop found Harvard Business School Online’s Credential of Readiness (CORe) program. He wasn’t sure that an MBA was the right fit, and so initially decided to pursue CORe as a substitute.

The flexibility of an online education appealed to Koop, who had simultaneously started another business “completely by accident.” A friend had asked if he could help with a project, which turned into another assignment that then snowballed from there. Koop launched a consultancy focused on helping hospitality companies make data-driven decisions. Although it wasn’t a social enterprise in the traditional sense, Koop saw it as an opportunity to equip his clients with skills he thought could put them on an upward trajectory.

At the same time, Koop was building new skills, as well. After completing CORe, he enrolled in HBS Online’s Leading with Finance and Negotiation Mastery courses.

“The way that I look at social enterprise, it’s not a particular industry or sector, it’s a way of approaching business and solving social problems,” Koop says. “It can, and should, be applied to every industry and, from that perspective, I wanted to learn more.”

Although his business was growing, life had other plans. Koop was on the verge of getting married and was talking with his fiancé about starting a family. In an effort to find more stability, Koop accepted a role at Nebraska’s Midland University as the director of marketing and communications.

It didn’t take long, though, for him to catch the learning bug again.

“I initially decided to take CORe instead of an MBA,” Koop says. “But instead, HBS Online is what confirmed for me that I wanted to pursue an MBA. I was worried about being able to prove to an admissions committee that I had what it took from a quantitative perspective, but HBS Online gave me another data point on my resume to prove it wasn’t going to be an obstacle for me.”

Koop was accepted into Georgetown University’s Flex MBA program and has since moved to Washington, D.C. with his now family of three. He’s taken on a director of marketing role at higher education research, strategy, creative, and digital agency SimpsonScarborough, and will be working full-time while earning his master’s degree.

Although making the transition from Nebraska to Washington, D.C. wasn’t easy, Koop notes that the network he’s created through HBS Online continues to help him tremendously. Through an HBS Online networking group, he met a fellow learner living in D.C., who not only toured apartments for his family before moving, but has connected him with several different job opportunities.

“I didn’t expect the courses to be as interactive as they are,” Koop says. “I made real friends through HBS Online. I saw other people in my cohort start businesses together and really lean on each other. It made for a more authentic learning experience.”

Post-MBA, Koop has dreams of creating a social enterprise studio that brings dedicated and talented individuals together to create new businesses that solve some of the world’s biggest problems, including poverty, hunger, gun violence, and educational access.

“There’s so much room for social enterprise disruption, especially when you look at the developing world,” Koop says. “The idea is to create a studio that creates, incubates, and funds social enterprises. It’s my ultimate dream to start that.”

And now with a background in business, the former aspiring pastor is optimistic that he can.

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Originally posted by Harvard Business School. Written by Lauren Landry.

We’re moving!

We found out a couple weeks ago that I was accepted to the Georgetown MBA program and our little family has decided to make the move to Washington DC. We feel incredibly grateful to have this life-changing opportunity, but will certainly miss all of our friends and family back in the midwest.

Before we ever got married we decided that we didn’t want to let life happen to us. Moving to DC was never something we had on the radar, but when you realize change is inevitable the real joy in life comes from embracing it.

Megan will continue building MK Wellness (she just launched her beta app last week!) as her mission all along was to build a company that leverages technology to achieve its purpose. The way she is able to balance building a business with being a devoted wife and mother is extraordinary, and the number of organizations that have already expressed interest in her corporate wellness services is indicative of just how deeply talented and hardworking she is. However, it’s become quickly apparent that the solutions need to continue to evolve to serve a modern workforce — one that is increasingly global, remote, and individualized. Stay tuned for developments as she has an exciting announcement in the coming days.

Georgetown stood out amongst all the programs I considered because of its Jesuit tradition and the commitment to developing ethical leaders to serve humanity. In one of my admissions essays I wrote that while the work I’m interested in pursuing has certainly evolved since I attended Moody Bible Institute, the reason behind it remains the same: I believe I was put on this earth to serve others. It’s why I aim to pursue Social Enterprise: because it rejects the premise that creating social change and creating profit are mutually exclusive and allows us to think differently about creating simultaneous economic and social value so that we can tackle the most pressing issues in our world at scale — problems like poverty, gun violence, and access to education.

Lastly, we’ve always been struck by what Tim Keller said about raising kids in the city: “The city is actually a wonderful place to raise children. Just as the city showcases the worst of the human heart, it also lifts up the best that human culture has achieved: Art and music, drama, architecture, sports, all are the best that they can be.” I think our deepest prayer for Campbell is that she’ll grow up to understand the breadth and depth of life available to her — and that she won’t be afraid of taking her own risks to chase down her dreams someday.

How did we get here? It’s been so long since I’ve been comfortable admitting my Christian faith to anyone because it’s as if I’m simultaneously admitting that I belong to this white nationalist tribalism that hates poor people and fears all lifestyles, religions, sexual orientations and even genders that are not my own.

And, inexplicably, it’s only become worse since my time at Moody.

And then today I learn about the President of the United States referring to other nations as “shitholes” because they have more poor brown people than they do rich white people, unlike Norway.

Today I also learned that Moody Bible Institute fired a woman from her job because she tried to question and expose deeply unethical and immoral behavior relating to financial impropriety amongst many other instances of grotesque, self-serving, and manipulative conduct by President Paul Nyquist, the Provost, the COO, and members of the board. The President and COO have since resigned, and the Provost has since retired.

In a letter from the Interim President, these three men were labeled as, “godly, ethical, and moral leaders,” which felt like one final knockout blow to any semblance of perspective I was clinging to.

Yet tonight I know that millions of evangelicals will go to bed, confident in the leadership of Donald Trump, likely quoting their favorite bible verse as they fall asleep: “God helps those who help themselves.” A troubling translation of Matthew 5.

Still, I take comfort in knowing that the light exposes darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. I still look back at my time at Moody with such gratitude, because of a careful few who embodied the things I learned about in the beatitudes.

Like Peter & Kelli Worrall. My professors who, when they found out my parents were getting a divorce, invited me into their home for as long as I wanted, acknowledging that Moody can be a difficult bubble to endure at times.

Or like Tim Downey, my professor who taught me what servant leadership is. And exhibited such wisdom, patience, and perspective that I still think of his leadership nearly every single day.

Or like Bob MacRae, my professor who once called my father and counseled and prayed with him for over an hour because that's they type of person he was.

Or like Rosalie de Rosset, my professor who taught me more about the grace of God than anyone else before or since.

These Godly men & women were and are servants. They were and are the ethical, moral, and spiritual leaders that are desperately needed in Moody’s senior administration.

Just as we desperately need other Godly, moral, and ethical leaders to reject the gross hypocrisy of the evangelicals’ embracement of the Trump alt-right nationalism.

To call racism, racism. Sexism, sexism. Violence, violence. Homophobia, homophobia. Sexual assault, sexual assault. Rape, rape. Sex with a minor, rape. Xenophobia, xenophobia. Nationalism, nationalism. Tribalism, tribalism. Pedophilia, pedophilia. Bigotry, bigotry. Discrimination, discrimination. Prejudice, prejudice. Banning entire people groups and religions from entering a democratic republic founded on the idea that everyone is created equal, actual religious persecution.

And to call someone a Christian only when that person is confessing that the kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor in spirit.