Rev. Mahogany Thomas: Imagining a New Love Ethic

“To know God in this moment is to be grounded in a love that surpasses us and that truly shifts how we interact with the world, and that then brings us hope and healing.”

Rev. Mahogany Thomas brings us a Good Word today. Beautifully weaving together the work of Jesus, bell hooks, Howard Thurman, John Coltrane, and scripture, Rev. Mahogany helps us imagine a new way of being - a way that is grounded in love, accountability, and justice.

Transforming what she calls the “spiritual malpractice” of harmful theologies of sin, Rev. Mahogany redefines sin as the absence of love. Too often, the theology of sin has been used to abuse and oppress people - telling them they are inherently bad, inherently unlovable. Ultimately, it has been used by people in power to keep them in power. But by redefining sin as the absence of love, Rev. Mahogany invites us into a theology that leads us towards freedom, equity, and grace.

I promise you, my friends, if you are in need of a word of hope and grace today, this is exactly where you will find it. If you need to have the harmful theology of sin untangled for you and re-woven into a tapestry of grace, this is the interview for you.

Grab a cup of coffee or put on your running shoes, and hear a word of love.
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Rev. Mahogany S. Thomas is a native of Columbia, Missouri and an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ. She serves as the Executive Minister of Peoples Congregational United Church of Christ (UCC) in Washington, D.C.

Rev. Thomas has served churches around the country, from Connecticut to Chicago to San Francisco, and she has even preached in the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem.

Rev. Thomas is a graduate of Yale Divinity School (YDS), where she received her Master of Divinity. Her scholarship at YDS included Homiletics, Womanist Theology, and Practical Theology at the intersections of the Black Church. She was the recipient of both the Andover Newton Seminary Diploma Program and Black Church Studies Certificate. Rev. Thomas received her Bachelor of Arts from Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri and graduated summa cum laude. Her undergraduate studies focused on Religious Studies with an emphasis on sex and gender in the Christian tradition.

Rev. Thomas is also the recipient of several prestigious awards from Yale University. She was awarded the Charles Merick Award for Effective Public Address especially in preaching and the Henry Hallam Tweedy Award for the student with exceptional promise for pastoral leadership. Likewise, she was the recipient of the newly established Martin B. Copenhaven Preaching Prize from Andover Newton Seminary.

In both her teaching and radical proclamation, Rev. Thomas is passionate about serving God and God’s church. She brings gifts of administration, wisdom, and passion to her work. Ministry for Rev. Thomas is defined far beyond the pulpit as she believes in radiating the love of Jesus through both her joy and witness.