American presidents must be prepared to respond to whatever questions might arise at a press conference. Presidents have answered or dodged difficult questions, or snapped, “No comment. Next question!” In a 1949 press conference, Harry Truman made clear that as…
Counting your blessings instead of sheep
“Have you not heard anything I’ve said in the last four weeks!? Just what do I have to be grateful about?” The elderly widower in my grief group was incensed that the fourth session was focused on gratitude. The topic…
Ready for some Friday night football and prayer?
Autumn offers a string of Friday Night Lights at high school football. And this autumn marks the first time coaches can feel free to “take a knee” on the 50-yard line to pray at the end of a game. The…
When you’re tempted to forget about the latest school shooting, remember the embalmers
Note: This article includes a detailed description of burial preparation for children. I embalmed a baby, for the first time, when I was 18 years old. Another baby I did not embalm — I could not embalm — lay on…
On this date 85 years ago, the worst school tragedy in American history occurred
On Thursday afternoon, March 18, 1937, in the Texas oil boom town of New London, 694 students and 40 teachers awaited the dismissal bell and the start of a special three-day weekend. Then at 3:17 p.m., just 13 minutes before…
What Abraham Lincoln has to say about our national grief this Presidents Day
This month, 160 years ago, Abraham Lincoln was ensconced in grief. The Civil War frustrated and hounded him 24 hours a day. Too many young boy-soldiers were dying; too many mothers and fathers were grieving. Gen. George McClellan was not…
Something doesn’t add up about the two Kentucky seminaries suing the federal government over vaccine mandates
“Pandemics unmask who we really are — our morals, our values, our ethics, our humanity. They test us in ways nothing else can.” — Sanjay Gupta, M.D., World War C, 2021 In a tutorial for doctor of ministry students at…
The pandemic of the unclaimed dead
“Show me the manner in which a nation cares for its dead and I will measure with mathematical exactness the tender mercies of its people, their respect for the laws of the land, and their loyalty to high ideals.” —…
‘He being dead, yet speaketh’
Another new year has come, and I have a new year’s resolution — actually a rerun of 2020 that never clicked. Clean out a stack, or two, of “When I get a moment, I want to read this” newspapers, journals…