We’re harder and more calloused and just downright meaner, in music and sports and in national and international policies, in politics in general and our approach to one another in specific.

It’s humbling and amazing to recognize that I live in the most financially successful nation in the history of the world — and it’s tragic and defeating to try to help people see how poor we really are, in so many important ways.

Amy and I had a fight last week. Well, let’s call it a disagreement. Since we share all pastoral responsibilities at our church, we try to be careful to distinguish between professional and personal issues. I think this was both….

We can stick our head in the sand if we want, cheer for the lie at all the campaign rallies — or we can start envisioning a new world which values people over productivity, the common good over common goods.

Maybe our more usual careless naiveté about the similarities in the addictions and the differences in our response is a symptom of an even more insidious sickness.

Before gaining fame and fortune for creating “Star Trek,” Gene Roddenberry wrote for a popular Western called “Have Gun — Will Travel.” Having been born in early 1964, I missed the last episode by only a few months. So I…

Compassion doesn’t start with success. Compassion starts by measuring the people who are in need, and by investing our own time and energy and money in their lives.

The old preacher said if you want to know about someone’s spirituality, there’s no better measure than how they spend their money. The preacher wasn’t a money-grubbing televangelist; his comment reflected years wizened by experience as a careful student of…

“For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” That’s the way I memorized Newton’s third law, probably when I was in Mr. Pierce’s 7th grade physical science class. Newton’s law is inviolable truth for the properties and movement…