I am not accustomed to discussing publicly my personal health on the internet (or most anywhere else), but in this case, I am going to make an exception and do just that. When Janice and I returned to the United…
The re-assassination Of Martin Luther King Jr.
A year to the day before he was assassinated, Martin Luther King Jr., a Baptist pastor, publicly defined the war in Vietnam as a civil rights issue on April 4, 1967, in an address titled Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence to…
The long, dry line from 9-11 to Jan. 6
Every year, just before the end of the old year and the beginning of the new, my wife and I always watch CBS’s annual broadcast of the Kennedy Center Honors. We love it. We weep with the honorees, the masters…
The Four Horsemen of the New Atheist apocalypse meet world history through the lens of three new books
I was working as a part-time activity director at a nursing home when Anna approached me, her face shrouded in bewilderment. “This morning,” she said in a shaky voice, “a man on the radio said there are people who don’t…
Choose a 2022 personal resolution from 40,000 words
The banner quote above (often attributed to Mahatma Ghandi, but most likely it came from others) takes a stand in defining personal power. Words can change us — and others — and ultimately, the world. Some of my recent articles…
The day the fire department helped a dying woman to her bed
There was nothing heroic about it. Wasn’t terribly difficult. Just good old-fashioned kindness and people being good to people. We never got any tones. We did, however, get a knock on the station door. It was an older couple. They…
Why is anybody still giving money to Franklin Graham?
On the anniversary of the greatest single domestic threat to American democracy since the Civil War, what would you expect a respected religious leader to say? After the president of the United States calls out his predecessor’s perpetually expanding web…
Taking out the 2021 trash talk
Country singer Tim McGraw may not have known the social theory that informed his 1995 hit, I Like It, I Love It. As the song’s title hints, something has happened to McGraw that has changed his usual ill-mannered, trashy ways….
On radical acceptance and crap sandwiches
I am in the midst of an excruciating period of personal suffering. I am not at liberty to describe what is going on. Suffice it to say that it is a relational matter; it is awful; I have no idea…
To celebrate Epiphany, reject Herodian Christianity
If you’ve read or watched the national news this week, you’ve seen two stories dominate the coverage. One story is the Omicron variant and the increasing number of COVID cases all around the country. Part of that story has included…
The Capitol insurrection, the Lost Cause and the Confederate flag
On Jan. 6, 2021, I was in quarantine, recovering from COVID-19. As I read and watched TV to pass the time, I began to see early reports of the attack on the U.S. Capitol. I saw the events of that…
For me, January 6 began as a day of prayer and ended as a day of disbelief
The gloomy sky and biting wind only deepened the sense of foreboding in the air on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021. Apprehension had been growing in Washington for weeks as news continued to spread that supporters of Donald Trump,…