When they flipped his body over, the bright canary yellow blanket fell on the grass. His hoodie was damp because he’d been laying there a while and it had been raining that night. He was wearing jeans and fresh Fusion…
Three suggestions for Christians preparing to vote
There are record numbers of people voting in the 2020 election, so far. This is a good thing. However, for some, there is a temptation to walk away from it all. We seem to live in an anger-filled, 24-hour-a-day, 365-days-a-year…
How does prayer work? I don’t know, yet I believe
“I’m praying for you.” I’m interested in these words, what they say and what they mean — to the sender and the receiver — and I’m curious about how easy this is for some people to say, and how difficult…
In an unending pandemic, grief isn’t doubt, it’s true faith
Early in my pastoral career, I once met a woman who had recently lost a child during pregnancy due to a serious car accident. In the midst of her quiet witness to the sudden death of her unborn child, I…
Being ‘pro-life’ means telling the truth about COVID-19
One of my neighbors put a new sign in the yard today that reads: “Vote Pro-Life.” I want to knock on the door and ask one question: “Do you mean you’re going to vote against abortion, or do you mean…
America, we’ve got to address the source of the pressure, not just the steam it puts off
While I’m not a psychotherapist or anywhere close to an expert in family systems theory, I’m finding some clarity in applying what little I do know to our current societal predicaments. It goes something like this: Pressure begins to build…
Why your vote matters to God
As of this writing, well more than 18 million people have cast their votes already, and Election Day is still two weeks away. Long waits and long lines have greeted those who are registering their support for or against the…
Listen more, speak less, dispel anger with love
Our country is politically torn apart. This is the reality that greets us every day in the national media, regardless of which network, website or newspaper we follow. Our states are labeled by their Republican or Democratic governors, eliciting opinions…
Remembering Amos: Where white evangelicals lost their way
I have spent 50 years teaching religion to mostly white evangelical students at Christian colleges and universities from California to Pennsylvania and points in between. Most of those students came from evangelical homes and grew up in evangelical churches, and…
In a time of different truth worlds, ‘Bump that, get free’
I write these words from a place of brokenheartedness with the world around me, as political battles rage and shared understanding seems further and further away. I write these words after harrowing (and sometimes heartening) conversations with people I love….
Bonhoeffer moment No. 2: ‘I am now praying quite simply for freedom’
In a letter to his close friend Eberhard Bethge, written from Tegel Prison and dated Nov. 18, 1943, Lutheran pastor/theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: I am finding (I expect you are, too) that the most difficult thing is getting up in…
We need to talk about dying
We were riding in a limousine to the graveside. Most of the people in the car were family so — except for the masks — the conversation was comfortable and familiar. Then the funeral director said: “See those smokestacks. That’s…