I think I know why the women were too terrified to say anything that first Easter morning. It’s the Gospel of Mark’s year in the Lectionary, which means this Easter we were left with an unsatisfying ending to the resurrection…
The Easter season brings memories joyous and painful of growing up in Palestine
Nothing has changed since a version of this column first appeared in 2020 in another publication under the title “A Lethal Virus Called Israeli Occupation: A Somber Easter in Occupied Palestine.” The original title drew on the spread of COVID in…
Palestinians join Jesus in crying, ‘I thirst,’ Lutheran pastor says in Good Friday sermon
A Palestinian minister’s Good Friday sermon portrayed Israel’s continuing massacre of Gazan civilians as a mirror image of the passion and subsequent crucifixion of Jesus at the hands of a brutal foreign power. “Today, we place the cross in the…
Two things can be true at the same time
In case you missed the controversy, Easter Sunday and Transgender Day of Visibility fell on the same day this year. Oh, the horrors! Conservative evangelicals — many of whom who believe transgender identity is not a real thing — saw…
At the Cross: What I see
The Lenten season has been especially intense for me this year on a spiritual level. I have sought to follow its rhythms, demands and opportunities from Ash Wednesday until now, Holy Week. Each day I have read the Mass readings…
Franklin Graham plans Easter Sunday broadcast from Jerusalem
Franklin Graham, one of the foremost allies of Israel among American evangelicals, will broadcast a special Easter message from Jerusalem March 31. He will be joined by Christian music artist Michael W. Smith. As Israeli Defense Forces have killed 31,000…
Embracing what’s sacred
As spring rain drizzles outside, I’m thinking about Easter worship and the increasing numbers of Christians (and pastors) who are leaving church. The statistics have become a modern fact of life and aren’t as shocking as they once were. For…
Bracket-busting faith
It was halftime, and we were down by double digits to one of our biggest rivals. It was summer basketball, which means the game didn’t count for much other than bragging rights, but we were playing one of our biggest…
Baptists are body and blood related to Mary Magdalene
Baptists have made plenty of mistakes in how we regard women. Women have just begun to take a full stride as pastors in many of our networks and denominations, while the Southern Baptists still disallow women to serve as pastors….