On the original game show To Tell the Truth, four celebrity panelists were presented with three contestants whose unusual occupations or experiences, as announced by the program’s host, were deciphered in a series of questions the panelists asked the contestants….
Trump blasts enemies in Easter morning message before hitting golf course
President Donald Trump — hailed by his supporters for “bringing faith back to the White House” — spent Easter Sunday on the golf course and blasting his enemies on social media. “Happy Easter to all, including the Radical Left Lunatics…
Easter changes the story
Easter erupted amid grief, pain and despair. The death of Jesus appeared to be the death of the campaign for the kingdom of God: the hoped-for realm of peace and justice. A people’s movement slaughtered with its leader. The votes…
Abolishing the death penalty in the spirit of Easter and Passover
As we move through the sacred calendar of spring — when Jews celebrate Passover and Christians observe Easter — we are reminded of profound spiritual truths: Liberation from bondage, triumph over death, the sacredness of life. These holy days invite…
A Holy Week choice between two parades
Some years ago, I led an adult formation (Baptists, read “Sunday school”) series for the good people of Calvary Episcopal in Bastrop, Texas, on The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’s Final Days in Jerusalem, a book…
Trump’s faith adviser selling seven Easter blessings for $1,000 gift
President Donald Trump’s chief faith adviser is selling seven “supernatural blessings” for Easter season gifts of $1,000 or more. On her website and social media, televangelist Paula White has a special offer for what she calls the “Passover season” when…
This Lent, US Lutherans are learning a new Palestinian practice: Sumud
Lent is a time of reflection for many Christians, and each year a host of devotionals are published to bring insight and inspiration to the 40 days of contemplation leading to Easter.
What’s Truly Mortifying
Growing up as a Methodist, the church calendar oriented my childhood around twin poles of Christmas (and Advent) and Easter (and Lent). Advent was my favored season of the two: Waiting with a pile of presents in view is not…
We’re still terrified and amazed
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…