I can almost smell the acrid, thick smoke of diesel engines powering Russian tanks, personnel carriers and trucks hauling heavy artillery into two eastern provinces of Ukraine’s border with Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin declared the two provinces as “independent…
Let’s put Herod back into Christmas
In 1936, with war clouds gathering in Europe, author E.B. White wrote the following for The New Yorker: “Shopping in Woolworth’s, in the turbulent days, we saw a little boy put his hand inquiringly on a ten-cent Christ child, part…
Angel wings and devil tails: Meditation on the Feast of the Holy Innocents
“This is no time for a child to be born, With the Earth betrayed by war and hate And a comet slashing the sky to warn That time runs out and the sun burns late.” —Madeleine L’Engle, “The Risk of…
Accountability for the execution of Ahmaud Arbery: More is needed
I pounded the arm of my chair as each of the jury decisions, nine counts in all, were read by the judge in the case of the Ahmaud Arbery murder trial. The triggerman was found guilty of all counts. The…
Veterans (Armistice) Day history and the prophetic import of red poppies
Veterans Day doesn’t lend itself to commercial attention like its twin, Memorial Day, probably because it’s squeezed between two other cash-registering holidays, Halloween and Thanksgiving, and it does not coincide with a car-cultural observance like the Indy 500 auto race….
How to read the Cuban street protests in light of U.S.-Cuba history
Medieval European maps traced the outline of the entirety of past exploration, and just outside the bounds of what was known they inscribed the words, “Here Be Dragons.” Here Be Dragons is an appropriate mythological metaphor for the United States…
Peacemaking about more than ‘funky t-shirts and Birkenstocks,’ Baptist says
Those stereotypes don’t do justice to a ministry inspired by the words and example of Christ, says Ken Sehested, a long-time leader of the Baptist peacemaking movement in the United States.
‘Nobody in their right mind’ would do what this peace activist has done
The Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America has grown a lot since its founding in 1984. Its focus over the years has expanded from poverty and nuclear proliferation to racial justice, gun violence and immigration, among other issues. And a…
Mamrean encounter
Eons ago, “the Lord”-in the guise of three traveling strangers-ventured into Abraham’s and Sarah’s oaken camp at *Mamre, were given hospitality, and then announced the promise of a fertile womb beyond all conceivable prospect.