By Russ Dean What is the most powerful force within the human psyche? The Apostle Paul says there is only one force in the world for which people will move heaven and earth, a force which people will ultimately, and…
Clothes for the new year
Yesterday I had the privilege of preaching at St. Luke’s United Church of Christ in Independence, Mo., less than a 15-minute walk from the Harry S. Truman Library & Museum. St. Luke’s was founded in 1878 as the German Evangelical…
Looking at others through the lens of love
By R. Kevin Johnson I passed a Muslim woman on the street wearing a hijab. She walked quickly with her head down. She acted like she didn’t want to be noticed. She looked scared. Perhaps her fear is justified given…
What’s wrong with political solutions in this country
It’s that season again. I don’t mean crisp mornings and changing leaves, but the season of presidential politics. But thinking of the fall, in sequence with politics, made me think theology. (It’s a hazard of the job.) This stream-of-consciousness led…
Love already won
My grandmother, Eva Mae Thomas, was my first catechizer and theologian. At the age of 12, she put a pen and notepad in my hand and asked me to “write down all the Scriptures that the preacher says.” There were…
Balking at Hawking’s rejection of God
Although it was a temptation, I resisted titling this article “Gawking at Hawking.” June and I have, though, been ” gawking ” at Hawking some this past couple of weeks. We first watched “The Theory of Everything,” the engrossing 2014…
Displaying an all-encompassing, come-as-you-are love of God
By Amy Butler This week has been another week of heart-wrenching news headlines, enough to make any thinking person despair for the state of the world. While Americans are preoccupied with misguided public servants tenaciously distorting the average American’s understanding…
Does loving my neighbor mean I have to be wrong?
Just the facts, ma’am Driving an automobile has been the source of an ongoing life lesson lately, and I’m pretty much ready to have the lesson learned and move on. Last weekend I had taken my son to Miami for…
Unsettled by truth: A border awareness experience
The summer before my senior year of college, my parents adopted a cat. When they found him he was covered in dirt and matted fur. He hung his head low and did not purr. When you ran your hand over…