January 25, 2021
Healing I have written this a number of times in the last year, and might have to keep repeating it for a while – I believe that the core problem we have as a nation is that the Civil War never ended. We have accomplished remarkable things together, but we still have that source of…
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January 22, 2021
Taking God’s Name in Vain Last week, Franklin Graham said this about Republican members of the House who voted for impeachment: “And these ten, from [Trump’s] own party, joined in the feeding frenzy. It makes you wonder what the thirty pieces of silver were that [Democratic House] Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi promised for this betrayal.” And…
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January 21, 2021
A Perfect World I would love to live in a world where there is no sin or deception. A world that is so pristine and exact that everything makes sense and nothing is left to chance. A world where there are no disco or bell bottoms, only screaming electric guitar solos, meaningful country ballads, Mozart,…
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January 20, 2021
Peaceful Transition I am an amateur student of history (as you can occasionally see in these posts) and I am always amazed by how much we Americans take for granted. We like silly stories like the one about George Washington and the cherry tree, while we deny serious stories about Thomas Jefferson’s abuse of Sally…
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January 19, 2021
There Isn’t Just Right or Wrong Today is my 36th anniversary of being married to my wife. I don’t tell you this so you can congratulate us (although she deserves it far more than I do), but so you know that there is still time to send monetary gifts (clean, crisp, unmarked bills will be…
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January 18, 2021
Martin’s Dream or Malcolm’s Nightmare? It would be too simple and easy – and false – to only comment on the “I Have a Dream” speech today. It is, for sure, a remarkable work that became the central focus of the Civil Rights Movement. It was, in many ways, a stump speech – one of…
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January 15, 2021
Sometimes, there is no middle ground. When our congregation was going through the long and, sometimes, irritating process of deciding if we would be an Open & Affirming Congregation (ONA means we accept everyone, regardless of sexual orientation and gender, among other things), I had a couple of members ask why we had to be…
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January 14, 2021
Same as it Ever Was? In Luke 13, some people gathered around Jesus ask Him about two troubling events: an evil act of murder by Pontius Pilate, and a tragic accident in which a tower fell on a group of Galileans, killing 18 people. Jesus confronts the people who ask by asking if those people…
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January 13, 2021
It’s Okay to Change Your Mind In the early 1990’s we moved to Cincinnati. It was a nice city, although it had its racism problems then as it does now, and we settled in for a 3 (it became 4) year stint. My wife went there to do her residency, and then fellowship, in ophthalmology…
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January 11, 2021
The Ugly Past One of the bones of contention our country has been dealing with in recent years is what to do with statues erected to glorify our racist past (and present). Civil War “heroes” are depicted everywhere, and the question is complicated. Do we tear down the ugly reminders of our worst experience of…
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Thoughts During the Pandemic
January 07, 2021
The Worst Day I am 60 years old, which means that I am older than most Americans, but younger than…
January 6, 2021
The Woolly Rhino A week ago it was reported that a perfectly preserved Woolly Rhino had been found in Siberia.…
January 5, 2021
We Should Be Better Than This I am in my 22nd year serving Calvary UCC in Reading, PA, and over…
January 4, 2021
Liturgical Correctness There were a lot of very positive aspects to my seminary training, but the one glaring deficiency was…
December 31, 2020
New Beginnings I have never been one to buy into superstition, and it seems that I am in a small…
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