Like many, I am trying to make sense of the tragedy in Orlando. But I confess, as I talk to people and listen to different perspectives, I am embarrassed and ashamed. Well meaning, kind, caring people are inadvertently being callous and insensitive. I am going to speak from my own […]
Television, especially the commercials, makes me sick this time of year. And not just now, but from Halloween on, when marketers nationwide begin the barrage of unrelenting crass consumeristic addiction-baiting, all in the name of Christmas. The cultural values of image, power, prestige, greed, consumption, acquisition, ownership, luxury, glamor, gluttony […]
As I get older, memory plays tricks, so I may be remembering this wrong, but a favorite Hebrew phrase of mine is hakarat harov, meaning “attending to the good” (I think…). It always comes to mind as I prepare for Thanksgiving, and I sometimes wonder what life is like for […]
I never see it coming. I write something I think is compelling or provocative, and no one seems to care. I toss off something I don’t give much thought or energy to, and it gets 3,000 hits. I posted “Crybaby Christians,” and thought I might get some push-back about it […]
As I was reeling in the wake of the news from South Carolina yesterday, this came into my in box. It is a reminder that violence takes many forms, and that the intent behind our acts have consequences. Major acts get media attention, but minor acts impact our lives in […]
On a more frequent basis than I am comfortable with, I seem to be missing some pages of the script for simple human interaction. Two things happened today, and it is not yet ten in the morning… I was sitting at my favorite coffee shop in one of two comfortable […]
Perhaps the most egregious error many people make is to assume that the way they think is normative. When we operate from the assumption that other people see and make sense of the world the same way we do, we open ourselves to a world of hurt. Each of us […]
I am a reader, and proud of it. I rarely spend less than 3 hours each day reading, and I mean books, not just emails, articles, blogs, letters, ads, magazines, Post-It® Notes, etc. On days off, I read more like 6-7 hours. I am an eclectic reader. There are few […]
I regularly encounter people who believe that disagreements in the church are evidence that we should split the denomination, that somehow we are defined by our differences rather than a common faith, a shared baptism, a risen Savior, and a God bigger than our pettiness. Probing deeper reveals that the […]
When will we begin to listen? Much of what we are offering people, they don’t want, can’t use, and don’t value. A growing population of deeply devout people — of all ages — have determined that organized religion is for the judgmentally insane. I was sitting in a meeting with […]
United Methodeviations 