Category Archives: Uncategorized

With the pipe bombs being sent last week in the mail, followed by the unspeakably horrific shootings in the Pittsburgh synagogue shootings last Saturday, I reread two powerful columns by editors of the Atlantic Constitution written back in the day. ** On October 14, 1958, the largest synagogue in Atlanta was bombed. The response byContinueContinue reading “What a sobering week for our country”

Many people eligible to vote just don’t.  And it is so often out of frustration, even despair.  I’m voting early this week.  It’s a sacred right, and I’ll do my best to vote my conscience. Today in my Sunday religion column for the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette I reflected a bit on both voting and on JesusContinueContinue reading “I’m voting early this week”

  The #MeToo movement has given women the impetus to speak up about all manner of sexual violence, sexual abuse and sexual harassment. What so many have gone through, and continue to go through, is just awful. But they are speaking up. Good for them speaking up. I believe them. What they are saying takesContinueContinue reading “With #MeToo not losing any steam, women increasingly are speaking up, now saying: #WhyIdidntreport”

  In addressing how conservative Christians are responding to the Kavanaugh allegations in the September 18 issue of Slate, Liberty University English professor Karen Swallow Prior said: “I don’t expect we will ever know the truth about what did or did not happen. But as an evangelical Christian, I am convinced Dante himself could not have devisedContinueContinue reading “I’m afraid it has come to this”

If we should perish, the ruthlessness of the foe would be only the secondary cause of the disaster. The primary cause would be that the strength of a great nation was directed by eyes too blind to see all the hazards of the struggle; and the blindness would be induced not by some accident of nature or history butContinueContinue reading “Who of us very recently hasn’t thought about the likes of these poignant words?”

  The Apostle Paul says when we speak the truth in love we will in fact grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who the head of the body, Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 4:15). As I counsel with pastors nearly every day, the most frequent topic is some conflict in which theContinueContinue reading “Love and Truth: Opposite sides of the same coin”

Insightful religion columnist Terry Mattingly addresses the huge challenge facing the Catholic Church in his September 10 column. Mattingly writes about a letter to the Holy Father signed by about 100 prominent Catholic women, challenging, really imploring Pope Francis to speak up and be more forthright about the sexual abuse and sexual misconduct among so manyContinueContinue reading “The Pope and the Catholic Church are facing a major test”

I read this Op-ed piece in the New York Times this morning (8/30).  I do think the Church is at one of those tipping points — not just the Catholic Church, the Whole Church!  What to do about sexual abuse, especially among the clergy?  Clergy in the Catholic Church, certainly! And the Protestant Church, certainly! ContinueContinue reading “What would compel a mandated reporter to act?”