It happens all too often. Young children are sexually abused, molested by family members or friends of the family. More often than not, the abuser is someone trusted not only by the child, but also by the family. Like many other children, one girl experienced molestation at a young age.… Read More »Doing the Best You Can
I was a youth during the era of the Vietnam War. I remember watching televised coverage of the draft lottery: birthdates picked out of a machine that could have been used for bingo. Those of a certain age whose birthdays fell on the dates selected would be drafted. I also… Read More »On Memorial Day, I Remember
Uganda. It’s a country I didn’t know much about until the 1990’s. In the early 1990’s, Uganda became something of a model for risk-reduction education for the transmission of HIV. In 1991, roughly 15% of the adult population was infected with HIV. The number of people dying from complications due… Read More »Uganda and the Problem of “God’s Love”
I saw it all play out in front of me. The narrow parking lot was one-way, wrapping around the building in the shape of a “U.” Both the entrance and exit linked to a busy city street with a stream of cars moving bumper to bumper in both directions. Pedestrians… Read More »Anger: An Instant Blaze
I’ve lost track of her over the years. We went to high school together, though she was in a class ahead of me. We got to be good friends in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. I have really great memories of Saundra as well as her family. She was… Read More »Community, Connection, and Compassion
She was sitting at a table under a shade tree. Her chair was one of those walkers with wheels that also has a seat. I went over and joined her at the table. When she saw me coming, a smile came to her face as she recognized me as a… Read More »Living with Compassion
It’s something I’ve witnessed a few times in my life when working in hospitals. Generally, it’s happened something like this. A person has a heart attack and a team of people rush in with a defibrillator. After frantic treatment, the person is stabilized. In some cases, the person’s heart appeared… Read More »Easter: Life is Changed Not Ended
Judas: the name is associated with words like traitor, back-stabber, turn-coat, false-friend, and double-crosser. We want to view Judas, the person who set-up Jesus so that the religious authorities could arrest him in secret, as not just wrong but as evil or perhaps demonically possessed. In doing so, we miss… Read More »Do You Know Judas?
