Growing up during the Cold War Era in a family proud of its Eastern European heritage and belonging to an ethnic Eastern European church, there was a story I heard periodically around Easter time. The story made its way into sermons and was sometimes repeated in family gatherings. As there… Read More »Making Sense of the Resurrection of Jesus Today
Sometimes I attend services in an Episcopal Church. Before people share the bread and wine known as communion, the priest makes a dramatic gesture. Holding the circular bread-wafer so that all can see, the priest exclaims: “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.” In unison, the response comes from the… Read More »A Progressive Christian Minister Reconsiders Atonement
I am in awe that all four of my grandparents were part of a great exodus to the United States. From 1890 to 1914, 70% of the immigrants to the United States were from Eastern and Southern Europe. It was an immigration phenomenon that brought 1.2 million people to the… Read More »Lessons from My Family about Immigration
It’s difficult to be a teenager in a small, rural town. One quickly learns that gossip spreads quickly and little things come back to haunt you. Anything unusual that happened with you and your friends at lunch time is something your folks know all about before you get home for… Read More »The Untold Story
It’s another video on YouTube. But unlike most, it went viral very quickly. Within a week of its posting, it received 12,500,000 hits. Other videos have been made in response, both in favor of and objecting to the spoken word message of the videographer. Several major newspapers have reported on… Read More »Religion vs. Jesus
It was a curious comment. While I didn’t disagree with it, I was struck by it because it seemed out of context from anything else. The emailed comment simply said: “Finished reading a booklet … on Christianity and Islam. Very basic and does not get into a lot of issues… Read More »The Children of Abraham and the Government
Human beings are amazing! We have a unique capacity to move through overwhelmingly difficult circumstances and toward living in ways that are dynamic and vibrant. In the field of mental health, this ability is called resiliency. It’s an aspect of human experience that is the focus of research and discussion… Read More »Resiliency: The Movement through Death to Life
Keep watch! Stay alert! Those are the words Jesus used several times in the gospels attributed to Mark and Matthew. The concept is clear: you don’t know when the realm of God will break into your life, so keep watch and stay alert. Don’t miss it. A very similar concept… Read More »Wake-Up! Stay Alert!
