One more ‘riff’ on the paucity of mainstream church “address” to the hungry and hurt visitor, let alone the hungry and hurt regular; but with hope: Justin Hayward is sometimes accused of sentimental romanticism. I don’t agre

The fact that the mainstream churches are hiding their Light under a bushel is the primary reason for their atrophy. The fact that most of our churches are “missing in action” when it comes to the seemingly insuperable pain of living that we

A penetrating comment recently from a friend set up a chain reaction inside me that’s resulted in this new cast. After a long hiatus and with the support of Mockingbird, I’m starting back up and hope these new episodes may speak. My friend, w

I keep trying to make sense of the divisions we are almost all feeling currently.How can one get “under” them, i.e., in hopes of lessening them a little? Does anyone who is reading this enjoy feeling estranged from others, especially old frie

The animus expressed in connection with the Inauguration has made me think about events that happened almost 47 years. The catalyst was the U.S. invasion of Cambodia, and then Kent State. Everyone went wild. A few of us were conservatives then. (Donand#

I’m feeling optimistic about our future — both mine, and Mary’s, personally; and also the future of our country and the world. This is partly because we are witnessing a kind of up-ending of shibboleths and “narratives” tha

A forthcoming book on the sacraments, edited by Justin Holcomb and David A. Johnson, has got me thinking about the “means of grace” — or rather, how do we know and recognize God’s grace in our actual personal lives. The history o

I want to introduce Robert Nathan to you. Robert Nathan was born in 1894 and died in 1985. He was the author of many novels, almost all of them bittersweet yet delightful tales of romantic love and its progress with everyday people. Several of them, inc

I think American Buddhists are missing in action. I think they really are. At least in one particular. They are missing in action in relation to an almost overwhelming contradiction with their teaching that exists in common public culture today. I am ta

The problems we all have are different, depending on the person and your history. Yet they are all urgent; and they all require, ultimately, urgent care. This cast presupposes the universality of urgency, at least in one concrete area of your life. In o