Ken Burns Civil War
The documentary film, Civil War by Ken Burns, was my first real experience with the Civil War and is probably the reason I am as interested in this period of Am...
Category: Blog
What religious freedom isn’t
The idea of religious freedom is a bedrock of the American experience but has been used by both sides in a way that I do not think it was intended. Ameri...
Faith Without Works is Dead
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the wor...
The Amazing Story of Deborah Sampson
Hunting around for something to watch on television I stumbled upon the program Mysteries at the Monuments. I like history, so the idea of finding out o...
Churches and Their History with Slavery
Historian John Fea recently pointed out an article in the New York Time about how one Rhode Island Church is coming to grips with their past history of slavery....
Donald Trump and the Bible
In a recent interview on the Bloomburg Networks “With All Due Respect,” GOP Presidential candidate and member of the Presbyterian Church Donald Trump was asked ...
Mindfulness and Email
As a follow up to last week’s essay on mindfulness I thought I would share some thoughts on mindfulness in communication especially email. Email is here to sta...
The Great Refusal
The Gospel of Matthew 19:16-26 At that time, a young man came up to Jesus, kneeling and saying, “Good Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal l...
Mindfulness in Conversation
There was a time, not long ago, that if you disagreed with someone it was on the basis of their argument and not on their personality. Today it seems all the r...
How to Forgive
Just like last week we need to back up a few verses to put this passage in the proper context. Starting with verse 21 Peter asks Jesus how many times we are to...