No. We are not commanded to like anyone. From today’s Gospel reading: 13:34 [Jesus said,] “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for […]
This past month I had the great privilege to participate in an “OLLI” course with our local funeral home director, rabbi, and Orthodox priest. I was surprised that there was less I knew about the Orthodox mourning traditions, than I did about Jewish ones. One tradition was “Soul Saturdays” which […]
The Collect: Second Sunday of Easter, Rite Two Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ’s Body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith; through Jesus […]
Hope is the promise of our future; that is what it means to be a survivor. It is not simply continuing to exist after the waves have crashed over us, but to dream, to make new plans, find new and different meaning: to live.
I wrote this for the class blog, but thought it worth reposting here. Every spring we take the Presidential Leadership Academy on a trip to some location to consider the leadership challenges facing that community. This year we took a different approach. We are visiting key sites of the Civil […]
I was interviewed yesterday morning on a local radio station, 98.7 FM The FREQ. It is available on YouTube. https://youtube.com/watch?v=uJ3m4_qGNLA%3Flist%3DFLza32JRRr2NMSx_yMsiRdPQ
I just received the digital offprint, available here. This was a germ of an idea in a paper I submitted for an independent research class with Dr. Barry Strauss in my senior year at Cornell way back in 1991. (Yes, I had multiple senior years.) This article is part of […]
Some Christians believe God rewards the faithful. So why did I get Stage 4 cancer? A powerful piece by Kate Bowler of Duke Divinity. She has literally written the book on the prosperity gospel and was recently diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. She notes the irony of her having written a […]
When we arrived at the hospital to see Mack, he had been flown down from State College to Penn State Hershey Medical Center, a minister met us and took us to the “quiet room.” Ironic since it is a place for people to cry and yell. I knew what was […]
I am reading various sources as I work on my book, “Beautiful and Terrible Things: A Biblical Theology of Suffering and Grace.” I came across a lecture at a PCA church on suffering that included this argument. The Christian way to be ill is always to give glory to God and […]