On Writing

If one is at a social gathering, say a holiday party of friends and acquaintances, introductions having been made and the inevitable discussion about one’s interests and hobbies comes up, admitting that you “like to write” borders on the level of awkwardness as admitting you like to glue Kewpie dolls together into large pyramids in [...]

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I’m Religious, Not Spiritual

It has been popular within American religious circles in the past couple of decades (since, say, the Jesus Movement) to deny being religious but to affirm being spiritual. If one is religious one is “going through the motions,” is concerned with form over substance, isn’t really a Christian. If one is spiritual one has a [...]

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The Temptation of Jairus

The Gospel story, told in Matthew 9, Mark 5 and Luke 8, is a familiar one. Jairus’ daughter is dying (Mark and Luke), or has died (Matthew), and Jairus seeks Jesus to heal his daughter. He is in a mortal hurry. He bids Jesus come that he might heal his daughter and save her from [...]

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Remembering That Day

The phone call came from a relative: “Turn on the TV.” On the television, I saw the images of the Twin Towers burning. The planes had already flown into the buildings. Less than an hour after I saw those images, the Towers collapsed upon themselves.

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Faith, Knowledge, Hope

In our modernist, enlightenment world, faith and hope seem to be of a different species than knowledge.  Hope points to the future, which is not something about which we can have any knowledge.  Faith seems built on unverifiable first principles–that God exists, or even that through reason we can know anything at all.  Knowledge is [...]

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