Date: August 24, 2021
Irresponsible Claims
My erstwhile mother-in-law was a heavy smoker and adamantly cared more for her freedom to smoke than for accepting responsibility for the ill-effects of her second-hand smoke. A powerful memory […]
RPLI Posts
Date: August 17, 2021
Glued to a Mirage
This blog is for anyone still trying to make sense of life, maybe especially for when the times defy good sense. Since my late teens, I’ve experienced several major deconstructive […]
Date: August 9, 2021
That Twinkie Wrapper from 1972
You know that allegedly science-based parable about the frog in slowly heated water that will boil to death, not knowing what is gradually happening to it, rather than leap out […]
Date: August 3, 2021
The Immorality of Politics as War
One might think the world should have learned from the so-called Crusades, from the religious wars that devastated swaths of 16th and 17th century Europe, from genocidal acts of the […]
Date: July 29, 2021
Committing Faith in Public with Phillips professor Dr. Annie Lockhart-Gilroy
In September 2020, Center for Religion in Public Life director Gary Peluso-Verdend interviewed Dr. Lockhart-Gilroy, Assistant Professor of Christian Education and Practical Theology. Besides introducing her work generally, Dr. Lockhart-Gilroy […]
Date: July 27, 2021
Pandemic of Loneliness
About a century ago, there was an Edenic community in Roseto, Pennsylvania. No crime. Little heart disease despite the fact that residents ate fried meats, smoked stogies, and drank wine […]
Date: July 21, 2021
Change the Culture
Some years ago, there was a social media phenomenon that was centered on people holding up signs that were responses to the question, short-handed as “WDYDWYD?” Why do you do […]
Date: July 15, 2021
Committing Faith in Public with the Rev. Dr. Lisa Barnett
One of the most unfortunate pieces of data from graduate seminary graduating student interviews is which courses graduands wish they had fewer of: history. In this pivotal era of the […]
Date: July 13, 2021
Split Realities
We live in weird times. Really weird, akin to alternative or split reality shows. When dyed-in-the-wool United Methodist Hillary Clinton ran for president in 2016, her religion—was clearly (I thought) […]
Date: July 6, 2021
Change Is Possible
The 4th of July fell on a Sunday this year. The congregation I attend, the Boston Avenue United Methodist Church in Tulsa, has a tradition of making July a “revival” […]