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 […]
Category: Blog Posts
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 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 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” […]
Date: June 29, 2021
With Apologies to Mr. Lincoln
Twelve score and five years ago our forebears brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, Bondage, and Theft, but dedicated to the proposition that all human […]
Date: June 16, 2021
God Blesses… and Condemns
This is the third of four sermon starters for the 4th of July weekend. I’m taking common Christian religious claims about the U.S. and re-examining them. Readers are free to […]
Date: June 8, 2021
Canceling “Chosenness”
This is the second of four sermon starters for the 4th of July weekend. I’m taking common Christian religious claims about the U.S. and re-examining them. Last week was “In […]
Date: June 1, 2021
In God We (Don’t) Trust
This is the first of 4 sermon starters for July 4th weekend. Preachers are free to use them. In each sermon, I endeavor to interpret this moment in the nation’s […]