“Don’t just do something, stand there.” The first thing to do in a crisis or even disaster is not to panic. This is not “fight, flight, or paralysis,” but steadiness, rooted in the inner security of faith. A national or international crisis is something that it helps to have a
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Warren gave as her core motto at the end of the last debate a reference to Matthew 25, seeking to recognize herself and the divine even in the “least of these.” Whatever the ideological fine points, there she spoke to the egalitarian core of the Democratic soul. While her goal
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Mitt Romney paused, perhaps in prayer, certainly in faith-filled emotion before casting one of the most meaningful votes in President Trump’s impeachment trial, supporting the charge that the President was guilty of abusing his power. Senator Romney, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (a
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A wise former Pastor and Presbytery Executive, John L. Williams, has written “A Theological Essay on Vision” that contrasts the Bible’s dream and vision accounts with those of management consultants and the tamed goals of self-interested organizations. I confess I have seen little of his work reflected in the Vision
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I was sitting in the chapel last Wednesday between two women and we got to the hymn “For Everyone Born,” which somehow finds “justice and joy” in a verse where “abuser, abused, with need to forgive” have “a place at the table” (in Glory to God #769). One woman walked
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The mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton of August 3 and 4, 2019, cannot be allowed to recede into the learned-helplessness of our politics, even if the head of an NRA in disarray can still neutralize a fearful president. Universal background checks should win in both houses of Congress,
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It is justice, not vengeance, to investigate thoroughly and prosecute resolutely all public officials who have put private interests above the common good. If broken windows in a neighborhood can justify a more visible police presence—with community involvement—to prevent larger crimes, then the countless examples of self-dealing and conflict of
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With regard to foreign policy, the real dragon facing the United States is not China but the grandiosity of its own leaders, as seen in recent speeches by President Trump and National Security Advisor John Bolton. Despite the phrase “principled realism,” the President’s speech was a mixture of boasts and
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The Social Creed, at 10 years, links us to the Social Gospel and Labor Day. It is easy to focus on what divides groups of Christians from each other and from other movements of faith. But, in the Labor Day spirit of coming together to work for justice, we remember
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As Hiroshima Day approaches, how does the Church reckon with the Nuclear Age? August 6 and 9, 1945, are the days that the United States Air Force dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, causing immediate and slower deaths in those Japanese cities in excess of 100,000. Ever since, most
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