On Truth Tellers

The older I get, the more grateful I am to have truth tellers in my life. These are people who care about me enough to disagree with me, show me my blind spots, and speak honestly, especially when it’s difficult. I don’t always enjoy hearing from truth tellers, and I can’t say that I always…

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month

Domestic violence is a crime that often goes unreported. It thrives in secret. If we as Christians are going to address problems of domestic violence, we need first of all to arm ourselves with information. My friend and colleague Rev. Terry Heck has written an informative piece for the blog sponsored by United’s School for Discipleship…

Disengaging?

On October 12, 2014, I asked Cynthia Astle not to republish my work going forward on UM Insight. I didn’t state this publicly because I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. I wasn’t looking for a fight or to criticize UM Insight publicly. I had actually not given this much thought…

More Thoughts on Christian Public Discourse

To understand one another, we at least have to attempt to model traits such as honesty, carefulness, rigor, and empathy. These are values I was taught in seminary and during my doctoral education. As an educator, I try to instill these intellectual virtues in my students. I value the free exchange of ideas, which is…

A Follow Up on Forgiveness

My last post was on forgiveness and reconciliation. Since then, I read an excellent article on this topic by Joy Moore in Good News. Unfortunately the article is not online, but if you have access to the print version I commend it to your reading. [Correction: It is online! You can access it here. Thanks, Beth…

Thirty Days of Prayer for Peace and Reconciliation

Violence seems to be the order of the day in our country. Reports of shootings are ever more commonplace. We cast about for solutions, but none seems to be forthcoming. We ask for new laws, and laws can change behavior, but they cannot change hearts. Only Christ can change hearts, and he does this by…

Reflections on a Week with Two Friends from Cuba

Two of my friends from Cuba came to stay with my family and me for a week recently. While they were here, I was helping them to make contacts in this area to support their ministry. (And I am particularly grateful to Rev. Jon Ferguson and the good people of Stillwater UMC, the Evangelical Fellowship of…

So where are we now?

One of my evangelical Facebook friends some time ago posted a long open letter to fellow United Methodists. The gist of it was this: The United Methodist Church, as you have known it, is gone. You may not perceive it yet, but you’d better get used to the idea, because that’s the plain and honest…