What follows was inspired by a few things. One, words of Christian theologian Willie Jennings spoken soon after the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor: Jennings’ observations on anger and God surprised me and further illuminated my own long struggle with a grieving outrage that sometimes feels debilitating. He also gave me permission to feel my anger as part […]

I’m cameraman and video editor, neither job being my primary skill set, in this Glenn Kaiser interview of activist prison lawyer Alan Mills. Both men are my friends, and both forgive me. Bonus: music written by Glenn and myself (lyrics) at the tail end. More information about Alan’s organization, Uptown People’s Law Center. And, to visit Glenn Kaiser‘s site. The […]

When I heard about the Boston marathon bombings — it happened via TV in a North Dakota seniors’ residence my wife’s parents live in — tears lept to my eyes and that terrible, familiar taste of 9/11 rage rose up inside. This time there was no creepy Osama bin Laden character to blame. Two young guys, foreign yes but also […]

Paul Robeson, the legendary African-American singer, actor, and social activist, was in a little-known 1940 film, “The Proud Valley.” Documenting the lives of Welsh coal miners, the film did something unheard of and made a black actor the star of a mostly-white cast movie. More than that, it also offered a mix of piety and social activism which within just […]

Forgiveness? How far? Corrie Ten Boom, imprisoned in the concentration camps for hiding Jews from the Nazis, lost both her father and sister there and survived herself due to clerical error which allowed her release. After the war, when she had begun telling her stories of faith and suffering, she spoke also on forgiveness. And one day God took her […]

Contrarian. Me. When someone loathes a theology book, I am immediately made curious to read it. When someone tells me, for instance, that liberation theology is just Marxism dressed up in religious rhetoric, I have to find out for myself. When someone says so-and-so “cannot be a Christian, because they believe [fill in the blank],” I have to find out […]

He was standing on the bottom of the abyss; there remained but a short distance in any method of mortal reckoning for him to take before he came to a more secret pit where there is no measurement because there is no floor. – Charles Williams, “Descent into Hell” All Hell is smaller than one pebble of your earthly world…. […]

“All the natural movements of the soul are controlled by laws analogous to those of physical gravity. Grace is the only exception. Grace fills empty spaces, but it can only enter where there is a void to receive it, and it is grace itself which makes this void. The imagination is continually at work filling up all the fissures through […]

For part one of these somewhat meandering reflections on obedience, Fear Comes First ; part two, Whispers. More (as I write ‘em) articles in this series, as well as other Devotionals. Love is a terrible thing, especially when that love is God’s Love. God’s Love reveals to us that we are without love. This is the first and most foundational […]

I, along with other people I’ve been talking with about it, have been reading the book of Revelation (at the end of the Bible). Are these really the ‘end times?’ Is Jesus really coming back, soon? It is a wonderful thing to have a healthy, reverent fear of the living God!! Come on, either God is real, or He’s not. […]