As a long-time student of politics and theology/faith/religion/etc, I have been watching the recent events of the US House of Representatives and their attempts to elect a Speaker of the House as well as the the ripple effect from it. And I’ve been thinking about the lessons that the...

Often I try to write book reviews of books I have read. These encompass quotes from the book – sentences and sections that really caught my attention and insights the author had that I find interesting. There may also be things that I highlight that I want to engage...

We all know the constant refrain – “the church is in decline!!!!!!” It’s the constant drumbeat that is being beaten into us. But I wonder if the punctuation is incorrect. I wonder we are hearing it the wrong way. I wonder if we are assuming exclamation points like the...

They aren’t going to quit – ever. You know who I’m talking about. Let’s stop kidding ourselves. Let’s stop talking in the abstract and get right to the point about this. The people who act with cruelty will never stop. They aren’t going to change. They aren’t going to...

On Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2022, the Memorial Blanket Project came to fruition. It’s been a week now and I’m still struggling with the words to express. What words does one use to talk about what it means to have 1179 handmade blankets and quilts laid out on the West...

Yesterday was a great day. The Memorial Blanket Project (www.memorialblanket.org) received the support of the National Cathedral (www.Cathedral.org) in our effort to raise awareness around the issue of homelessness in our nation. We We laid down 95 blankets on Walker Court in front of the main entrance of the...

Yesterday I got to do something fun – I was invited to go into a high school class and talk about Christianity. Now, that might not sound like fun to many of you, but as a Lutheran pastor, that’s about as good as it gets. This was for a...

I’m going to let you in on a conversation I was having with God the other day. I was frustrated. I had enough. I’m was tired of what I refer to and call “crappy” Christians, because I didn’t know what else to call them – people who claim the...

One thing that I dream of is being part of a diverse “congregation.” I’m using that term loosely. I’m told by many people that it’s just not realistic in South Central PA to have a multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-lingual “congregation” in a mainline denomination such as the ELCA, which is...

There have been financial bubbles, housing bubbles, tech bubbles, dot-com bubbles, and more. Bubbles are not new. They have been around for a long time. “Perhaps the most beautiful one came in the Netherlands when trading of tulip futures — especially bulbs infected by a virus that caused the...