Imagine
Imagine a song with only one note, A rainbow with only one hue; A world where people all look the same, and everyone sounds alike too. Then look at the colors around you, thank God for each various shade; Tune in to the beautiful voices,
Category Archives: Faith & Witness
No Ordinary Epistle
The letter looked innocent enough, sitting there in my mailbox. A simple white envelope, with the return address of my Episcopal parish stamped in the upper left corner, in incomplete ink. Probably a reminder that they wanted my annual pledge, I thought. Maybe I should
Exodus and Beyond: Hope and a Future
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen
The Best Medicine
I’m automatically suspicious of anyone who seems to possess either an extremely limited sense of humor or, even more so, none at all. Life without a sense of humor to me would be very dark and depressing, and I honestly feel that along with the
Father Taylor, the Sailor’s Apostle
Note: Numbers in brackets refer to pages in Father Taylor, the Sailor Preacher by Gilbert Haven and Thomas Russell (San Francisco: BB Russell, 1872) When you hear the tone, the year will be 1854, and the place, Boston. In Albany, NY, Elizabeth Cady Stanton (the
On Target
There was a saying that my father had when I was younger, which I recall clearly, as he often used it to try and push ultra conservative fundamentalist theology on me. Most often his insistence that anything we wanted to accomplish or have for ourselves
Shifting and Assuming Responsibility
The concept of sin is not contained within catechisms learned in our churches, or in the theological vocabulary of our priests. Rather, I believe, each and every act of self-indulgence constitutes sin. Any time we put our own interests above that of others, so that
Sin, Self and Thomas Merton
A number of years ago, at a parent’s night held at the school where I taught theology to junior high students, a parent asked a question no one had ever asked me before: “Who has been the greatest influence on your spiritual life?” I remember
Closer to Fine
Sin, in my honest estimation, is one of two things. Sin is turning away from who God calls you to be, and sin is broken relationship, and we all experience these problems in our lives. Turning away from who God calls you to be is
Who Says I Sin?
He was sobbing not just because he thought he had just done the most evil (sinful) thing he could possibly do, but because it was the thing he had most wanted to do ever since he became a self-conscious being. (Andrew Sullivan, When Plagues End)