As I announced in my most recent blog of March 15, 2021, I have now accumulated 500 blog posts for the Patheos.com website. This covers perhaps 9 or 10 years of such writing, and encompasses at least 700,000 words of my sometimes lucid but more often opaque prose. I admit freely that I have at one time or another decided that I had said all I had to say, multiple times, and needed to cease my keyboard clacking, thus sparing... Read more

According to my electronic records, this essay will be the 500th addition to my Patheos blog list. I remain grateful to the site for allowing me to continue to express myself in this way, extending appreciably my ministry of Bible study, preaching concerns, and continuing reflections on matters theological. I of course hope to continue this work that is deeply fulfilling for me, and has, as I have been told, held some value for my few readers over the years.... Read more

That clever and wily genius, Mark Twain (aka Samuel Clemens) in his more cynical guise once said, “Tell the truth or trump—but get the trick.” In other words, the end justifies the means; gain the goal no matter what. In my bridge-playing days, we used to laugh and say, “a peek is worth two finesses.” In other words, if your card skills are not up to snuff, then just peer into your opponent’s hand to gain the needed advantage. The... Read more

I think I have recounted the story of the young man who used to station himself near the student center on our campus, holding a well-thumbed King James Bible, and would harangue students as they passed by him each morning. He would scream, not merely speak, but scream that all within the sound of his powerful voice “must be saved,” or they risked the hell fires of eternal damnation. I have on occasion wondered what happened to that man, since... Read more

I have just finished a huge book that matches its extraordinary length with an equally extraordinary significance. It is Robert A. Caro’s 1975 Pulitzer Prize winning biography of Robert Moses, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York (1974). I got a copy of the massive tome not because I had any particular interest either in Robert Moses, a name I hardly knew, or in New York City, despite several lovely visits there and the fact that... Read more

I cannot help being deeply troubled by these early chapters of the Book of Acts. I an well aware that Luke’s second volume is describing, in his unique gospel language, the rise and growth of the early Christian church. In these stirring stories, generations of Christians have discovered powerful tales that have fueled the continual spread of Christianity throughout the earth, as passionate missionaries packed their Bibles and went to places of danger and radical differences to bring what they... Read more

My wife, Diana, was a pastor of a largely Black congregation for three years, first as a seminary intern, and then as Associate Pastor. She and I were among the five white participants in this 2,000-member church. Both of us learned a vast amount about what it meant in this culture to be Black, but, at least for me, I learned just how deeply racist I was, a painful lesson, but an important one for certain. That lesson has been... Read more

I adore baseball! February of every year is wonderful for two specific reasons: Ash Wednesday occurs, the harbinger of Lent and Easter, and pitchers and catchers of Major League Baseball report first to Arizona and Florida, followed by the rest of the position players, for the start of Spring Training, that grand sun-splashed event that precedes the beginning of the regular season, around April Fool’s Day. Even this year, 2021, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues its rages, however now somewhat... Read more

I am a heterosexual male, having been married to a woman for nearly 52 years, and early in my life I participated in those “male bonding” activities that denigrated and ridiculed people I knew, however slightly, men and a few women, who did not conform to my understanding of sexual orientation and gender identity. I confess my stupidity and bigotry now as the absurd and monstrous activity it was, and I ask forgiveness from those of you who identify as... Read more

I have always been a voracious reader. I read at a very early age, in part due to the fact that I was the middle child, attempting to emulate the skills of an older sibling. What he could do I was bound and determined to do! So, since he could read, I could, too. And I did. I devoured most of Charles Dickens before I was 10, along with any number of other novels beyond my full comprehension. Believe me;... Read more