“The House speaker’s worldview is dictated by the Bible,” read the New York Times headline after the elevation of Louisiana’s Mike Johnson to the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Johnson may claim his worldview is “dictated” by the Bible, but it isn’t. I am loath to criticize fellow Christians, but we must speak up when Christianity is weaponized in the name of faith. Nothing in Johnson’s public life is remotely Christian. Christians need to hold him accountable and help... Read more
I first spoke to former President Jimmy Carter during his Sunday school lesson at his church. An elder had warned the group of around 50 people that he would ask pastors to stand up and identify themselves at the beginning of the class. Around five or six of us stood and shared what denomination we were with and what state we were from. He asked a woman minister to open the proceedings with prayer, held in the sanctuary of Maranatha... Read more
“Jimmy Buffett’s here.” I knew he was playing golf that day, that’s why I was there on my day off. I’d seen his name on the reservation sheet the day before. The golf course where I worked hosted many famous people, giving me the opportunity to meet people as varied as John Denver, Bruce Hornsby, and broadcaster Jim McKay, to Vice President Dan Quail, and Senators Sam Nunn, Ted Kennedy, and Rudy Boswitch. Even in the late 1980s, Buffett was... Read more
On July 2, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The year before, in a landmark nationally televised address on June 6, 1963, President John F. Kennedy laid out the stark terms of racism in the United States that evening. “The Negro baby born in America today, regardless of the section of the Nation in which he is born, has about one-half as much chance of completing a high school as a white baby... Read more
Here in the United States, America’s pastime is warming up again. Baseball’s ageless boys of summer are in spring training and opening day is coming. Easter is coming. Spring is coming. Summer is coming. I was reminded this week of a quote from the book, A Great and Glorious Game: Baseball Writings of A. Bartlett Giamatti. From “The Green Fields of the Mind” “It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring,... Read more
Click here for part one – The time I spoke with former President Jimmy Carter NOTE: I have kept a journal for my daughter since before she was born. This is the entry from the day she met President Jimmy Carter. The journal entries are addressed to her in the future, when she’s reading about this day in her life. July 11, 2015 You met a president this morning, shortly before noon. You were dressed like this: When he walked... Read more
Detective John Munch has died. He was 78. Comedian Richard Belzer played Munch from the first episode of Homicide: Life on the Street in 1993, through eight other series, to his last episode of Law & Order: SVU in 2016. I spoke to Belzer during filming of the Homicide episode Identity Crisis, season 7, episode 19. The episode aired April 30, 1999, so we must have shot in late ’98 or early ’99. Belzer was number one on the call... Read more
This year Progressive Christians will continue their efforts to bring justice to the oppressed, to help heal the sick, and to provide comfort to widows, orphans, and strangers, just as they have for 2,000 years. They will instinctively gravitate towards individuals and institutions doing these things and they will continue to leave the organized church. The number of people self-identifying as Christian has declined steadily over the past decade. That downward trend will continue in 2023 as Protestant denominations hemorrhage... Read more
Another mass shooting and another angry, white man. Because mass shooters are nearly always angry, white men. In Angry White Men by Michael Kimmel, “Kimmel locates this increase in anger in the seismic economic, social and political shifts that have so transformed the American landscape,” According to Amazon, “Downward mobility, increased racial and gender equality, and a tenacious clinging to an anachronistic ideology of masculinity has left many men feeling betrayed and bewildered. Raised to expect unparalleled social and economic... Read more
Or else it’s for no one. Communion is for everyone. The presence of God found at the communion table is for everyone. To withhold communion is to withhold God. No one is in a position with the authority to withhold communion from anyone. Catholics are divided on withholding communion for American politicians who support legal abortions in the United States. The real divide among Christians is between those who think that there shouldn’t be any rules at all, and those... Read more
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