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The Sword of Christmas

December 2022

“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword,” Jesus told his disciples, twelve fresh recruits who on hearing that must have wondered what they were getting into. Jesus would later rebuke Peter for wielding a literal sword, and by that time the twelve must have had at least a hint of the deeper meaning behind Jesus’ words. As I reviewed Luke’s familiar account this Christmas ...

Getting Along

November 2022

Grace gets put to the test when we find ourselves confronted with people who are different from us. Do we welcome them and treat them with respect? I think of the people attracted to Jesus: “heretics” (Samaritans), foreigners (a Roman officer), outcasts (prostitutes, tax collectors, the ritually unclean, those with leprosy). Remarkably, Jesus found a way to treat them with dignity and respect without compromising his beliefs or his character. Contrast Jesus’ spirit with what we see in modern politics. ...

Our Soiled Legacy

October 2022

Last month I visited the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. Founded by Bryan Stevenson, this stunning museum traces the history of racism in the U.S., beginning with the 12.7 million enslaved people who were forcibly brought from Africa, and proceeding through the Jim Crow era and the mass incarceration of Blacks today. Stevenson, a graduate of Eastern College and Harvard Law School, first moved to Alabama in 1989 to investigate prisoners on death row who had been wrongly convicted. A ...

The Day I Met Gorbachev

September 2022

I grew up during the Cold War, an era dominated by the two superpowers, the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Then in 1989 came one of those history-changing days that no one had predicted. Guards at the Berlin Wall, trained to kill anyone attempting to escape, instead opened the gates to freedom, and the hated wall crumbled without a shot being fired. As the tremors of “people power” spread, some 60 nations rejected their authoritarian regimes in favor of democracy. ...

Walking with Mental Illness

August 2022

(This month’s guest blog offers a unique perspective on mental illness, from a doctor from Northern Ireland who found herself institutionalized as a patient. Writer Sharon Hastings further details her struggles in Wrestling With My Thoughts: A Doctor With Severe Mental Illness Discovers Strength.) The nurse removes a glass nail-polish bottle and the flashlight I use to check patients’ pupils, then passes my handbag back to me. I bite my lip, hard, as a hot tear slides down my left ...

Blog Posts

The Sword of Christmas

Getting Along

Our Soiled Legacy

The Day I Met Gorbachev

Walking with Mental Illness

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