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Blog Posts

Why Go Back?

An Associated Press poll last year reported that three-quarters of churchgoers in the U.S. plan to resume regular in-person attendance as the pandemic subsides. The pastors I know, looking out at the empty seats, still have their fingers crossed, hoping that prediction will eventually come true. I confess that during the lockdown I rather enjoyed watching church services online while lounging in my bathrobe, sipping coffee, and controlling the pace with a remote. If something failed to hold my interest, ...

Music Amidst the Rubble

As Holy Week approaches each year, I turn to my favorite part of the Gospels, John 13-17. Many other passages seem rushed. They leave me longing for more sensory detail and pondering the meaning of Jesus’ cryptic sayings. In these five chapters, the author slows the pace almost cinematically. After all, it’s the group’s last supper together. One by one, the key disciples make an appearance in John’s account. Peter picks an argument with Jesus and then quickly yields. John ...

No More Tears Left

For more than a month the world watched as Russian forces encircled the nation of Ukraine, while staunchly insisting they had no plans to invade. Now we watch daily as the horror unfolds. Artillery shells falling on a nuclear power plant. Kindergartens bombed. Apartment blocks and entire neighborhoods reduced to rubble. A tank obliterating a family sitting in a car. Hundreds of orphans, some unaccompanied, walking into Poland, dazed and crying into their scarves. Evacuation routes bombed. Residents drinking water ...

The Incredible Shrinking Planet

Where I live in the Rocky Mountains, you can see several thousand stars with the naked eye on a clear night. All of them belong to the Milky Way Galaxy, which contains more than 100 billion stars, including an average-sized one that our planet Earth orbits around—the Sun. Our galaxy has plenty of room: 26 trillion miles separate the Sun from the star nearest to it. And traveling at the speed of light, it would take you 25,000 years to ...

Death Comes for “the Arch”

Tutu’s reputation belied his simple charm. Interviewers remember his impish giggle and his corny jokes. Wearing a standard bishop’s uniform—purplish shirt with a white clerical collar—he usually introduced himself as “the Arch,” short for Archbishop. Words were his power, for he commanded no armies other than the thousands who flocked to hear him speak. Only 5’4″ tall, he would bound up the steps of a stage, like an excited schoolboy, to address a protest rally. Richard Stengel, the former managing ...