Places of worship tend to center use on their holy day. We as a United Methodist Church have space designed for our heaviest use on Sundays. The church was designed with a sanctuary for worship, rooms for Sunday school classes…
Ethics of Stewardship I am honored to be invited to write for the “Community Word.” I would like to focus on the concept of stewardship within our religious communities. Stewardship for me focuses on how we use the resources we…
Justice Is Required on the Path to Peace The police officers I know personally are all good people. They take their jobs seriously, genuinely care about the safety of the public they serve, and treat people fairly. And yet I…
Life is full of difficult choices. Everyone agrees on that. Should I enlist in the military? Should I get a divorce? Should I have surgery? No one can make these difficult choices go away. They are part of life.…
The other day I was finishing an email to some otherwise wonderful Christians who, in my opinion, were stepping way out of line in matters of age and racial discrimination of the subtle but searing sort that still infects our…
A long time ago I heard this bit of wisdom from my Southern Illinois kinfolk. “It takes 50 strong hands to build a barn and one jackass to kick it down.” Or consider this description of a person as, “Someone…
Over past 20 years, “Loaves and Fish” fed 300,000 Last year, I was talking with a couple about what went into their selection of whether and/or which church to call home. Their Christian faith is strong, so connecting with a…
From sundown on Saturday, July 25 until the evening of July 26 Jews around the world observe our national day of mourning, Tisha B’av. This day commemorates the destructions of both the first and second Jewish commonwealths (in 586 BCE…
Shavua Tov! (Happy New Week!) I write this sitting in Jerusalem, looking out my window as the Sabbath has ended and the city is coming back to life after the 25 hours of quiet and calm that mark Shabbat in…
As an American Jew–particularly as one who wears a kippah [a Jewish ritual head-covering]–I have a complicated relationship to white privilege. Like many Jews, at some level I don’t feel white; for 2,000 years or so Jews have been living…
