https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMG2IsXMskw 'I've Got Oil in my Vessel,' traditional gospel blues, NC fiddler Joe Thompson, 1997. Editor's (admin's) note. Second of ___ (I'm shooting for four) Advent meditations, prompted by a parish workshop exercise in which we were asked to craft a personal mission statement. My spiritual director suggested I operationalize it by asking myself: Who, … Continue reading What can a white spiritual mutt learn from the Black church in a time of neofascist ethnic cleansing? (Advent 2 of __?)
Early Catholic missions to Potawatomi people in northern Indiana, southern Michigan — misc. references
d r a f t Kevin Kilbane, Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend Their presence drew the first Europeans to what is now northern Indiana. They played roles in the founding and growth of parishes and institutions such as what became the University of Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s College. They held strong in their faith … Continue reading Early Catholic missions to Potawatomi people in northern Indiana, southern Michigan — misc. references
Primary sources on Potawatomi Trail of Death in central Illinois, Sept.-Oct. 1838
Memorial at Fulton County Courthouse, Rochester, Ind. (Chris Light, Wikimedia CC BY-SA 4.0). In September and October 1838, a band of Potawatomi Indians from northern Indiana crossed central Illinois under an armed guard of Indiana state militia. Their forced removal was known as the Potawatomi Trail of Death, and it was part of the Indian … Continue reading Primary sources on Potawatomi Trail of Death in central Illinois, Sept.-Oct. 1838
Moral injury and Trump 2.0: Are you on the bus? Off the bus? Or thrown under the bus with Black and brown people?
Google News directory, news items, July 7, 2025, 11:08 a.m (CST). A week after President Trump was re-elected, Psychology Today posted an article to its website noting that the outcome "reflects a moral injury for many -- a psychological wound caused by betrayal of deeply held values." Explained Mary Ann McDonald of Holy Cross College in … Continue reading Moral injury and Trump 2.0: Are you on the bus? Off the bus? Or thrown under the bus with Black and brown people?
‘We’ve been here before’: A voice of Black lived experience as an openly racist administration prepares to take power
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONN0BkwMF1g Mavis Staples, 'I'll Be Bested" (video by YouTube user biamaku, March 25 2012). Debi and I belong to a group affiliated with the Dominican sisters known as the Associates' Anti-Racism Committee (AARC for short). It's an offshoot of SDART (pronounced "ess-dart," an acronym for the Springfield Dominican Anti-Racism Team), an initiative that's succeeded in … Continue reading ‘We’ve been here before’: A voice of Black lived experience as an openly racist administration prepares to take power
Remembering an unlikely spiritual mentor (and storyteller) who made Alaska Native, Russian Orthodox and my lukewarm mainline Protestant traditions come alive
Fr. Michael Oleksa (Orthodox Christianity [from YouTube], Nov. 29, 2023). While I was researching another post to Ordinary Time (link HERE), I learned a spiritual mentor and role model whom I never met in person died late last year. He was, to give him his full title, the Very Rev. Archpriest Michael Oleksa, sometimes also … Continue reading Remembering an unlikely spiritual mentor (and storyteller) who made Alaska Native, Russian Orthodox and my lukewarm mainline Protestant traditions come alive
Building community at an imaginary dinner party: Jesus’ disciples, partisan politics and the kingdom of God (Sundays@6 ‘After Party’ journal 2)
Jacopo Bassano, Last Supper, 1542, Galleria Borghese, Rome (Wikimedia Commons). Next week's session of Sundays@6, an online parish book study group Debi and I facilitate, will take up the first chapter of The After Party: Toward Better Christian Politics, by Curtis Chang and Nancy French; it's an interactive group study curriculum for mostly evangelical Protestant … Continue reading Building community at an imaginary dinner party: Jesus’ disciples, partisan politics and the kingdom of God (Sundays@6 ‘After Party’ journal 2)
Warnock’s inclusive, almost pastoral convention speech calls Democrats to work for peace and justice, to ‘heal the land’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JznC5vZnGOQ&t=597s Sen. Warnock's 'altar call' begins at 12:00 (PBS NewsHour), Aug. 19, 2024. For a long time I've been saying the only thing that can lift us up out of our spiritual crisis in America is the transformative witness of the Black church. We had a vivid foretaste of what that might look like Monday … Continue reading Warnock’s inclusive, almost pastoral convention speech calls Democrats to work for peace and justice, to ‘heal the land’
A twofer for spiritual direction: ‘By their fruits — and (harmonica) toots — shall ye know them’; intersectionality, too
Ameya Deshmukh, 'Squirrel' (Wikimedia Commons). Lightly edited copy of an email I sent to my spiritual director in advance of our session for March. I’ve been writing these for several years now, primarily in order to help me focus my mind before we talk. It’s not a record or an agenda of our sessions. (Often enough, … Continue reading A twofer for spiritual direction: ‘By their fruits — and (harmonica) toots — shall ye know them’; intersectionality, too
Sundays@6: How did a 1493 papal bull influence white Americans’ relations with African and indigenous people?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3gF7ULVrl4&t=14s Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) elder explains lasting effects of 1493 papal bull. Lightly edited copy of a blast email Debi and I sent out today to members of our congregation, Peace Lutheran Church of Springfield, for the second meeting of our online adult faith formation book study on “The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the … Continue reading Sundays@6: How did a 1493 papal bull influence white Americans’ relations with African and indigenous people?
How a straight white cisgender male learned to stop worrying and wrap his head around intersectionality
"Intersectionality," Milliann Kang et al., (CC-by-4.0 UMass Amherst). Within intersectional frameworks, race, class, gender, sexuality, age, ability, and other aspects of identity are considered mutually constitutive; that is, people experience these multiple aspects of identity simultaneously and the meanings of different aspects of identity are shaped by one another. -- Milliann Kang et al., Introduction … Continue reading How a straight white cisgender male learned to stop worrying and wrap his head around intersectionality
Why New Yorkers’ reaction to an Islamophobic rant on the Upper East Side gives me hope for the future
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJBzamR9Ak4 Brooklynite of Egyptian heritage supports halal street vendor (Loudlabs News NYC). I'm a generation and a half removed from New York City -- my father left Brooklyn in 1932 to go off to college and never moved back -- but I couldn't be prouder of the way New Yorkers reacted Thanksgiving week to an … Continue reading Why New Yorkers’ reaction to an Islamophobic rant on the Upper East Side gives me hope for the future
Sundays@6: Isabel Wilkerson’s ‘Caste,’ avoiding fake news and the consequences of our racial pecking orders (week 6)
Lightly edited copy of a blast email Debi and I sent out to members of our congregation, Peace Lutheran Church of Springfield, in advance of the sixth meeting an adult faith formation book study, “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” by Isabel Wilkerson. We call the group Sundays@6, and it meets over Zoom Sunday evenings … Continue reading Sundays@6: Isabel Wilkerson’s ‘Caste,’ avoiding fake news and the consequences of our racial pecking orders (week 6)
Sundays@6, week 4: Of ‘Caste,’ alpha wolves, underdogs and intersectionality
Lightly edited copy of a blast email Debi and I sent out to members of our congregation, Peace Lutheran Church of Springfield, in advance of the fourth meeting an adult faith formation discussion of the book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” by Isabel Wilkerson. We call the group Sundays@6, and it meets over Zoom … Continue reading Sundays@6, week 4: Of ‘Caste,’ alpha wolves, underdogs and intersectionality
Sundays@6, week 3: ‘Caste,’ Faulkner’s dictum, Florida’s K-12 learning standards and the lessons of history
Lightly edited copy of a blast email Debi and I sent out last month to members of our congregation, Peace Lutheran Church of Springfield, in advance of the third meeting an adult faith formation discussion of the book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” by Isabel Wilkerson. We call the group Sundays@6, and it meets … Continue reading Sundays@6, week 3: ‘Caste,’ Faulkner’s dictum, Florida’s K-12 learning standards and the lessons of history
Sundays@6: Email for discussion of ‘Caste’ (week 1)
Lightly edited copy of a blast email Debi and I sent out last week to members of our congregation, Peace Lutheran Church of Springfield, who expressed an interest -- or who we thought might be interested! -- in an adult faith formation discussion of the book "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents" by Isabel Wilkerson … Continue reading Sundays@6: Email for discussion of ‘Caste’ (week 1)
‘Ramadan Mubarak’ — greeting the Muslim holy month on the floor of the Illinois House of Representatives
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmE0lRi43qs So this happened Thursday, and it's one more reason -- call it the 100,000,001st (but who's counting?) -- reason why I love Illinois. At sundown on the floor of the state House of Representatives, two Chicago-area freshman legislators rose to points of personal privilege to welcome the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and invite … Continue reading ‘Ramadan Mubarak’ — greeting the Muslim holy month on the floor of the Illinois House of Representatives
Sundays@6: ‘Holy envy’ and Krister Stendahl’s rules for interfaith dialog
Lightly edited copy of a blast email sent out to participants in an online book discussion group Debi and I facilitate for our parish, Peace Lutheran Church of Springfield, Ill. (It meets Sundays at 6 p.m. — hence the name.) We are discussing “Holy Envy” by Barbara Brown Taylor. Her title comes from Harvard Divinity School dean (and Swedish … Continue reading Sundays@6: ‘Holy envy’ and Krister Stendahl’s rules for interfaith dialog
Does Senator Warnock’s re-election testify to the transformative power and witness of the Black church? I think it does
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-oS1ycq9RM Segment on the 'Morning Joe' program, Dec. 7, 2022 Growing up down South in civil rights days, I was able to watch the transformative witness of the Black church in action. I watched it from a safe distance -- my home town was middle class and lily-white -- but when the high school in … Continue reading Does Senator Warnock’s re-election testify to the transformative power and witness of the Black church? I think it does
Sundays@6: Methodists ‘of the extreme center’ and a look ahead at Barbara Brown Taylor’s book on holy envy
Editor's note. Lightly edited copy of a blast email I sent out to participants in an online adult faith formation/book study discussion group that Debi and I co-facilitate for members and friends of our Lutheran parish. Our sessions have taken an interfaith turn this year. We started with "Reclaiming the E-Word [evangelism]" and "Reclaiming the … Continue reading Sundays@6: Methodists ‘of the extreme center’ and a look ahead at Barbara Brown Taylor’s book on holy envy
Historians, including Ken Burns, cite historical parallels between today, the slavery crisis of the 1850s and the anti-Semitism of the 1930s
d r a f t More quotes for my Swedes in Roger Williams’ Garden project — Two disturbing historical parallels in print this week, both suggesting that America faces a more difficult crisis -- more accurately a series of cascading crises -- now than it did in the runup to the Civil War. It's hard to know … Continue reading Historians, including Ken Burns, cite historical parallels between today, the slavery crisis of the 1850s and the anti-Semitism of the 1930s
Research notes: Cite for Rushdie’s creolization quote; right-wing dog whistle du jour featuring assault on Rushdie
Two very different items popped up last night when I did a Google search on keywords Salman Rushdie and creolization. They are: A 2001 article on "Creolization and the Lessons of a Watergoddess in the Black Atlantic" by Alex van Stipriaan that cites a Rushdie quote: "Mélange, hotchpotch, a bit of this and a bit … Continue reading Research notes: Cite for Rushdie’s creolization quote; right-wing dog whistle du jour featuring assault on Rushdie
Creolization: Jingoism v. jambalaya in France (with excerpts from my historical papers on the subject)
France 24, Feb. 15, 2022 Voilà! Turns out an obscure academic term I use in my historical writing got to be a political talking point in this year's French elections. The word is "creolization" (créolisation in French), and it's used by cultural anthropologists to describe the cultural blending in creole societies like those of the … Continue reading Creolization: Jingoism v. jambalaya in France (with excerpts from my historical papers on the subject)
Research notes: Salman Rushdie, post-colonial theory, creolization and me
Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rushdie.JPG A grab bag of short takes ... I also have a chaotic and unedited collection of "Notes and Quotes" -- my term for research notes -- on the postcolonialist author Salman Rushdie, who was recently stabbed by an Iranian-American youth, and some of the themes raised by his fiction -- and … Continue reading Research notes: Salman Rushdie, post-colonial theory, creolization and me
Florida lawsuits argue state’s new anti-abortion law violates free exercise clause, threatens religious pluralism
Notes & quotes for future reference -- posted here so I can find them later with a keyword search Is it time for those of us who qualify as spiritual-but-not-in-your-face-bible-thumping-religious to begin speaking up? Two recent articles by an unusually perceptive religion writer in the Washington Post suggest maybe it is. More clergy members, serving … Continue reading Florida lawsuits argue state’s new anti-abortion law violates free exercise clause, threatens religious pluralism
‘Conviviality at the Crossroads’: Open-source studies from Malmö on creolization, hybridity, etc.
Link here to open-source copy on Springer Nature Switzerland AG website Woo hoo! I found a new book. It's available online under a Creative Commons license, and finding it was like Christmas in July -- with Easter, St. Paddy's and the annual Jordbruksdagarna (ag days) festival at Bishop Hill, Illinois, all rolled into one. Forgive … Continue reading ‘Conviviality at the Crossroads’: Open-source studies from Malmö on creolization, hybridity, etc.
Édouard Glissant and creolization — misc. links (Notes & Quotes)
d r a f t "[...] we are all in relation with each other and we all have a chance of making our voices heard." -- Celia Britton, "Edouard Glissant" [obit], The Guardian. xxx Poetics of Space – Archipelagos and Wanderings special ed. of Karib: Nordic Journal for Caribbean Studies https://www.karib.no/collections/special/poetics-of-space-archipelagos-and-wanderings/ Collection launched: 25 Feb … Continue reading Édouard Glissant and creolization — misc. links (Notes & Quotes)
Buffalo massacre shows how widespread and dangerous white Christian nationalist conspiracy theories are becoming
Two articles by scholars published in the wake of the mass murder at the Tops Friendly Markets store in Buffalo struck me like Thomas Jefferson's fire bell in the night. The scholars are Samuel Perry, of the University of Oklahoma, and Philip Gorski, of Yale; they have written extensively about white Christian nationalism -- the … Continue reading Buffalo massacre shows how widespread and dangerous white Christian nationalist conspiracy theories are becoming
How ‘holy envy’ enhances religious pluralism and guards against spiritual shoplifting or appropriation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdXAGm5xm9M Palm Sunday, 2016, Saint John's Orthodox Church, Warren, Ohio. I've been thinking lately about the concept of "holy envy" and the Swedish academic who coined the term. That's partly because I worry that the whole idea of pluralism -- both religious and secular -- is under sustained attack now at home and abroad. I … Continue reading How ‘holy envy’ enhances religious pluralism and guards against spiritual shoplifting or appropriation
Preach, sister! Michigan state senator returns fire after GOP culture warrior’s rhetoric gets nasty and personal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT7DkOzeLaM Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow on Morning Joe, April 20, 2022 (MSNBC). Can I get a witness? Sometimes you see a flickering of light in the darkness, a little sliver of hope you can cling to like a rock in a weary land. And so it came to pass that a Michigan state legislator … Continue reading Preach, sister! Michigan state senator returns fire after GOP culture warrior’s rhetoric gets nasty and personal
Fukuyama on Russia, Trump, ethno-nationalism, religion and other threats to the liberal world order
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwuMMmUCw98 Last month I posted a rather incoherent item saying: (a) I thought some important tectonic plates were shifting with Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the Ukrainian resistance to being reabsorbed into a post-Soviet Russian empire; and (b) it might somehow provide a context for writing up some of the historical research I've done in … Continue reading Fukuyama on Russia, Trump, ethno-nationalism, religion and other threats to the liberal world order
Timothy Snyder on Ukraine, code-switching, national identit(ies)
d r a f t Timothy Snyder, "Timothy Snyder on the Myths That Blinded the West to Putin's Plans," interview by Ezra Klein, The Ezra Klein Show, New York Times, March 15, 2022 https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/15/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-timothy-snyder.html Verbatim quotes at https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/15/podcasts/transcript-ezra-klein-interviews-timothy-snyder.html: So the way we tell the Second World War is completely inside out, you know, Western Front … Continue reading Timothy Snyder on Ukraine, code-switching, national identit(ies)
Oh, joy! Are the ‘culture wars’ taking us into a new civil war? or sectarian conflict like in Northern Ireland?
Battle of Chickamaugua, lithograph, ca. 1890 (Wikimedia Commons). Here's a cheery note: If civil war comes to America as Barbara Walter of the University of California San Diego and other scholars are now predicting, it won't involve armies marching out to Gettysburg and Chickamauga in blue and gray uniforms -- it'll be more like the … Continue reading Oh, joy! Are the ‘culture wars’ taking us into a new civil war? or sectarian conflict like in Northern Ireland?
Notes on a scientific study on spirituality — how doing good does you good; also Jewish-Christian relations, book of Hebrews
When I taught mass comms at Benedictine, I used to tell the kids sometimes you can do pretty darn well for yourself by doing good. I thought it fit our mission as a faith-based college, and, besides, I believed it. Now comes Lisa Miller, a psychologist at Columbia Teachers College, with a study offering scientific … Continue reading Notes on a scientific study on spirituality — how doing good does you good; also Jewish-Christian relations, book of Hebrews
Östervåla psalmodikon pix
d r a f t Parked here (and cross-posted to my other blog) till I can figure out what to do with the pix: https://www.facebook.com/peter.ellertsen/posts/2923906727870354 Embedded content from facebook.com can't be previewed in the editor. And here's a link to Marilyn's post: https://www.facebook.com/marilyn.demay.96/posts/873207133331978
Notes & quotes: Books on polarization, culture wars, tribalism; Trump a ‘gigantic … middle finger’ to cultural elites
d r a f t Carlos Lozada, "The united hates of America," Washington Post, Oct. 30, 2020 https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/10/30/polarization-books-trump-election/. Carlos Lozada is WaPo's nonfiction book review editor [...] The growing polarization of the United States into a nation torn by partisan identities is one of the legacies of the Trump presidency, even if it began … Continue reading Notes & quotes: Books on polarization, culture wars, tribalism; Trump a ‘gigantic … middle finger’ to cultural elites
Smithsonian article on Know Nothing Party, class, nativism of 1850s
Anti-immigrant cartoon showing two men labeled "Irish Wiskey" and "Lager Bier," carrying a ballot box. (Everett Collection Historical / Alamy Stock Photo) Excerpts from a 2017 article by Chicago free-lancer Lorraine Boissoneault: "[...] At its height in the 1850s, the Know Nothing party, originally called the American Party, included more than 100 elected congressmen, eight governors, … Continue reading Smithsonian article on Know Nothing Party, class, nativism of 1850s
David Brooks speculates on Jeremiah, Jewish history and ‘creative minorities’ in a diverse, polarized America
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq1tosBXgTE The segment with David Brooks' discussion of 'creative minorities' begins at 43:00. Editor's (admin's) Note. I posted this to Facebook with this note: "A new post to my spirituality blog. On an unusually thought-provoking op ed piece by David Brooks, one of the New York Times' house conservatives, in which he suggests a new … Continue reading David Brooks speculates on Jeremiah, Jewish history and ‘creative minorities’ in a diverse, polarized America
Tucker Carlson says the quiet part out loud, echoes ‘great replacement’ conspiracy theory, nativism of 1850s
Anti-Irish cartoon by Thomas Nast, 1871 (Wikimedia) Fascinating profile of Tucker Carlson today on the Washington Post website by Michael Kranish, a national political investigative reporter for the Post who has written bios of Trump, Mitt Romney and Thomas Jefferson. Quotes sources who know the man, ranging from Al Sharpton to Bill Kristol, to make … Continue reading Tucker Carlson says the quiet part out loud, echoes ‘great replacement’ conspiracy theory, nativism of 1850s
Whitehead and Perry: (white) Christian nationalism, Jan. 6 riot, Jim Crow election laws a fundamental ‘threat to a pluralistic, democratic society’
An op ed piece by sociologists Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry uploaded yesterday to Time magazine's website connects some important dots. Authors of Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States (Oxford, 2020), they conclude white Christian nationalism is "fundamentally a threat to a pluralistic, democratic society." Here's what I shared to Facebook … Continue reading Whitehead and Perry: (white) Christian nationalism, Jan. 6 riot, Jim Crow election laws a fundamental ‘threat to a pluralistic, democratic society’
Theologian N.T. Wright rethinks ‘multi-ethnic, polychrome, mutually supportive’ early church, justification by faith
"Century Marks," Christian Century, April 21, 2021, p. 8. We're still quarantining magazines as they come into the house, and when I was going through them last night, a billboarded pull quote from British theologian N.T. Wright in a back issue of Christian Century jumped up off the page, snuggled up to me and wanted … Continue reading Theologian N.T. Wright rethinks ‘multi-ethnic, polychrome, mutually supportive’ early church, justification by faith
Ordinary Time 
