https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7_EpZMIv_Q Cardinal Pizzaballa in Bethlehem, Forbes Breaking News, Dec. 24, 2025. Editor’s (admin’s) note: Lightly edited copy of my email in advance of this month’s appointment with my spiritual director, giving her a heads-up on what I’ve been journaling about (or, in this case, why I haven’t been journaling much) and, more to the point, helping me … Continue reading Navigating wartime complicity and atonement in Gaza and Trump’s America (spiritual journal Dec. 2025)
Let’s see if a bland headline on a story about Christians in Gaza will be anodyne enough for social media
Screen shot, Jordan Times, Aug 12, 2024 (Photo Agence France-Presse). Well, well, well, it looks like I'm on Facebook's naughty list. Here's how I got there. I tried to copy an article in The Jordan Times, an English-language newspaper published in Amman, the capital of Jordan, on the plight of Christians in Gaza. Written by … Continue reading Let’s see if a bland headline on a story about Christians in Gaza will be anodyne enough for social media
Notes & quotes — ELCA’s Sumud (Arabic for ‘steadfastness’) initiative
d r a f t https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy9cjJcpNiA&t=250s Intro posted April 8 to YouTube. See ELCA website at https://www.elca.org/sumud. Have you heard of Sumud (formerly Peace Not Walls)? Share about this new initiative from the ELCA for justice in Palestine and Israel. Stay connected by LIKING and FOLLOWING us on Facebook (ELCA Sumud) and Instagram (@ELCASumud). xxx … Continue reading Notes & quotes — ELCA’s Sumud (Arabic for ‘steadfastness’) initiative
Spiritual direction notes for May: ‘After the final no, comes a yes’; Swedish thelogian on Christan — and Lutheran — responsibility to fight antisemitism
'Krister Stendahl död,' Sydsvenskan, Malmö, April 16, 2008. Lightly edited copy of an email I sent to my spiritual director today in advance of our session for May. 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 … Continue reading Spiritual direction notes for May: ‘After the final no, comes a yes’; Swedish thelogian on Christan — and Lutheran — responsibility to fight antisemitism
Fixing the world’s grief, at least feeling a little better about my own, with a little help from a meme on social media
For several years now, an internet meme has been a mantra of mine when the news gets unbearable. Or, maybe, a talisman. More likely some of both. It purports to be a quote from the Talmud, but actually it's a paraphrase or mashup of passages from a prophet in the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament, … Continue reading Fixing the world’s grief, at least feeling a little better about my own, with a little help from a meme on social media
The score when Nixon spoke at a Billy Graham crusade at UT-Knoxville: Lions 0; Christians 1; First Amendment -1
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/President_Richard_Nixon_and_Reverend_Billy_Graham_at_the_Podium_during_the_%22Crusade_for_Christ%22_at_Neyland_Stadium_in_Knoxville%2C_Tennessee.jpg Nixon and Billy Graham, UT-Knoxville, 1970 (Wikimedia Commons) “[Roger Williams] described the true church as a magnificent garden, unsullied and pure, resonant of Eden. The world he described as “the Wilderness,” a word with personal resonance for him. Then he used for the first time a phrase he would use again, a phrase that … Continue reading The score when Nixon spoke at a Billy Graham crusade at UT-Knoxville: Lions 0; Christians 1; First Amendment -1
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
CNN newsletter highlights disconnect between ‘culture war,’ real-world problems in a time of real war
In my email on March 23, from CNN Reliable Sources <reliablesources@newsletters.cnn.com>, after this headnote: Oliver Darcy here at 10:47pm ET on Wednesday, March 23. Here's the latest on Reuters, BuzzFeed News, Fox, Meta, "Wheel of Fortune," Spotify, "Real Housewives," and more... [...] this item, which is too good to clean out of my inbox and lose forever. Darcey … Continue reading CNN newsletter highlights disconnect between ‘culture war,’ real-world problems in a time of real war
Links to a copy of my James Agee article and his Time magazine cover story on the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
d r a f t Editor's (admin's) note: Miscellaneous notes and quotes for possible later use, on James Agee, the staff writer for Time magazine who did the cover story in August 1945 on the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the end of World War II. In his spot news story, he had a prescient … Continue reading Links to a copy of my James Agee article and his Time magazine cover story on the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Thoughts, prayers, wisdom from the Talmud and acting against ‘the enormity of the world’s grief’ in wartime
Screen grab of meme shared to my Facebook news feed, Oct. 29, 2021. For several months I've been wanting to jumpstart my prayer life, but until last week I never would have thought it would involve the heartache of praying for peace in Ukraine in the face of a failed World War II-style blitzkrieg that … Continue reading Thoughts, prayers, wisdom from the Talmud and acting against ‘the enormity of the world’s grief’ in wartime
Ordinary Time 
