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 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 and a prescient take on what the new "atomic age" would … 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 
