d r a f t Good background discussion of acculturation in the context of archaeological digs at WindrosesiteorLittleRockVillagein Kankakee River Valley; Pokegon settlement on St. Joseph River north of South Bend, Ind., and Benack Village site in Marshall County, Ind. -- on Tippecanoe River https://www.potawatomiwildlifepark.com/history Elizabeth Bollwerk, ControllingAcculturation: APotawatomiStrategyforAvoidingRemoval," MidcontinentalJournalofArchaeology,Vol.31,No.1(Spring2006),pp.117-142 https://www.academia.edu/695665/Historical_Archaeology_A_Midwestern_Case_Study_Controlling_Acculturation_A_Potawatomi_Strategy_for_Avoiding_Removal Bollwerk of the International … Continue reading Potawatomi acculturation strategies for avoiding removal — article in archaeology journal (verbatim excerpts)
What can a white spiritual mutt learn from the Black church in a time of neofascist ethnic cleansing? (Advent 2 of __?)
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
‘Waiting for the spark’: Christian authors prepare to resist Jim Crow (Señor Cuervo?), Trump’s incipient fascism
Kristin Du Mez CONNECTIONS, Substack ['about' page]. For the past eight to 10 months, I've drawn comfort and inspsiration, in the root sense of the word, from a podcast featuring historian Kristin Du Mez of Calvin University and three other scholars of religion. They collaborate on a (more-or-less) weekly podcast called the Convocation Unscripted, where … Continue reading ‘Waiting for the spark’: Christian authors prepare to resist Jim Crow (Señor Cuervo?), Trump’s incipient fascism
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?
Church historians sparking resistance to Trump regime’s cruelty, emerging autocracy (spiritual direction April 2025)
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/8KbfUJslr2Q Kristin du Mez and Jemar Tisby react to DEI ban (Convocation Unscripted). Editor’s (admin’s) note: Lightly edited copy of email I wrote in advance of this month’s appointment with my spiritual director, giving her a heads-up on what I’d been journaling on since our last meeting and, more to the point, helping me focus over … Continue reading Church historians sparking resistance to Trump regime’s cruelty, emerging autocracy (spiritual direction April 2025)
Timothy Snyder sees antisemitic, fascist parallels in Trump’s tactics against Ukranian president, Palestinian student
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t39_pRTAni4 Washington Post, Feb. 28, 2025 (YouTube). Editor's (admin's) note. This post started out journaling about Timothy Snyder's warning about the Trump regime's flirtation with antisemitic and Russian fascist tropes. As Snyder commented on similar tropes in Trump's attempt to deport a Palestinian activist at Columbia, it morphed into my thoughts on what I believe … Continue reading Timothy Snyder sees antisemitic, fascist parallels in Trump’s tactics against Ukranian president, Palestinian student
Gov. Pritzker warns GOP dog whistles inevitably lead to Nazi-style racism unless ordinary citizens speak out against it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS66O1C7Gp4&list=RDNShS66O1C7Gp4&index=1 Pritzker's State of the State address (excerpt), Springfield, Feb. 19, 2025 (NBC Chicago). Finally! We're starting to get some pushback from Democrats against the creeping authoritarianism of the Trump regime. Some of it's coming from Illinois, too, and I couldn't be prouder of my adopted state. In fact, I think it's the best thing … Continue reading Gov. Pritzker warns GOP dog whistles inevitably lead to Nazi-style racism unless ordinary citizens speak out against it
Presiding bishop urges Lutherans to stand up for basic Christian ethics in the face of government hostility to churches, migrants
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnho5l8iNoU Presiding Bishop Eaton's statement on ICE raids in churches, Feb. 14, 2025 (ELCA). Welp, I guess I've got my marching orders now. At least that's the way I choose to interpret Friday's pastoral message from the presiding bishop of my Lutheran denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, on the Trump regime's threatened crackdown … Continue reading Presiding bishop urges Lutherans to stand up for basic Christian ethics in the face of government hostility to churches, migrants
How do you react to abuse without becoming a hater yourself? A ‘nasty’ Episcopal bishop gives us a role model
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNfrbAztlcs What these paradoxes of opposites are all about is a phenomenology in which it is part of the very nature of passionate conflict to turn one into his own enemy. “We become what we hate” is an old yoga maxim. And in watching the conflict of the Irish Troubles, the Dublin yogi, George William … Continue reading How do you react to abuse without becoming a hater yourself? A ‘nasty’ Episcopal bishop gives us a role model
What can a Jewish novelist from the Bronx teach a lapsed mainline Protestant in Tennessee? The things that really matter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqudmZ5H3iw Editor's (admin's) note. I began this post a couple of weeks ago, and I was just about finished with it when I went in the hospital for a week. During that time, I did a lot of reading. (What else can you do when you're strapped to a hospital bed?) So I lost my … Continue reading What can a Jewish novelist from the Bronx teach a lapsed mainline Protestant in Tennessee? The things that really matter
‘We all have to step up’: A Christian scholar’s New Year’s resolve to fight back as Trump 2.0 threatens people of faith
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca9zLuXn8ws Kristin DuMez at Dayspring United Methodist Church, Oct. 21, 2014 (Good Faith Media). Normally I'm not very big on New Year's resolutions. I don't know I won't get hit by a bus tomorrow, and I don't have the attention span to follow through on them anyway. But after reading a Substack piece by Kristin … Continue reading ‘We all have to step up’: A Christian scholar’s New Year’s resolve to fight back as Trump 2.0 threatens people of faith
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
‘When everything is antisemitic, nothing is antisemitic’: Why partisan crackdowns on free speech backfire. (It’s complicated.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FFAcHMO488&t=971s “[...] Now He Says the Term Is Being Weaponized,” PBS, May 1, 2024. “Look,” said Cohen, pointing to his bloody nose swollen three times itsnormal size, “what that sonofabitchy bird did. It’s a permanent scar.”“Where is he now?” Edie asked, frightened.“I threw him out and he flew away. Good riddance.”Nobody said no, though Edie … Continue reading ‘When everything is antisemitic, nothing is antisemitic’: Why partisan crackdowns on free speech backfire. (It’s complicated.)
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
Swedes in Roger Williams’ Garden — abstract and presentation script from October 2020
Note: A copy of the abstract and notes I used when I presented my paper "Swedes in Roger Williams’ Garden: Acculturation in Immigrant Churches, 1848-1860" over Zoom at the Conference on Illinois History, Abraham Lincoln Public Library and Museum Springfield, Oct. 7, 2020. As I said in an email at the time, it was "probably … Continue reading Swedes in Roger Williams’ Garden — abstract and presentation script from October 2020
How white churches (including most Lutherans) split on slavery and self-segregated as the Black church grew
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwWqkk4Ha70 Black History in Two Minutes (or so), narrated by Henry Louis Gates Jr. Lightly edited copy of a blast email Debi and I sent out today to participants in Sundays@6, our online adult faith formation group at Peace Lutheran Church, Springfield. Sunday will be the third session in a book study on “The Color … Continue reading How white churches (including most Lutherans) split on slavery and self-segregated as the Black church grew
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
‘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
Sundays@6: Notes for online parish book study session on Buddhism, ‘Holy Envy’ by Barbara Brown Taylor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lxq-RiLb-6M 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 … Continue reading Sundays@6: Notes for online parish book study session on Buddhism, ‘Holy Envy’ by Barbara Brown Taylor
Sundays@6: Barbara Brown Taylor visits a Hindu temple in Atlanta with her college religious studies students
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EICcU9oN-s 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 Swedish bishop Krister Stendahl’s … Continue reading Sundays@6: Barbara Brown Taylor visits a Hindu temple in Atlanta with her college religious studies students
Sundays@6: ‘Holy Envy’ and Krister Stendahl’s rules for interfaith dialog for a parish book study group
Lightly edited copy of a blast email Debi and I sent out to prospective members of an online book discussion group we facilitate for our parish, Peace Lutheran Church of Springfield, Ill. (It meets Sundays at 6 p.m. — hence the name.) As we begin "Holy Envy" by Barbara Brown Taylor, it explores where her … Continue reading Sundays@6: ‘Holy Envy’ and Krister Stendahl’s rules for interfaith dialog for a parish book study group
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
University of Maryland survey data show extent of Christian nationalism, white grievance among Republicans
More data points for my Swedes in Roger Williams' Garden project -- A new survey, summarized today in Politico magazine, shows that white Christian nationalism is strongly linked to age and membership in the Republican Party. A survey conducted in May by the University of Maryland's Critical Issues Poll found that 61 percent of Republicans … Continue reading University of Maryland survey data show extent of Christian nationalism, white grievance among Republicans
Impact of Indiana’s abortion ban on women’s health services in Illinois, religious pluralism post-Roe v. Wade
Clips, links for 'Swedes in Roger Williams' Garden' The evening before Indiana's extreme new anti-abortion law went into effect, protesters gathered at the county courthouse in Bloomington, Ind., for a Jewish Havdalah ceremony marking what they see as a transition from "an era of full rights [...] into a darker time," as Illinois gears up … Continue reading Impact of Indiana’s abortion ban on women’s health services in Illinois, religious pluralism post-Roe v. Wade
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)
A trail of breadcrumbs in Roger Williams’ garden — short takes on theological hair-splitting, mix-and-match spirituality and an ongoing research project
Cartoon by Man Martin (rpt. Winnipeg Free Press, March 16, 2019) Short takes on a general theme that didn't start to jell until I'd been thinking about it for the better part of a month. It's still not completely jelled -- can we think of it as a Jell-O fruit salad? -- but I think … Continue reading A trail of breadcrumbs in Roger Williams’ garden — short takes on theological hair-splitting, mix-and-match spirituality and an ongoing research project
Roger Williams and me — notes on the Supreme Court and church-state relations I never finished and posted to the blog
Alonzo Chappel, "Landing of Roger Williams," 1857 (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 Roger Williams and me — notes on the Supreme Court and church-state relations I never finished and posted to the blog
Ordinary Time 