Monthly Archives: November 2012

I heard an item on Public Radio the other day about research into childrens’ imaginary friends.  This researcher ask children about who their phantom friends were, what they did and what they said. She tried to find a pattern in … Continue reading →

There is a lot of talk about growth of the Hispanic population in the U. S. and how heavily that group supported Obama.  Pundits let us know the obvious, Republicans need to get more votes there to win the Presidency. There is another group … Continue reading →

When there are two different versions of an event in the Bible, literalists quickly assert both actually happened.  Accounts differ, they explain, because one account did not happen to include the other. Take the death of Judas.  Matthew 27 tells that Judas died by … Continue reading →

Having made part of my living in politics for a long time and being a political junky at heart, I always listen in on political arguments, even if they don’t involve me. When I was a Mayor, one of the … Continue reading →

Social change requires story telling.  Stories of personal experience provide a window into lives otherwise hidden. I have one of the breakthrough story telling masterpieces, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852).  Based on blacks she had known, Stowe cleverly portrays slaves who mock and … Continue reading →

You will recall during the Republican Primary period there was tension between those who said, “We must chose someone who can beat Obama,” and those who said, “We must chose someone who is against abortion and gay marriage.” In the Republican … Continue reading →

I read a magazine article recently about our former living Presidents.  They are George H W Bush, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and George W Bush. While one reads only infrequently about them making public appearances together, apparently they see each … Continue reading →

A writer said the Church of England just committed suicide.  That could well be. Church organizations can quote scripture and talk of God’s intentions.  But when the result is out and out discrimination, they can kiss goodbye to being a force in … Continue reading →

The rights of preachers in churches to make overt political endorsements is not simple.  Southern black churches have always done it.  Other churches have been criticized for doing it because of their federal tax exempt status. The attached article suggests one way to … Continue reading →

Every year about this time, there are Christians in the U. S. who complain because they cannot use public property to market their faith. An interesting conflict in the news these past years is in Santa Monica, CA.  There have been manger scenes in a … Continue reading →