The Gospel passage that describes Jesus’ rejection by his own village of Nazareth is often addressed in homilies for the laity as an opportunity to champion Mary’s perpetual virginity. The people of Nazareth complain that Jesus is known to them – as the son of the carpenter Joseph, as Mary’s son and the brother of Simon, [...]
It’s the first week of Lent, and people at church are asking each other, What are you giving up for Lent. It’s almost like asking, What did you get for Christmas. In local church communities, we are getting close to the point Christmas tragically reached long ago—self indulgent banality. I heard someone on television answer the [...]
I’ve been learning about the famous memory loss of old people. We don’t just forget generally, as most people think. We forget particularly. I do not remember the name of the lovely lady I met after church last week. Sometimes I don’t remember the event itself, much less a detail like a name, but with some prodding, I [...]
I recently sent up a post (“The Assuming Journalist”) in which I said that different denominations of Christianity might be considered different languages used to express one’s faith. I received more than one reaction to the post, ranging from “quibble” to “horror”. I must clarify: I never meant to suggest that different faiths are of equal [...]
The online news journal Crux reported this morning that Pope Francis told a group of college students in Singapore: “[A]ll religions are a path to God. They are like different languages in order to arrive at God….” Well, he stole my line. I used to teach at a rural high school in Georgia where I was the [...]
I grew up in a segregated South. In my childhood, there were a few times I saw a white man wearing blackface, usually at some kind of talent show, where he’d sing a song like “Old Black Joe” or “Ole Man River”. On those occasions, there was no purpose in the blackface except as part of [...]
We had rain last night and the sun is shining brightly in a clear sky this morning, so the garden is littered with diamonds. The air is cool and clean. I sit on the back porch with my Yorkshire terrier Percy on my lap and sip coffee, being. This is what I do in my old [...]
“Judge Not… …lest ye be judged.” This Biblical admonition is similar to the universal Christian condemnation of gossip. Both can be confusing. If there’s a Christmas parade downtown next Tuesday, should I not tell my neighbor? Would that be gossip? If Betty has been hospitalized with pneumonia, should I not tell our mutual friend Kathryn? If [...]
Last week my cousin was dying. She had advanced cancer. She had asked friends and family not to call or send text messages because she was unable to respond. Telling her that no response was necessary, I sent her a photo every day of some of the devotional pictures of Christ she had seen here in [...]
Yesterday I finally discarded my back issues of StAR. It wasn’t easy. For one thing, I had saved issues going back—I think the earliest was 2006—and believe me, in more ways than one, StAR is not a lightweight publication. I had thought about it for quite a while, but as it often happens, the actual deed [...]
