Sexual harassment. Flirtation. Inappropriate touching. Obscene comments. Questionable remarks. Improper advances. Suggestive compliments. The news has been full—repeatedly—of stories in which men in positions of power and leadership have treated women inappropriately. Some of the stories detail conduct that can—and should—lead to criminal charges. Some of the stories detail conduct...
We trace the history of Thanksgiving in the United States of America to 1621, when the Pilgrims celebrated their first harvest in the New world. It was a three-day feast attended by 90 Native Americans and 53 Pilgrims. It was celebrated by our nation on-and-off from 1789, when President Washington...
Most people have heard the story of the Good Samaritan. It may be the most widely known of all of Jesus’ parables. What you may not know is that the story was particularly and even purposely offensive to the religious leaders of Jesus’ day. The “experts in the law,” the “priests,”...
Today is Earth Day. It isn’t normally considered a Christian holiday. But I think it should be. Unfortunately, I have some Christian friends who consider Earth Day as an anti-Christian holiday, because they lump anything from the environmental movement into the “anti-god and almost atheistic” category. I have many Republican...
I love my wife. I met Dawn when I was 14. By age 16, I was, to use a word from the old movie Bambi, hopelessly twitterpated. We dated for 4 years, and we have now been married for over 40 years. I love her, and I would do anything...
Twice in my recent sermon series (Basic Christian Growth, based on the Book of Acts) and once in my Christmas series (when we got to the Magi), I made a comment that raised some eyebrows. I said, “If there is a conflict between the law of the land and the...
On Wednesday and Thursday of this week (December 26-27), we accepted into our care 94 refugees from Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Honduras. Over half of them were children. We fed them. We gave them places to sleep for a night or two. We gave them backpacks, clothes, towels, jackets, hygiene items,...
United States Senator John McCain passed away this weekend. As a pastor who wants to focus on Jesus, I usually don’t say too much about politics and politicians. Nevertheless, I was deeply moved when I heard the news. I didn’t agree with him on all things, but I deeply respected...
Many celebrities, politicians, athletes, and social media users seem to be having trouble determining what is right or wrong. (Or they just don’t care.) As a result, we are seeing an abundance of racist tweets, name-calling on Facebook, and putdowns in speeches and interviews. These remarks are widely condemned and...
We began a homeless ministry in January, and we have housed from 2-10 people each night since then, using the existing facilities of 8 different churches. This IHELP model (Interfaith Homeless Emergency Lodging Program) offers our homeless guests up to 90 days in a shelter, with showers, dinners, brown-bag-lunches-to-go, and...
