GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION ACTION It was a great day! The ELCA Churchwide Assembly “…refer[red] to the Church Council, in consultation with staff of the churchwide organizations, consideration of the request for establishing an ELCA Task Force to organize actions consistent with ELCA policy…
Aug
15
INTERFAITH INSPIRATION!
INTERFAITH INSPIRATION! Last evening, I participated in an Interfaith Service to End Gun Violence at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral. The service featured a young violinist playing a Bach sonata, Gospel music and traditional hymns. Speakers and prayer leaders from Zen Buddhism, Muslim, Jewish…
CHURCH INTEGRITY AND GUNS Recently on Facebook, a clergy colleague announced that he would delete any political and social commentary from his page, that he wanted only comments relating to specific church/faith formation. OK, I can respect his wish. But his underatnding of…
Jun
21
AMOS 2016-SENATE SHAME
AMOS 2016-SENATE SHAME 20 June 2016 is a day of Senate shame. Four gun violence prevention (GVP) bills were defeated. The massacres in San Bernardino and Orlando could not move the Senate to the 60 vote threshold. The two DEM bills promoting expanded…
Jun
19
THE NONVIOLENT CHRIST?
The Nonviolent Christ? I wrote my D.Min. thesis on: “Nonviolence: Will of God”. I argued that the foundation of God’s ethic is nonviolence. What messes up the world is humanity’s choosing to do violence, not God willing violence. Well, I earned my D.Min.…
“For everything, there is a season….” Ecclesiastes 3 speaks of all things having their time on the stage. Stuff happens, good and evil, love and tragedy, war and peace. This is not a list of justifications and professing that all things are all…
GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION KEYS Playing football and running track required strategies to provide maximum opportunity for success. In football, a “flip right” or a “cross buck” at the right time, or in track, sprinting the first 100 yards, striding and holding for the…
May
29
The Challenge of Discernment
In Solomon’s prayer for wisdom, we read: “Give your servant therefore and understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?” (I Kings 3:9) Decision-making to promote gun violence prevention (GVP)…