COUNTING THE COST Clergy must always count the cost. What will be the cost for speaking out? Will people leave? Will offerings dip? Will I be asked to leave? Will the congregation be strengthened? Will our faithfulness be tested? Will the cost further…

GUNS AND POLITICS: CONNECTING THE DOTS The difference is glaring! the Democrats support reasonable gun violence prevention, universal background checks, an assault weapons ban and banning those on the Terrorist Watch List from purchasing guns. The Republicans support none of them. In short,…

LIGHTS OF HOPE! Addressing gun violence prevention (GVP) means playing the “long game!” Progress is like a “dim glow!” Yet, there have been beams of light recently for which we can be grateful and give encouragement. THE SUPREME COURT: Recently, the USSC issued…

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…

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…

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…

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…