“This isn’t who we are.”
President-elect Joe Biden said these words in the aftermath of Wednesday’s assault on the US Capitol. Politicians like to say this during events like this. I believe that President-elect Biden and others who use that phrase mean nothing but good. …
I came to terms with my sexuality about 30 years ago when I was in my twenties. Because I was a Christian, it was imperative to me to understand what it meant to be gay from a biblical perspective. One of the most formative books I read was Is the…
During my senior year of college at Michigan State, I was part of Capital News Service, a program run by the School of Journalism. Students were the reporters at the state capitol for small newspapers around the state of Michigan. …
The following essay is adapted from a sermon given during Lent in 2021.
A few years ago when my husband Daniel and I were back in my native state of Michigan, we went to the Grand Rapids Public Museum which is in downtown Grand Rapids. They had this interesting exhibits…
There are many factors that have made American politics so toxic. The 2000 Presidential election. The rise of the Tea Party and later Donald Trump. The Iraq war. The legacy of the Confederacy.
But there is one factor that has changed how our political parties operate, how they look at…
It’s all about that beard.
I first heard of J.D. Vance in 2016 around the time he came out with his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy. In my eyes he was a breath of fresh air; a conservative who was anti-Trump, but who also was concerned about the poor and who believed…
The year 1983 is an important one for anyone who was alive at that time. The last of the original Star Wars trilogy, The Return of the Jedi was released. Michael Jackson’s Thriller was burning up the charts as it released hit after hit. On a personal note, 1983 was…
I’ve known about Kitty Genovese since childhood.
Of course, I never met the young woman. By the time I was born, she had been dead for five years. But my Mom would tell me the tale of Kitty Genovese over and over.
For those who don’t know the story, it…
Warning: The following contains spoilers for Spiderman: No Way Home.
There are two main reasons people love the comic book superhero Spiderman. The first is his age. He’s one of the few major heroes that’s still a kid. Peter Parker is a boy in his late teens and that’s both…
It’s early 2009. Barack Obama is inaugurated as the first African American president. The US and most of the world is in the grips of what would be called “The Great Recession.”
As Obama and the Democrats assume full power in Washington, the other side of the aisle was asking…
