The facts are relatively simple. Many of our neighbors in our pluralistic world are non-Christians, and so have adopted world and life views that at some points at least contrast with Christian beliefs. Many have not just moved away from the Christian faith but for one or more reasons reject it as unattractive, implausible and […]
Search Results for: food
Flannery O’Connor: The Patron Saint of Ex-English Major Organic Vegetable Farmers
Seven years ago my wife Hannah and I started an organic vegetable farm in southeastern Minnesota. Like our homesteading ancestors we employed a lot of hard labor and sweat equity to establish our family and farm on what was a bare 30 acres of land. Until we finished building a house last year, we were […]
Somewhere Near the End
Earlier this summer we had this rather rash idea of taking Denis’ mother to Cinco de Mayo in West St. Paul. We knew she’d never experienced such frivolity, having been sheltered all 94 years of her life from such worldly expeditions. The outing measured up. There were thousands out to celebrate. There were women and […]
The Gulf (2017)
The tension of stewardship A few years ago Margie and I were invited to lecture in Florida, after which one of our hosts generously loaned us their cabin in the Keyes. Their place was situated on the water, and from the balcony we could look out at the shimmering blue water of the Gulf. The […]
Stewardship in the Quotidian: The Kingdom in the Bathroom
The ethical dilemma of my Monday morning: what should I do about a nasty toilet seat? My local coffee shop only has one bathroom, one toilet. I noticed the condition of the commode and was presented with this dilemma. Should I clean up a mess that I didn’t make, or should I leave it for […]
No Turning Back: Life, Loss, and Hope in Wartime Syria (Rania Abouzeid, 2018)
Humanizing a brutal conflict The basic chronology is well known. In December 2010, a desperate street vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in Tunisia. A long history of rampant corruption, food shortages, systematic oppression, a lack of freedoms, and chronic unemployment prompted thousands of Tunisians to pour into streets and public squares in protest. […]
High Five for the work you do
Yesterday two young men showed up to wash our second story windows. They accomplished in an hour what would have taken me all day; (if I could climb a 25 foot ladder) our windows sparkled and the outside world glowed with clarity. How important is it to wash windows and do them well? Some […]
Keeping Vigil in the Storm
A few days after Easter It is very windy today. I can hear it whooshing past the house. The sky is bright with sunshine but the air is cracking cold. The bare, black limbs of the trees sway outside my window. The crows have landed on the rocking branches and are making a racket as […]
Christian Faithfulness and Gender Dysphoria
Navigating Pastoral Care for People Living with Gender Identity Conflict (note: the names in this article have been changed) Oh, the things they don’t teach pastors in seminary. Recently, I had the privilege of presenting an all-day Pastors’ Forum at a respected conservative theological seminary on the theme of Pastoral Care and Gender Dysphoria. The […]
On Being 70
There have been a few random thoughts running through my head the past couple months as I reflect on the past year. You know, both Denis and I turned 70 in 2017. Since then I’ve been chewing on that like a piece of gristle and choking a little over this whole thing of getting older. […]