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November 2022

November 06, 2022

One Wife for Seven Brothers: A Strange Story with an Important Lesson

A conversation overheard as a bunch of guys at a sports bar wait for the...

November 01, 2022

Betting on God’s Existence

In my ethics class this week, we discussed an essay by Gary Gutting, who teaches...

October 2022

October 25, 2022

Karl Marx and Jesus Walk into a Bar . . .

We should read the New Testament as saying that how we treat each other on...

September 2022

September 22, 2022

Autumn Peace is a Choice

Today is the first day of autumn. For those who love autumn as I do,...

September 20, 2022

Some Stories are Not Redemptive. But They All are Important

The first reading assignment in my General Ethics class this semester was Kate Jennings’ 2002...

September 15, 2022

This Book Changed My Life: Kathleen Norris’ “The Cloister Walk”

I asked my Facebook friends at the beginning of the summer to list three or...

September 10, 2022

Remembering 9/11 and Becoming a Better Person

Everyone beyond a certain age can remember clearly what they were doing twenty-one years ago...

August 2022

August 25, 2022

Anniversary Week for “Freelance Christianity”: Here’s the #1 post in the past decade

This week marks the tenth anniversary of this blog--hard to believe! It has been on...

August 20, 2022

Something More Powerful than Our Virtues

One of the habits that having a puppy in the house for the past ten...

August 18, 2022

Die Before You Die

For many, the raising of Lazarus is Jesus' signature miracle, even though it is only...

August 09, 2022

Remembering David McCullough and Why the Liberal Arts Matter More than Ever

I was saddened to hear that David McCullough, one of the great historians of his...

July 2022

July 18, 2022

Time, Like an Ever-Rolling Stream

I’ve been thinking a lot about end of life issues lately. Really. They seem to...

July 11, 2022

My Neighbor May Not Be the Person I Think It Is

I recently found myself in the midst of a Facebook discussion, the sort of online...

July 02, 2022

On Independence Day, Be Glad that the United States is Not a Christian Nation

Christianity, or any branch of it, loses its Christian character when its self-proclaimed supporters outnumber...

June 2022

June 25, 2022

Why Christians Should Care About Their Bodies

In last Thursday's blog post, I wrote about how the problematic philosophical theory of dualism...

May 2022

May 21, 2022

Some Advice for the Graduating Seniors: Don’t Forget About the Room at the Back of your Shop

Today is Commencement Day for the Class of 2022 at my college. Commencement is always...

April 2022

April 24, 2022

A Human Being Having a Divine Experience

Two decades ago, as my mother-in-law was steadily descending into the hell of Alzheimer’s, an...

April 17, 2022

I Will Awaken the Dawn: Some Thoughts for Easter

Our seven-month old corgi Bovina, one of the greatest joys of Jeanne’s and my life,...

April 16, 2022

Taking Death for a Walk: A Holy Saturday Reflection

A thing about dying is that you can't consult anyone who has done it. Peter...

March 2022

March 09, 2022

Confessions of a Tree Hugger

For the twenty-five-plus years that Jeanne and I have lived in our house, the lot...

March 06, 2022

It’s My 66th Birthday, and I’m Still Here. Deal with it.

Early last week a friend emailed me the following comment in response to my latest...

February 2022

February 13, 2022

Being God in the World

Today's gospel reading is Luke's abbreviated version of the Beatitudes. It is a scene so...

January 2022

January 06, 2022

The REAL Reason Why January 6th is Important

One year ago, a mob of insurrectionists stormed and temporarily occupied the U.S. Capitol building...

January 01, 2022

Resolution for 2022: Dream More, and Don’t Waste Time

Happy New Year! It is thirteen years since I arrived on a sub-zero January day—President...

December 2021

December 30, 2021

This Year Sucked, Just Like the Last One. Now What?

Although today is the next-to-last day of 2021, I am writing ten days earlier on...

December 28, 2021

He Has Put Down the Mighty From Their Throne

Today on the liturgical calendar is the Feast of the Holy Innocents, the day that...

December 19, 2021

There Will Be An Answer: Let It Be

I have the privilege of giving the sermon at Trinity Episcopal Church in Pawtuxet, RI...

December 09, 2021

A Cosmic Homecoming

Baptist preacher’s kids get to do some very odd things. I memorized large portions of...

December 05, 2021

Our Reason to Hope

Jeanne got on the Amtrak early one Sunday morning not that long ago, beginning two...

November 2021

November 28, 2021

What Advent is Saying to Us: Stay Awake!

Today is the first day of the new Christian liturgical year--the First Sunday of Advent....

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