History: The Tragedy and the Farce
Karl Marx begins his famous essay of 1851, “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte,” with the statement that “Hegel remarks somewhere that all great, world-historical facts and personages occur, as …
Breaking Through
We found beneath the mulch of leaves and sticks the rough earth the broken glass a bursting acorn seeking the light its infantile roots locked against a rock below No …
Faith—Historical and Mystical
I have been wrestling lately with the historic tension between the faith life anchored in history and the faith rooted in mystical awareness of the Eternal. In his recent posting …
Bad Memories — Guest Posting by Scott A. Taylor
Readers of these postings will remember that I have spent many months recently helping to lead efforts by members of our church and community to examine our racist history and …
Capitol Desecration and Sacred Conversations
Many commentators have described the assault on our nation’s Capitol as a “desecration,” and indeed it was. We feel violated. We feel waves pounding at the foundation of our fundamental …
2020 Vision
This is the year humanity lies sleeping on the earth in fevered nightmares like hibernating bears claws twitching restless trapped …
Grief and Love
An ocean of grief has overwhelmed us. It comes as an enveloping cloud, a flood, an avalanche, burying us, immobilizing us. We sit dazed each night before the television, trying …
Thanks at Table – A Pandemic Reflection
The roundtable worship gathering has been the principal way I have stayed centered over the past two decades. The symbolism of the round table has played a central role in …
Not even Judas
Hidden on the mountainsides of Appalachia lives beneath majestic canopies a tree they call the Judas tree. Its purple buds begin the spring break through the bark betrayed by winter’s …
Race, Remembrance, and Forgiveness
I am presently engaged in a lengthy course at our church (via Zoom, naturally) entitled “Struggling with Race, Remembrance, and Reparations.” Over forty of us are gathering every week to …
Living in God’s Image: Despotism or Republican Democracy?
My thoughts about the despotism that is infecting our virus-plagued lives have gained a new articulation in The Christian Citizen, an American Baptist journal stimulating reflection on the church’s involvement …
Gathering in (Virtual) Circles
We are now gathering for our monthly Roundtable Worship here in a virtual circle tied together by the internet. In one sense, this expands our circle to anyone who wants …
My Father Ran
My father ran. He ran for Peddie School over muddy paths along New Jersey’s streams. He ran for Lehigh on the tracks in Bethlehem. He ran alone in teams …
Masks, Rights, and Covenants
Some people around us claim they have a right to refuse to wear a mask during the Covid pandemic. For some it is an appeal to a vague penumbra of …
Bursting Fourth
America begins again each year with a Big Bang so loud we cannot hear, the smoke so dense we cannot breathe, the light so bright we cannot see the dead, …
Religion and Our Constitutional Crisis
Last Sunday I made a Zoom presentation of a talk that had been scheduled BP (Before the Pandemic) with the Ethical Humanist Society of Asheville. In the talk, I returned …