Baratunde Thurston in Oregon
In the past year Sylvia and I have become fans of Baratunde Thurston’s ”America Outdoors,” which airs on your local PBS stations. Others may know him for his wit and …
The Holy Work of Reparations
I recently finished leading a group of about 20 people here at our church through the book Reparations: A Christian Call for Repentance and Repair, by Duke Kwon and Gregory …
Demons Personal and Public
America needs its own day of Yom Kippur — a day of repentance and atonement, a day of confession and renewal. Without a time set aside for naming this essential …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Breathing Together
I was just slipping into my nighttime ritual of reading in bed before lights out when I heard a commotion out on the street and the cry, “I can’t breathe!” …
Memorial Day—A Day of Reconciliation?
It is Memorial Day in America—a time to grieve and honor those who have died in all America’s wars, including those who fought on both sides in our Civil War. …
Our Upcoming Interfaith Peace Conference
As some of you know, Sylvia and I have been working for the past eighteen months as co-chairs of the Tenth Lake Junaluska Interfaith Peace Conference, which will take place …
Christmas Hope 2018
Passage through the Advent and Christmas season is always jarring for me, with the mighty paeans of praise for a new-born King and stories of God/Fathers and dutiful pregnancies of …
On Imprisonment: A Note from Germany
In response to my post “Kairos Time in the Prison,” my old friend and colleague Gerd Decke, a Pastor now living in Berlin, has written me a lengthy reflection on …
Kairos Time in the Prison
I recently set aside thirty minutes for prayer and meditation to connect me in a supportive way with the work of people in our local Kairos Ministry with prisoners in …
Slavery’s Amnesia
In our local paper recently a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans wrote an Op-Ed holding that slavery was not the cause of our Civil War. While acknowledging that …
The Arts of Peace: Some Working Thoughts
My wife Sylvia and I are co-chairing the tenth, indeed capstone, Lake Junaluska Interfaith Peace Conference, which will be held on November 21-24, 2019. The Conference will lift up and …
Interfaith Peace Conference 2018: Some Reflections
Last weekend we took part in the ninth Lake Junaluska Interfaith Peace Conference. The political convulsions of the last few years led to the theme of “Meeting the Other — …
Reconciling History and Hope
I grew up not far from Charlottesville and still remember visiting Monticello as a boy, fascinated by the gadgets of our third President. The decayed remnants of slavery and the …