Looking out over the current political and cultural landscape is to be confronted with an increasingly balkanized world. Rather than a community united in common purpose, what we tend to see is identity politics, with one group pitted against the others. This is compounded by our technological world. We can craft our own personal space […]

Christian author Russell Reno recently wrote, regarding the incipient ethos of our age, “In the place of traditional culture, the globalized future will be governed by the hearth gods of health, wealth, and pleasure. Our high priests will be medical experts, central bankers, and celebrity chefs.” His reference to “hearth gods” is an allusion to […]

Aldous Huxley, the 20th century British writer and novelist, once quipped, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad.” This, of course, is a take-off on Jesus’ words in John 8:32, where he says, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” Generally less known is […]

Acts 2:43-47 reads: “Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common…Day by day they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God […]

As most of you know, this past fall the Cabinet empaneled Bob Buchanan and John St. Croix to review and update our by-laws. This was deemed necessary in part because our by-laws recently had undergone a significant revision (they were adopted at the Annual Meeting in June of 2015). The thought was that it was […]

In Advent we anticipate God breaking into time. This is what our biblical faith teaches. Of course it goes against everything daily life seems to tell us. For we think it’s up to us to figure out how to run the world. Christianity, assuming we pay attention, teaches us very different things. It offers a […]

As I write, the presidential election is fast approaching after a punishing, almost two-year campaign. For me it’s been a highly disappointing, even depressing, time. For not only am I personally unimpressed with both candidates, but I worry about how, in some ways, their campaigns reflect the state of our culture, itself both ill-mannered and […]

As this election season moves toward its merciful completion on November 8th, it’s important that the church respond in ways uniquely defined by the gospel. As has been said, politics “ain’t beanbag.” It’s often ugly and divisive, this year perhaps more than in recent memory. Increasingly we’ve been subjected to the “politics of personal destruction” […]

During our recent Deacons’ retreat, as part of an “icebreaking” exercise, we played a game based on the 50’s hit TV show, What’s My Line? , where panelists tried to guess the occupations of various guests. This brought to mind another 50’s game show, also with a question mark in its title, Who Do You […]

After a recent meeting of the Forum, several of us were standing around chatting. The subject of Easter came up. Al Bradley, who works part-time driving a school bus, asked several of his “charges” what they thought of Easter. One child responded that he/she was part of a belief system that doesn’t celebrate holidays (or […]

My unofficial tutor, who brings me various articles to read and mull over, is Deane Keuch. Not infrequently, he’ll pass me a clipping from a newspaper that addresses a particular religious issue. These articles sometimes end up in my sermons and/or writings. His most recent submission was an article from the Cape Cod Times. It […]