Faith Painfully Tested

The scene is Poland, winter of 1945. Just as Poles are sighing in relief that the Nazi death camps have been liberated and the Nazis vanquished, the country is occupied ...

Why Go to Church?

In writing these blogs, I often ask the rhetorical question, “What’s the point?” about a specific issue. But you could ask that about the blog itself. Why write a blog ...

What’s It All About?

I was watching a documentary recently that showed Tibetan monks displaying their incredible talent in creating sand art. Their creations, called Mandalas, are made from white stones the monks crush ...

Changes of Heart: An Iraq War Veteran’s Faith Story

Among its best-read stories of 2018, America Magazine lists “Deployment to Iraq Changed my View of God, Country and Humankind. So Did Coming Home” by Phil Klay. Klay is a ...

Loving, and Hating, Christmas

Last year, I wrote an opinion piece entitled, “Why Christians Should Hate Christmas.” It was published in the online edition of the National Catholic Reporter and elicited a bit of ...

Some More Equal than Others?

A few months ago, a church in Des Moines displayed a big banner on its building that proclaimed, “Black Lives Matter.” It should be no surprise that in today’s politically ...