Magical Thinking?
I recently finished a book called “Not Forgotten, the True Story of My Imprisonment in North Korea” by Kenneth Bae. The author, a Korean-American who had emigrated to the U.S. ...
The Case for Change
A few years ago, I visited a Greek Orthodox monastery in Arizona with my wife, sister and brother-in-law. It was a beautiful, tranquil place, an oasis in the desert. But ...
God Myopia
Back in the day, the Des Moines Register, where I worked for 22 years, was a marvel of a newspaper. It had expert writers in so many areas, including a ...
A Blight on Humanity’s Soul
As I age, I find it much harder to watch scenes of violence on TV or in movies. That’s especially true of period dramas that depict Nazi atrocities or the ...
Waiting, Not Camping Out
For many years before he became a branch manager of a paint and glass company, my father was a traveling salesman, and a good one. His byword, common among salesmen, ...
Family Stories
Back in my parochial school, we sometimes told Bible jokes – not in the presence of the nuns, of course, although they probably would have enjoyed them as much as ...