Three Teens on an Irish Pier
At age 19, I made my first of many trips to Ireland where my mind recorded a simple but unforgettable scene. A friend and I had driven to the far ...
How Could God Allow Dallas, Baton Rouge, St. Paul?
I once had a heated conversation with a police officer on the subject of evil, specifically, whether some people are simply evil, as he contended, or whether as I maintained, ...
Slip Slidin Away
My parents’ scare tactic for encouraging their five children to study was that if we didn’t, we could wind up being “ditch diggers.” That occupation was relatively rare even in ...
Where Did We Get the Idea of God?
People searching for God have probably asked themselves this question at one time or another. And the short answer is, it depends on whose god you’re talking about. Worship of ...
When “Common Wisdom” Fails Us
“Cleanliness,” my mother used to say, “is next to godliness.” My mother grew up in a poor family. Her father abandoned his wife and six children so my grandmother had to ...
When Church Doesn’t Feel Like a Spiritual Place
“As a child,” writes Annika Freese in a recent issue of America magazine, “I could never find God in his house. “Sitting in Mass I felt like a machine that ...