Losing someone who is dear to you, at times, seems suffocating. It’s as though you’ve become asphyxiated by profound grief. Yet, as the Apostle Paul, one of the most influential leaders of the early apostolic church, encourages, “when it [death] happens, you will not be full of sorrow, as those are who have no hope.” German pastor and theologian, Dietrich... READ MORE >
On his first day in office, President Biden dispatched a letter to the United Nations, blithely signaling that the United States was back on board with the Paris “Climate” Agreement. President Obama was the first president to formally drag the United States into the concealed stratagem agreement back in September 2016. He managed to do so under international law through... READ MORE >
Like so many of America’s traditional holidays, Independence Day no longer bears any connection to its original intent, as celebrated back in the 18th century by patriots who knew what it was to suffocate under oppressive regulation. In fact, according to a 2021 “Freedom in the World” report by Freedom House, this 4th of July will mark the 15th consecutive... READ MORE >
You just might want to scratch behind your ear as you fondly recollect the cantankerous bewhiskered old codger who found himself repeatedly cast as a sidekick to some of the greatest cinema sage brush heroes during the growing genre of Western films back in the 1930s and 40s. George Francis “Gabby” Hayes was an ever-loyal, colorful, eccentric buddy to some... READ MORE >
From the beginning, those first moments when my heart’s pulsating rhythm began within my breast, long before I left the sanctuary of my mother’s womb, my heart was foreordained to be fixed at the core of life’s big adventure. In my radiant and unconquerable youth, my heart was flush with vitality, healthy and enduring. By virtue of a childhood intimate... READ MORE >
A number of years ago, when I was in the cities during the late fall season, I remember heading north on the freeway on my way out of town. The day had been overcast and chilly and an increasingly bitter north wind greeted me every time I exited the car. The sun, which hadn’t been visible all day anyway, decided... READ MORE >
I would reconcile all the wrongsI would settle the unsettledI would quiet the disquietedI would bring harmony to all that isdiscordantand arrest the anxious momentsIf I could, I would.If I couldI would disarm disappointmentI would discharge disillusionmentI would make certain the uncertainI would encourage the discouragedand enliven the spirit of the dispirited If I could, I would.If I couldI would... READ MORE >
The failure to recognize other people as fellow human beings empowers violence across cultures. Such dehumanization enables instrumental brute force by weakening moral inhibitions that would otherwise restrain it, thereby making perpetrators apathetic to victims’ suffering. Professor Shmuel Reis, MD, MHPE, Bar Ilan University and Brown University suggests, “Once you accept humans can be dehumanized, eventually you can engage in... READ MORE >
Ever thought that in being afraid to speak truth, out of fear of alienating others, we only serve to alienate ourselves? Recounts American journalist/author Milton Mayer in his 1955 book, They Thought They Were Free, “Where the community feels and thinks—or at least talks and acts—pretty much one way, to say or do differently means a kind of internal exile... READ MORE >
“No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear,” wrote C.S. Lewis in the opening line of A Grief Observed, written after his wife’s tragic death; a way for Lewis to survive the “mad midnight moment,” as he described it. As I shared in a previous column, “Take it all down,” (Issue January 16, 2021), one of our... READ MORE >
