To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Two days ago, the world lost the man known as “The Mouth of the South” and “Captain Outrageous.” The New York Times obituary for Ted Turner, who died at 87, exceeded 1,000 words – an earnest attempt to capture something of the entrepreneur’s over-the-top accomplishments and personal complexities. As the founder… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here The signature story of Israel’s history is the Exodus. It’s the account of the arduous trek of hundreds of thousands of freed Hebrew slaves across the brutal wilderness of the Sinai Peninsula. The Promised Land of Palestine lies ahead. Egypt is in the rearview mirror. The people are buoyed by overwhelming hope and gratitude. Right? In truth, the… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here When I was 11 years old, I had the good fortune of spending a number of Friday nights at the home of my best friend, Larry. Larry and his family had the good fortune of living right beside an active railroad line on the north side of Indianapolis. We both loved hunting… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Mary Sue and I share life with 10 cats. I almost wrote “own,” but as all pet fanciers discover, the cat-human connection is more like a partnership than ownership. We never planned on reaching feline double-digits. But when we moved 18 months ago to the farm we currently call home, we inherited some barn… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here It’s a very big deal if you manage to appear in the Star Wars cinematic universe. Even if you’re on the screen for a grand total of two seconds. In The Empire Strikes Back, after a dramatic announcement that Imperial storm troopers have taken over the Cloud City of Bespin, people… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Rod Serling, Hollywood’s “angry young man” during the 1950s, had a dream. He would write and produce cutting-edge TV dramas that explored the social issues he cared about passionately. Those included racism, war, censorship, fear, injustice, nuclear paranoia, and the emerging power of television to influence culture. But all he heard from network executives and… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Something has been bothering me for 37 years. This week, I finally did something about it. In 1989, the McDonalds ventured to a local theater to see Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, lighthearted family fare about a scientist/inventor (played by Rick Moranis) whose quirky “shrinking machine” accidentally reduces his two children and a couple… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here As the Cold War began to heat up in the 1950’s, America’s leaders felt led to make a public statement that their chief adversary, the Soviet Union, would have to notice. If the Soviets believed in state-sponsored atheism, the United States would counter with government-endorsed theism. The 84th Congress passed a joint resolution that declared… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Stuart Briscoe and his wife Jill, who are natives of England, came to America some years ago to help launch a new congregation in the Midwest. They had been in the States only a short while when they made their first trip to Chicago to attend a conference. Briscoe’s car was low on fuel, but he was… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.” That was the core message of the Atheist Bus Campaign in Britain early in 2009. Comedy writer Ariane Sherine, in partnership with Cambridge professor Richard Dawkins (currently the world’s highest profile atheist), plastered their slogan on the sides of 800 buses around the country. The campaign was a response… Read more »
