I am in Vietnam where Americans are warmly welcomed. Odd. I’m 62 and I recall TV images of brutal jungle warfare. From 1964 to 1973 about 2 million tons of American bombs were dropped. As a teenager, I learned about napalm and Agent Orange. Most of all, I remember the anti-war protests. Apparently, so do […]
Doubt. It’s a key ingredient to faith. If you don’t question, you don’t care. A new book helped me to examine what I believe and why. The Value of Doubt: why unanswered questions, not unquestioned answers, build faith, is written by Bill Tammeus, a veteran journalist and award-winning religion writer. (Skylight Paths Publishing, September 2016, […]
[Photo from http://houseinthewoods.org – House In the Woods in Lee, Maine] All veterans were prepared for the ultimate sacrifice. They grieve for comrades lost, and too often, endure lifelong hauntings through PTSD. They endure disabilities and emotional scars. For all veterans, Paul and Dee House, along with Bill and Quie Emery, created a refuge amidst the […]
[Photo taken in 1973 of Suzette and her father, Steve Martinez, who passed away in 1982.] Lately memories of loved ones, now gone, are tinged with “I wish I told them [fill in the blank].” Recently, I had the chance. A meditative exercise is designed to heal the unsaid with direct conversation. I tried it […]
“I don’t need religion,” says a growing number of the religiously unaffiliated. Mention the Bible, and a younger generation tunes out. Outdated. Irrelevant. Yet hope, acceptance, forgiveness and finding ways to love the unloveable are the basis of Jesus’s message. But who’s reading that anymore? A recent 2016 survey says that 39% of those polled between […]