June 29, 2018

Suffering and Hope in the Tipi and the Cathedral

I don’t know if this story is true, if I dreamt it or wished it into being. But I know the imagery arose during a conversation with my son, Caleb, about the rough patch ahead in his quest to be free o...

June 15, 2018

Conquering the Limits of Willpower

“Shake it off,” we tell our grandchildren when they fall. When the kids were of pre-school age the words of encouragement were “You’re doing it, you’re doing it”. Our exhortations mean to convey ...

March 2, 2018

Walls – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Pass through the San Ysidro border crossing outside of Tijuana, turn west and follow Mexican Route 1D towards Rosarito. Look out the passenger window. A wall runs along the border; actually, two walls...

July 31, 2017

Have I Lost My Ability to Believe?

Caleb, my son, is back in jail. After a three-month “run” on heroin, cocaine and other cocktails, he was picked up on a breach of the conditions of his release. No new charges; only the past with...

May 31, 2017

If I relapse…. (Caleb)

Caleb was released into a native recovery house the middle of May. I talked with him by phone on May 16th. He sounded positive and happy. When Gaye and I arrived home from vacation nine days late...

May 15, 2017

A Story On The Way

Coming down Highway 89A from Flagstaff to Sedona is an 8 mile stretch of construction, aka gravel. A rogue piece bounces off the windshield of the Fiat, leaving a chip. My wife grabs her phone i...

February 26, 2017

What the US Could Learn from the United Church

In the post-election reaction in the US, I hear echoes of 1988 in The United Church of Canada. The years surrounding the famous decision not to allow sexual orientation to be a determining facto...

February 21, 2017

Leave or Take – a 3 dimensional question

The bed is covered with clothes, containers, medications and solutions for “what if?” scenarios. At one end sits a suitcase and duffel bag, both small enough to meet the carry-on baggage requirements ...

January 25, 2017 / 6 Comments

How Should the Church Respond to this New Era?: A Leadership Blog

How should the Church respond to the culture change personified and possibly foreshadowed by the US election? Although this emerges as fresh and powerful, the question has occupied Christian ethicists...

January 21, 2017

One is the Loneliest Number

Sometimes societal conditions are so omnipresent that we hardly even notice. George Monbiot, in The Guardian, says that “severe loneliness in England blights the lives of 700,000 men and 1.1m wom...