I was so proud this Sunday. Grace Chapel's associate pastor, Steve Allen, spoke directly to the un-Christ-like language (and more importantly) sentiment that the President of the United States used to disparage refugees and immigrants from countries with majority black and brown peoples (Haiti; Africa; El Salvador). If it wasn't clear enough what he meant, [...]
Category: Musings
GBR Will Save the World (And the Ironies of American [Religious] History)
Here is a version of the letter that I read to my students yesterday, the last day of our term. Needless to say, I admire these students and I will cherish the memory of the time we spent together. To end our semester together, this is an open letter to the students of RELG 134: [...]
Three (More) Thoughts on Flake, the Future of the Anti-Trump GOP, and Mormonism
I had the pleasure of talking with Laurie Goodstein, the New York Times' great "religion beat" writer about the Mormon resonances in Arizona Senator Jeff Flake's remarkable speech from the Senate floor this past Tuesday. I have three more thoughts about it: First, the Senator gave the most forceful and formal public rebuke of Trump and Trumpism [...]
I’m not running today.
According to my day planner, today is the 296th day of the year. For the last 295 days, I have ran at least two miles each day; most seven or eight. And on the weekends more (okay, there were five days when I ran one--four when I was sick; the other one-mile-day was after my [...]
Depression Is Also No Respecter of Persons
Today was a gorgeous day in Nebraska. Sunny, a bit windy, dry. And a day "off" from school. UNL is on fall break (which means I worked on a new grant application, for the Wakara's World project). But today, perhaps because I had the "room" mentally to do so--I wasn't fretting about book promotion, or the weather [...]
Max Perry Mueller 