On the odyssey of life we need some way of knowing where we are, and whether we’re headed the right direction. In English, to be “oriented” is to know where east is. Historically, church buildings are situated so that the altar is on the east wall, and almost always a window opens to receive the […]
Community
A Church Comes Down
I found out today that the church I grew up in had been torn down. Calvary Baptist Church in Yankton, South Dakota. My cousin Tom, who still lives in South Dakota, sent a link to a story in the Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan—or the P&D, as we called it, the newspaper I used to […]
The Coming of Justice
On March 7, 1965, 600 civil rights marchers left Selma, Alabama for Montgomery. Governor George Wallace called the march a threat to public safety and vowed to do all in is power to prevent this rabble from marching all the way to his office in Montgomery. When the 600 came to the Edmund Pettis Bridge, […]
Christmas After Newtown
I lit a fire in the hearth this morning and turned on the lights of the bare Christmas tree. It was six a.m., cold outside with a grey morning light. Nine days before Christmas Eve. Twenty little children have been killed in their classrooms, festooned with holiday decorations and happily cluttered with Christmas crafts. I […]
Hurricane Prayer
After church on Sunday I went to visit a family whose home had been flooded in the hurricane. When I pulled up to the house it looked fine, frankly. Everywhere there was evidence that water had been here and gone. The street had a slick mud coating and the grass in the lawn was matted […]
All My Children
The child had been wounded in a rocket attack in Syria. She lay, arms and legs splayed, on a hospital gurney too big for her. An oxygen mask cupped her nose and mouth. Tubes and lines grew like dark tendrils from her arms. I turn the newspaper page. Next article. I’m looking for stories […]