Prisoners of Fear

Shohoiya Yokowai was a Japanese soldier on the island of Guam during WWII. When American forces landed, he fled into the jungle and found a cave in which he hid for 28 years because he was afraid of being captured by the Americans. He learned that the war was over by reading one of the thousands of...

Naturally Clueless Parenting

Dad holding my brother Mickey and me, apparently before I had developed anything resembling a spine. Ben Fountain, author of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, has this to say about Fatherhood: “Much of life, fatherhood included, is the story of knowledge acquired too late: if only I’d known then what I know...

Orlando and a Call to Creativity

We have to do something. If all we do is square off in our respective corners—Christian/Muslim, gay/straight, gun control/right-to-bear-arms, Democrat/Republican—then all that will happen is we’ll shout at and past each other, no one will win, everyone will lose, and it will happen again. After a while...

The Only Thing That Matters

1st in the series, “ChurchWorks.” Delivered May 22, 2016, First Baptist Church of Frederick, Maryland  A Wedding Homily I’m going to let you in on a little trade secret: very few pastors write new messages for every wedding they do. They just reuse basically the same one over and over again. You’ve probably...

Everything is Amazing But Nobody is Happy

A message delivered on May 15, 2016 Comedian Louis C.K.  who is known for his biting, acerbic and sarcastic humor, had a bit that he did on Conan O’Brien that in 2011 went viral on the internet and had over 4 million views. This is the funny part of the message, so you’re allowed to laugh. ...

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