What’s Wrong with DEI?
April 24, 2025
What’s wrong with DEI? You might have heard that there is concern about DEI, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, in our culture today. DEI...
A Non-Transactional God
April 1, 2025
A Non-Transactional God I love spring time. All the green that is starting to come out. We see new life not only in plants, but birds and...
Living in Anxious Times
February 21, 2025
Living in Anxious times What help is there when you worry about the future? Fearful that the government might implode? Worried that a...
Prophecy
January 28, 2025
It’s easy to say the Old Testament predicts Jesus as the Messiah. BUT prophets of the Old Testament did not predict the future, they...
Does your Faith affect your Voting?
November 22, 2024
Does your faith affect your voting? I am reading a great book right now, “Practicing the Way: Be with Jesus, Become like him, Do as he...
The Election is Soon Over
October 24, 2024
The Election is soon over I have learned a lot about the Electoral College, swing states, Popular vote and election fraud in the past few...
Soren Kierkegaard is my type of guy.
September 12, 2024
Soren Kierkegaard is my type of guy. I love the variety and types of Religious Podcasts available. At one time I would purchase...
Courageous Conversations
August 5, 2024
Courageous Conversations If you search the internet with the words, “Courageous Conversations”, you will find lots of material....
What is happening to American Christianity
March 27, 2024
I’m no expert on American Christianity and its many forms, from Roman Catholicism, Puritans, Evangelicals, Amish, Quakers, to KKK and...
Humanism can be more loving than Christianity
June 22, 2023
Humanism I just finished reading a great history of Humanism, “Humanly Possible, Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry,...
“Being dependent and needy has its benefits”
March 24, 2023
New life while Vulnerable As a 59-year-old white male, I haven’t known weakness and vulnerability since I was a kid. I have always been...
I am a Stoic
January 17, 2022
By Pastor Phil I’m a stoic. Finally, I got a diagnosis…I’m a stoic. I thought I was a new age thinker, but I have come to realize...
Religion Can Learn from Science
November 23, 2021
by Pastor Phil Religion can learn from Science Recently I listened to an interview of medical scientists and their perspectives of...
Do You need a savior?
September 17, 2020
Do You need a savior? I have been struggling with this question recently. Reflecting on my understanding of Orthodox Christian...
George Floyd
June 19, 2020
I wonder if the name George Floyd will be remembered in ways similar to Mother Teresa, Gandhi, Emmett Till, Frederick Douglass, or even...
Hierarchies
June 11, 2020
What is it with Human beings and human institutions? We often create hierarchies. Structures of who is in power over whom. Who is in...
Christian Exclusivity
May 16, 2020
The classic verse that certain Christians quote to support the supremacy of Christianity over other faith traditions stems from the...
Weary Bones Can Be Resurrected
March 30, 2020
Ezekiel’s vision in chapter 37, is a vision of HOPE to a people whose lives have been destroyed and uprooted. If I am...
Spreading the Virus
March 19, 2020
Wow I realize the many things I take for granted. The Giant salad bar, going out to eat, a lively, loud work environment, worship, and...
You don’t believe in the Trinity?
February 28, 2020
Good for you. If you want to go to Hell! Most people who know me know that a Christian faith grounded on getting the Trinity...
On the Shelf
February 13, 2020
On the Shelf I imagined this week that I was at the Sermon on the Mount, listening to Jesus with lots of other people. Some people Jesus...
Hell No!
October 1, 2019
Heaven and Hell are not Christian inventions! “Heaven and Hell” are not mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures which Christians call the...
Prayer. Changing the mind of God!
July 31, 2019
Prayer. Changing the mind of God! The power of prayer…Answered prayers, or as Garth Brooks crooned, “Thank God for Unanswered...
Krishna’s Dictum
March 7, 2019
The upside of the Flu was quiet time. No TV, no computer, light classical music, books, articles, my thoughts and meditation. One of the...
Cultivating the Beginners Mind
February 26, 2019
We get the idea of “The Beginner’s Mind” from Zen Buddhism, which maintains that many of our preconceived notions and judgements can...
Wine and Whips!
January 23, 2019
You missed church on Sunday…we were closed for the big storm that wasn’t…it was miserable Saturday and Sunday, that’s for sure. So...
September 4, 1752 never existed!
January 8, 2019
It’s not only September 4, it’s the 3-13th of September 1752! Those dates do not exist. The British Empire was slow to synchronize...
How does God Provide?
December 5, 2018
It flows from the lips of a variety of religious people, “Don’t worry, God will provide.” Really…Just how does that happen? I’m...
Expect Nothing in Return!
October 23, 2018
This past Sunday I welcomed, Eva Ritvo, MD, to speak about her book, “Bekindr”. Such a simple concept. First be kind to yourself,...
The bark of a Dog that changed everything!
September 12, 2018
I’m a big proponent of individual responsibility. I tell my kids and self often, “It’s not what happens to you in life that...
DPADTUGD
August 15, 2018
This is a helpful acronym! Unfortunately it is unpronounceable. I just completed a series entitled, “What is the Bible?” ...
The Bible. How words on a page can transform your life!
July 17, 2018
What is the Bible? How words on a page can transform your life and our world! The word of God can’t do it alone. It needs followers...
Trinity, Fact or Fiction
May 30, 2018
There are church teachings and then there is “THE WORD OF GOD”. I like an expansive definition of THE WORD OF GOD. For me, THE WORD...
Boxes, Boxes, and More Boxes
May 16, 2018
Do you remember this song below, “Little Boxes”. I must say although I know it, it is before my time! What I have printed below are...
Redemption, Atonement, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
April 4, 2018
I’m reading a book, “Honest to God”, by the Bishop of Woolrich, John A. T. Robinson, printed in 1963. One of the premises of the...
God needs a Sacrifice….r u crazy?
March 28, 2018
On Palm Sunday Jesus enters Jerusalem. The Gospel of Mark maintains (Mark 11:11) that after Jesus “cased the joint”, that it “was...
You’re Seedy
March 19, 2018
Jesus says, “Those who love their life lose it, those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life”…John 12:25....
Long-haired freaky people need not apply!
March 13, 2018
Long-haired freaky people need not apply! Remember those lyrics? Five Man Electrical Band hit song, “Sign”. “Sign, sign,...
Where is MY Integrity?
February 8, 2018
I’ve had my eyes opened these past few weeks. I’m reading, “An American Sickness- How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You...
Is it JUST Semantics???
January 30, 2018
Over the course of these last two Sundays we hear in our Gospel reading from the first chapter of Mark, that Jesus has the authority to...
SUPERCALIFRAGALISTICEXPALODIOUS news!
January 24, 2018
It’s not Good News, its Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious news! The Good News or Gospel is simple! God loves all people. Don’t...
S-Hole nations have to go!
January 18, 2018
John 1:43-51 Nathanael has a lot to teach us! He’s the guy who says, “Can any good come out of Nazareth?” He...
Jesus is waiting to give birth….
December 27, 2017
When I came across the picture of a pregnant Jesus, about to give birth, it gave me the inspiration that I needed for Christmas Eve. ...
It’s time to change the doctrines of the Church
November 6, 2017
It’s Time Tonight is our last night as we critique Michael Morwood’s book, “It’s Time”. The premise of the book is that...
Eternal life NOW!
June 1, 2017
On Memorial Weekend Sunday I read the Gospel lesson, John 17:1-11. I realize that whenever I read scripture and it goes against something...
Let’s Get Political
May 16, 2017
This past Sunday I addressed the question, “What is the function of your church?” In this, the 3rd in a series of 4 questions all...
Eternal Damnation…..Really
May 8, 2017
What is the content of your faith? What do you believe in? The virgin Birth, Satan, Jesus’ atonement for sins of the world, Hell, a...
What to Pass On about the Passover…
April 20, 2017
Passover, Easter, Good Friday….they are all over and gone for the season, and yet their lessons linger in my spirit as I reflect on our...
Ruby Bridges builds bridges with Bible Verse
April 3, 2017
I was viewing the painting entitled, “The Problem We All Live With”, by Norman Rockwell and read it was inspired by the real life story...
Metanoia…Schmetanoia…
March 27, 2017
So many things can affect the way I see the world. I often refer to “Social Location”, that each person has a specific set of traits...
Buckets everywhere
March 20, 2017
In John 4, the Samaritan Woman at the well asks Jesus, “Where’s your bucket?” Little did she know she was it! Jesus offers living...
The EX’s of the OT
March 13, 2017
I believe that the Bible is a library. Written over centuries by a wide variety of people, in a wide variety of times, with a wide...
Phact or Phiction
March 6, 2017
In the Temptation of Jesus in the Wilderness according to Matthew 4:1-11 or Luke 4:1-13, each have Satan or the Devil offering Jesus,...
Learning Stuff
February 28, 2017
The Last Sunday of February was Bold Women’s Sunday here at Christ Lutheran. The 2nd annual event, with more to come I hope. What a...
All other ground is sinking sand.
February 22, 2017
I continue to reflect on Sunday’s 2nd lesson, 1 Corinthians 3:10-11 (NRSV) Paul writes, 10 According to the grace of God given to...
Connections for the Journey
September 1, 2016
“Travel is the end of Prejudice, Bigotry, and Narrowmindedness.” One of my favorite Mark Twain quotes. I find it so true. I’ve been...