Picture the first Thanksgiving in that poetic pose we’ve always imagined with freshly arrived Pilgrims and the original American patriots sitting around a bountiful table with turkey, dressing and all the trimmings. I wonder if they burst into a round of “This land is your land; this land is my land” or did the natives find it hard to imagine who these pale faces were and what language they were speaking. Did they wonder about what the lack of immigration laws would do to their peaceful lives so in tune with the land that belonged to all of the people. […]
What’s a Communist, Anyway?
Fresh out of seminary and into a small-town congregation, I decided to add altruism to Halloween. This was the late 1960’s, and we gathered all the children to go together in small groups of masked missionaries armed with their little collection boxes in quest of alms for UNICEF [United Nations Children’s Fund]. The one memory that stood out from that evening was the question a little child posed at the end of this worthy endeavor: “What’s a communist?” When I asked why she wanted to know, she said that a certain household closed the door and told her that they […]
What’s In Your Wallet?
Church signs have always intrigued me and helped me ponder the eternal question of who could think up that stuff? How about this one: “God recycles and all of us came from dust” [think stardust]. One of my favorite signs is “If God had a wallet, would your picture be in it?” For what seems like forever, Capital One has been pushing their credit cards by asking “What’s in your wallet?”. Or maybe you get those very personal letters like I do: “Dear William Dudley Crawford, did you know that you already qualify for $10,000 credit? By simply completing the […]