Wandering Elder

Last week, I heard an interview with the president of Maggiano's, Steve Provost, about a particular scene in a Maggiano's restaurant in Washington D.C. where a white nationalist group had gathered and ended their time with some Nazi salutes as well as protesters who shut the restaurant down.  I felt really bad for the guy because he said the restaurant didn't know who it was they were hosting.  I believe him.  Why would they think to pay close attention to that?  But in the interview, discussing the issue of the white nationalists, Provost said that he was offended by their remarks and the Nazi salute and that it goes against their principle which is that "we welcome everyone." He walked right into a linguistic and ethical/moral trap.  I know.  I have walked into it myself a few times. One of the big points that churches like to make is that "everyone is welcome."  I once attended a campus ministry event at a Christian college in which the group pr...

The voting is over.  The reality of the post-election United States has yet to set in.  There is plenty of analysis to be offered, some of it might even be useful or insightful.  But if anything, what we have seen during this election campaign, besides lies, manipulations of systems, fear, and the worst mud-slinging for any campaign in years (possibly ever), is that we are a divided nation in many, many respects. So this morning I would offer two prayers with the knowledge that perhaps had I and we all been praying like this over the last 16 years, we might be in a completely different place.  Never too late to start, though. This is a prayer from Thomas Merton, who was a Trappist monk, a writer, and a mystic.  May we join our voices together in prayer. O God, we are one with you. You have made us one with you. You have taught us that if we are open to one another, you dwell in us. Help us to preserve this openness and to fight for it with all our heart...

91 degree weather in November.  A reality (but not really reality) television personality running for the presidency.  A political insider manipulates her way into the running for the presidency.  Persons being unable to function without their phones.  Guns all around.  Russia and America returning to Cold War tactics (encouraged by a presidential candidate, no less).  Africa running out of water.  Drought and disintegrating ice caps.  Wars and rumors of wars without end. It must be the end of the world. Well, in some ways, it actually is. The world I grew up in, in which television shows were "interrupted" by breaking news rather than having 24/7 "news" channels blathering on in partisan outcries against one another, was different.  Toy guns looked real and real guns were rare.  The Cold War was always threatening to turn hot.  The World's Fair was a big deal.  Saturday morning cartoons were funny, exciting, but not real...