The last time I saw my friend Brad Allen was on Friday, October 10, 1958, at around 2:30 p.m. on a beautiful fall afternoon in Berkeley, California. We were both second-year seminarians at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, riding our motorcycles to Tilden Park in the Berkeley hills to play a friendly game … Read more
I was invited to return to Hawai‘i for the celebration of the seventy-fifth anniversary (September 3) of the Episcopal Church’s Camp Mokulē‘ia, where I was the director from 1969 to 1975. At first, I wasn’t interested. Travel involved too much hassle, but when the present director pressed us to attend, I said yes. Then an … Read more
I saw the documentary series Gordon Behind Bars, which stars Gordon Ramsay, the famous British chef. In it he convinced the prison ministry in England to allow him to work with a group of inmates. He taught them professional cooking skills as well as life skills so that when they got out of prison, they … Read more
I was in a Sunday morning adult education class about the book of Revelation (I call it the book of Revolting) when someone suggested that this book was a study of good versus evil. I asked the class who gets to decide who or what is good or evil. Dictionary.com defines evil as “morally wrong … Read more
What shock of the day is going to come out of the White House next? I have a difficult time believing that Melania Trump even has a garment that says “I really don’t care. Do U?” Worse, she wore it in public. Worst of all, she wore it on to visit children who sought asylum … Read more
I suspect the title of this blog post caught your attention right away! Why would someone ask such a strange question? Paul did in the fifth chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians. He ranted about this situation for the entire chapter and told the Corinthians to expel the man who was living with … Read more
In my office, I have a pile labeled Interesting where I put extracts from magazines, books, and newspapers that I’m not sure what to do with yet. Occasionally, I sort the pile into different files—or the circular file. I was sorting through this pile the other day, and I found an old, yellowed piece of … Read more
This Greek word describes the highest form of love. How do you pronounce it? I am reminded of the story of two women who visited Hawai’i and wanted to know how to pronounce it. They asked a local, “What’s correct? Is it Hawai-e or Havai’e?” He said, “Havai’e.” They thanked him, and he replied, “You’re … Read more