Over the years writing  religion articles for newspapers, I have been skeptical about faiths with claims of possessing authentic fragments of Christ’s experiences on earth.  The Roman Catholic Church is said to possess an incredible range of items from the scene of  Christ’s crucifixion, including particles of the cross, Jesus’  loin cloth and Mary’s cloak.   There’s a dizzying list of relics in the bowels and vaults of the Vatican and in possession of Catholic churches. “Jesus’ baby blanket” is said to be in Aachen, Germany. There are many claims of having nails or fragments of nails from …

Life is so good when we experience  justice. This day, we bask in the progress of an American president signing into law a new national military policy that anyone, regardless of sexual identity, may serve his or her nation authentically.  We revel in Congress’ passage of the legislation to remove the ignoble ”Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.
I think back to my U.S. Army days in 1971 when the clerk in Company A-2-3 told me he was gay on the night before his discharge. He had to head off to New York …

I spent three hours today ringing a Salvation Army bell outside a Frys store at Rural Road and Southern Avenue in Tempe.  I will be there at the same time next Saturday 4-7 p.m.   My stint today was as a volunteer from my Kiwanis Club of Tempe. Next week, it will be as a board member, and secretary, of the Tempe Salvation Army Corps.
The red kettles and the bell-ringing outside of retail and food stores is a part of the Christmas season in America and across the world. The beneficence …

Most of us have friends who pass on books to us to read.  While they were reading those books, we came to mind. They thought we were persons who could get something out of the books, as well.
Recently one of my friends who is a giant in the community for social justice and living out his faith with courage handed me a book about a Presbyterian clergyman from the 19th century who c0-championed the causes of the freedom of the press and of ending American slavery.  My friend and I are …

Bishop Thomas Olmsted of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix is playing host this weekend for folks who believe  ”The Manhattan Declaration:  A Call of Christian Conscience,” developed last year, gives clarity to all that they stand for, stubbornly traditional and orthodox as it is.  The 4,700-word document is a conservative Christian blueprint for “the case for traditional marriage, the sanctity of life and religious liberty,” they say.  About 400 will take part in an 8 a.m. Mass at St. Mary’s Basilica, with a legislative seminar to follow.
But the events will be …

There is still a world stage, and it provides a means for justice and righteousness to raise their light.  And a means to humiliate those who insist on perpetuating their forms of  tyranny and suppression of human rights.
How splendid that the Nobel Prize Committee in Norway has had the courage to award the coveted Nobel Peace Prize for 2010 to imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. How embarrassing to the communist regime in China for one of its citizens to win the planet’s highest award for his work in quest of political …

Corporations are killing America. Powerful companies have manipulated their way to a commanding control over the institutions of this country. Their board room greed, their lack of conscience, their unbridled and shameless methods of total domination of greater parts of the economic landscape are a breathtaking  tragedy.  They’ve proven that capitalism without controls and rules is disastrous.
Their methodical lobbying and their huge campaign contributions have won them lawmakers who do their dealing to reduce regulations and oversight and make it easier to create multinational monopolies that cannot be touched. Government regulators are …

My conservative friends  first sent me emails about it.  They say, “How dare Muslims wipe the faces of Americans further in the tragedy of 9/11 by erecting a new 13-story mosque and community center a stone’s throw from Ground Zero in New York City!”
A very angry and pointed video arrived in my email that was venom-packed. Its point was  that the Muslims demonstrated the height of insensitivity and arrogance by encroaching on hallowed American turf and such affront should be rejected.
Did the survivors and people around the site where the World Trade Center once stood deserve …

The nation’s largest Lutheran body, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, or ELCA, took another step Sunday toward claiming a major place at the forefront of faiths heeding the call to inclusivity and openness to all.  What took place in San Francisco is a direct result of the actions taken a year ago to allow gay and lesbian pastors to serve regardless of whether they are celibate.  The action was taken in a special “rite of reception.” Several others are expected this fall in Chicago and Minneapolis.
At the Lutheran convention in …

Maybe you thought about the late stand-up comedian George Carlin when you learned today that a federal appeals court struck down the Federal Communications Commission’s so-called “fleeting expletive policy.” The iconoclast Carlin made a career  mocking rules against cuss words spoken in the public arena. He boldly talked about the “blue words” in everyone’s consciousness but blocked from public expression by over-protective censors.
The three-judge panel in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruled today that the FCC policy was “unconstitutionally vague” and had a “chilling effect” on the freedom …