The idea of progress and continual growth is a lie we’ve believed from modernity. Growing up in western Pennsylvania during the collapse of industry and manufacturing, I’ve learned things don’t always...
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When my earthly sojourn ends, please say that I died, not that I “passed.” The latter happens to footballs and plates of food. Aversion to death makes our culture prefer euphemism, but followers of Jesus...
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After three lessons celebrating Jesus’ resurrection to everlasting life, the next two take us directly into heaven itself — complete with a throne, crowns, jewels and plenty of fireworks. The problem is,...
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Tim Huber’s editorial, “A Name Worth Keeping” (March 12), supported keeping “Mennonite” as an identifier even though it raises questions among many people unfamiliar with us. I found it timely and...
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Earlier this year, the British government created a new portfolio called the Minister for Loneliness. The idea arose out of research that found about 9 million Britons are lonely. More than a third of older...
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When my children were very young, there was all manner of reading material at my fingertips, ready to tell me exactly how I might raise perfect kids. I could read books on attachment and potty training, blogs...
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Those who have mucked out a house after a flood know how painstaking and messy the process becomes. Worse yet is when the disaster drives you from your home as a refugee, carting away pieces of your old life...
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I wish our Uniform Texts had started with Luke 23:55. In both the Greek New Testament and the NRSV, Luke 24:1 begins with “But . . . they came to the tomb.” What happened before the “but,” and who is...
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I’m looking forward to Steven Spielberg’s latest film, Ready Player One — especially after reading the novel, which centers on a high school boy who battles to save a virtual world called Oasis. I am...
[read more]Martin Bucer has been called “the father of Protestant confirmation.” That makes the early Anabaptists, particularly Pilgram Marpeck, grandparents of the now-common rite. Bucer was a Catholic monk who was...
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It has become politically trendy to separate the deserving poor from the supposedly undeserving. This is evident in calls for work requirements for Medicare; in Ben Carson’s comment last year that public...
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Hannatu Anthony (name has been changed for confidentiality) smiled and sang songs as she walked to Faith Alive pharmacy in Jos, Nigeria. During her pregnancy, she received free treatment, medication and...
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The cover of Living on the Edge of the Edge: Letters to a Younger Colleague shows a dramatic photograph with a deep and beautiful canyon in the background. In the foreground is a cairn mounted on the upper...
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Last week, we readers were part of the crowd of Israelites at the original Temple Mount in Jerusalem for the dedication of the first temple. The chapters leading up to this moment are filled with descriptions...
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I met her at the Mall of America in Minneapolis, two and a half hours from my home in rural Rusk County, Minn. She was tall and dark and beautiful. She wore a bandana that covered her hair completely and gave...
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I asked a friend how he understood the current assault on civil and human rights. He replied, “Same song, different concert hall. Ghost of Colonialism in A Minor.” This began an interesting conversation...
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Fran Martin, a Mennonite woman in eastern Pennsylvania, accompanied a friend to India 10 years ago. She was certain she would never return to India. She was wrong. While there, she met a young West Bengali...
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Have you ever wondered about her story, that woman caught in adultery? We know nothing about her situation. Contrast this with the Samaritan woman, where we know about her five husbands and her latest live-in...
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Renewed controversy in recent months over the location of Israel’s capital (Tel Aviv or Jerusalem?) takes my imagination to biblical Bethel in the West Bank. At this “thin place” between heaven and...
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Saving Germany: North American Protestants and Christian Mission to West Germany, 1945-1974 is a book about North American Protestant efforts to “save” Germany from social and political chaos and spiritual...
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Lessons for our spring quarter are titled “Acknowledging God,” a broad theme that includes both familiar and lesser-known texts. The subtitle for our March lessons is “Follow in My Ways,” and includes...
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Although I am Canadian, I’m a bit of a U.S. Civil War buff. For a long time I’ve been fascinated by that terrible war — how it started, the military strategies and campaigns, the lives of ordinary...
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Mennonites first came to Pennsylvania more than 300 years ago, attracted by American values like freedom of religion and the ability to act according to one’s conscience. An initial act for those early...
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It grieves me when I read or hear about my Christian brothers and sisters for whom abortion is the highest priority in their participation in political life. We slap labels on each other with so little nuance...
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Tabitha’s story is life-giving in more ways than one. Honestly, simply reading, “There was a disciple whose name was Tabitha” quickens my heartbeat, so seldom have I been shown the lives and told the...
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