Oh, for a video camera trained on the tomb on that original Easter Sunday! How perfect it would be to witness the grinding of the grave stone, the genuflection of the soldiers, the gleaming of the...
[read more]
In 1999, the David and Debbie Landis family of Green Lane, Pa., pulled up stakes, leaving a thriving small business as well as loving relatives and friends, to settle some 1,000 miles southwest in Atmore, Ala....
[read more]
For many people who follow the political developments between the United States and North Korea, the disappointment after the Hanoi summit was palpable. Rumors had been circulating of a potential agreement...
[read more]
“Dad,” said the brilliant negotiator, “you have a choice. If you agree to listen to what I’m doing in college without judging or punishing me, I’ll tell you the truth. Or I’ll just lie about what...
[read more]
North American Mennonite history is peppered with schisms prompted by disagreements over issues such as prayer meetings, revival meetings, conversion experiences and Sunday schools. Seven groups that split...
[read more]
Every so often, a television show will surprise me and touch on church life in a thought-provoking way — like a recent episode of Last Man Standing, which portrayed some typical church settings and...
[read more]
A supporter of President Trump was asked about the president’s rhetoric and the violence and division it causes. He asserted that the president doesn’t really believe everything he says. He concluded:...
[read more]
Intercultural Christian witness gets critiqued from many quarters, usually with good reason. After all, one never moves between cultures without making mistakes or displaying blind spots. Many critiques are...
[read more]
It is convenient to blame a foreigner, a religious outsider, a domineering woman. Who is to blame for Israel’s unfaithfulness? Who is to blame for Naboth’s death? Conveniently, we blame Jezebel. Israel had...
[read more]
The story starts in 1981 when Grandpa and Grandma picked up the Xiong family — Hmong refugees with a passel of skinny, dark-eyed children — at the Eau Claire, Wis., airport. Well, actually the story starts...
[read more]
While the chief priests and elders schemed to kill Jesus, a woman entered Simon the leper’s house and blessed him with costly perfume. “Why this waste?” said the disciples. “This ointment could have...
[read more]
At first blush, the plot and setting of Miriam Toews’ new novel, Women Talking, might appear too limited in scope to be compelling. The book’s primary action takes place over the span of two days, as eight...
[read more]
“Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons,” said the apostle Paul in his letter to Titus (1:12). My wife and I found no evidence of such dereliction when we traveled across Crete. We stopped...
[read more]
In April, a new group of students will graduate from Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg, Man., for lives of service, leadership and reconciliation in church and society. But 75 years ago, when students...
[read more]
The church is fully human. This thought crossed my mind in the midst of Sunday morning worship. There was no particular reason for it. Just a simple reminder, maybe a divine nudge, raising my awareness of the...
[read more]
A Peruvian pastor friend tells the story of leading a group of young evangelists out to some remote villages along the sinuous mountain roads of the Andes. When a lamb darted in front of their van pursued by...
[read more]
Tuesdays. Not a standout on most calendars. But for Darla Weaver and her four sisters, her mother and 18 nieces and nephews, Tuesday is the pivot on which the week turns. It’s the day they leave behind the...
[read more]
I recently returned from Cuba, where I co-led a group of 18 delegates on a educational, people-to-people experience sponsored by the Sarasota, Fla., chapter of Mennonite Economic Development Associates. I have...
[read more]
Illinois State University’s academic programs are organized into six colleges: Applied Science and Technology, Arts and Sciences, Business, Education, Fine Arts and the Mennonite College of...
[read more]
Traditionally, the first bill of a congressional session has special significance. In the midst of a government shutdown, the Senate decided to focus its first bill on a package of four Middle East-related...
[read more]
I recently started watching NCIS, a television drama now in its 16th season. In the series, a team of special agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigate crimes involving the U.S. Navy and...
[read more]
When I was a child I liked cooked oatmeal. When I grew up, to echo the Apostle Paul, I put away childish things. Every now and then my spouse, Joan, an oatmeal fan, would urge me to consider the possibility...
[read more]
When the State of Illinois decided to expand I-74 just north of our family farmstead in a multiyear spate of civil engineering angioplasty, my father decided to move our house. This was no small feat. Our...
[read more]
It’s staggering to think how human communication technologies have changed from the time of the telegraph to the internet. What’s more staggering is to consider how things will change over the next 150...
[read more]
Tears come to my grandma’s eyes when she tells us goodbye and thanks us for coming to visit. “I’m not worthy,” she says. Silly Grandma. We have visited her seldom, far less often than she deserves. She...
[read more]