Category Archives: Uncategorized

July 30, 2026 · 5:16 pm

Finding Love in the Trenches

True religion always moves us to serve others and to give our lives to see those oppressed find freedom.” Pastor Erwin McManus

Backyard barbeques. Hammock time. Hiking a new trail. Watching those wondrous fireflies after dark. All gifts of summer. Still, this particular summer, just below the surface, verberates a not-to-be-ignored pulse. It reminds me to pause and look at the faces and to hear the voices arising from the escalating injustice happening all around me. These are the cries of my brothers, my sisters, and they call me to act, speak, love.

They call me to stand where I am afraid and rattle loud on the bars of the cell closing around us. Still, I take heart in those who have called us to love, first and foremost, when tyranny and suppression threaten the human spirit. I’m reminded of the great Apostle of Peace, Mahatma Gandhi, who reminded us that, “Silence becomes cowardice when occasion demands speaking out the whole truth and acting accordingly.” Informed jointly by the Bhagavad Gita and the Sermon on the Mount, Gandhi used his daily spiritual practice to get his feet dirty on the road to liberty for all. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., greatly influenced by Gandhi, did the same. Both were true examples of choosing the love found in the messy, pit-stained, trenches where they could hear the cries of their brothers and sisters over the gunshots.

Today, it is the cries of Renee Good, Alex Pretti, John Sebastian Duran Guerrero and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. They echo now over the silent ones, the estimated 52 brothers and sisters who’ve died in ICE custody in the first 500 hundred days of the second Trump administration, according to the 6/25/2026 Human Watch and Physicians for Human Rights report. And they remind us to not forget the ones shut away who have no voice, the over 71,000 being held in detention. Our brothers. Our sisters.

If you’d told me just three years ago that one day, in this country, government officials, some masked in unmarked vehicles, would be rounding up suspected immigrants off the streets, without a warrant, taking them to undisclosed locations for undetermined amounts of time, I would have never believed it! “No way! Not here!” ICE, of course, reports that all arrests are accompanied by due process, that is unless you try to escape, say drive away, and then killing you is totally acceptable with little to no resulting ramifications for the shooting ICE agent. Think about that.

We have crossed the line into authoritarianism. The Trump administration is rapidly checking off all the benchmarks to implement Project 2025, installing a White Christian Nationalist State as quickly as possible. For a thorough explanation of what is happening, not just in this country but around the world, please see GPAHE (Global Project Against Hate and Extremism), “Project 2025 Goes Global.”

But in order to implement Project 2025, our secular American Republic must be replaced by an authoritarian regime capable of integrating the new Christian Nationalist State. And the Trump administration is wasting no time laying the foundation using the classic authoritarian playbook: divide and rule; spread lies and conspiracies; destroy checks and balances; demonize opponents; undermine civil and political rights of the unaligned; suppress free speech, the right to assembly and protest, the rights of women and minority groups; blame minorities, immigrants and outsiders for the country’s problems; reward loyalists and punish defectors; encourage or condone violence to achieve political goals; use fear mongering and hate speech to consolidate in-group solidarity.  

Sound familiar? Now we know why DEI, diversity, equity and inclusion programs were the first to go. Christian Nationalists are busy whitewashing history (no pun intended) so the long struggles of all but wealthy white males to achieve equality are redacted. Women’s equality, cited as the root cause of the breakdown of the family, will be turned back to pre-suffrage days and the 19th Amendment likely rescinded. Statues of founding fathers such as Thomas Jefferson will be celebrated without mentioning he and others were slave owners. The early pioneers will be championed without acknowledging they settled land called home by Native Americans for thousands of years. If talking about people like Sally Ride, Oscar Wilde or James Baldwin they’ll conveniently ignore their status as LGBT icons. And by all means, books like To Kill a Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will be tossed in the fire pit. 

No, it’s not easy answering the cries of our brothers and sisters. It challenges us to get our feet dirty so we can all hear freedom ring. It asks that courage overcome fear to find us standing with those who are being marginalized and oppressed. Yet, as we do, we too just may discover that love known only to those in the trenches.

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June 17, 2026 · 10:45 am

The Cage Keepers

“My heart is flailing, thumping in my chest like a bird caught in a cage, wanting to be wild again.” Sona Charaipotra

The cage door is open and the cage keepers are busy setting the conditions to slowly, deliberately, lure girls and women back in. If you think this is some anti-woman dystopia, imagined by fringe groups or relegated to a fantastical future, think again. It’s here. Now.

Sadly, it’s happening while most women are busy flying, caring for their families, raising children, getting degrees, building careers, enjoying the freedom to create lives of their choosing. Nowhere on their radar is the possibility that one day, sooner rather than later, their cherished freedoms, the ones they’ve always taken for granted, could no longer exist. That one day, they could wake up to find themselves in a tiny enclosure with the cage door shut, flying only a memory.

Ah, but the lure is so carefully crafted, delectably sweet-coated with biblical authority, that even some women are falling victim, truly convinced that life in the cage must be the best life. And the cage keepers are betting as Marc and Angel Chernoff first warned, “Surely if a bird with healthy wings is locked in a cage long enough, she will doubt her own ability to fly.”   

And who are these cage keepers? They are part of a growing, right-wing, ultraconservative, radically patriarchal movement, embracing Christian Nationalism ideals. Their goal is to roll back all the gains, born of years of struggle, to return women to the cage, most lovingly cared for, of course, by their cage keepers: fathers, husbands, brothers, sons.  

It’s believed this is the only way that God’s true plan for the Christian family and society can be realized. In this family, the husband is the rightful head of household and the wife becomes fully subservient in all matters of both family and society. And perhaps most disturbing, many believe it’s been the singular result of women leaving the cage to fly that has not only caused the breakdown of the family but, by extension, society itself.  

How tidy. Women are the problem the holy men of God, the cage keepers, have been called to redeem in order to save society. While tragically simplistic and void of any critical thinking outside the narrow confines of the adopted biblical view, it is still clearly dystopian for women.

Think I’ve gone too far? Let’s look at just a few examples of how this movement is gaining traction. This month, the Southern Baptist Convention, representing the largest Protestant denomination, will vote once again to strengthen its prohibition on women serving as church leaders and preachers. Pause a moment and think about what this is actually saying. If women are encouraged to hear and discern God’s word directly for themselves, and to share their revelatory understanding and experience, the theological discourse between men and women becomes equal. No longer would it be presumed that men hold special access to the holy simply because they are men. So, it becomes imperative that church leaders convince women to leave biblical interpretation, sermonizing, and proselytizing to them. What’s really at stake here, as well as in many other religious traditions, is the very survival of the patriarchy.          

But it goes beyond houses of worship. A prominent voice in the Christian Nationalism movement is evangelical theologian and pastor, Doug Wilson. He advocates for the merging of church and state and implementing a biblical, patriarchal society. One key aspect is “household voting” whereby each household gets one vote, the husband’s, eliminating the need for the wife to vote. In addition to the 19th Amendment, women have fought long and hard to legalize equal access to education and employment, to own property, earn an independent living, and to run for political office. One can only imagine how long it might be before these freedoms would also be repealed in the wake of losing the right to vote.

And abroad, more signs that we’re descending into an anti-woman dystopia. According to a June 16,2026 story by Zing Tsjeng in The i Paper, in February the US withdrew from the UN Women Executive Board, the United Nations agency for equal rights. A month later, the US voted against a United Nations document that ratified women’s rights. Citing “ambiguous language promoting gender ideology,” the US was the ‘only’ country of forty-six countries to vote, that voted against women’s rights at the UN. What an ominous message, from the leader of the free world, this sends to women around the globe.    

Luckily, you can cage a body but not the human spirit. The spirit, when not doubting its ability, will always choose the open sky, to chart its own course, knowing the winds of grace will guide and sustain.

Indeed, it will always choose to fly, wild and free.

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May 1, 2026 · 10:34 am

The Chocolate Bar

In May of 1945 a little girl approached a U. S. check point in Kronberg, Germany. She was maybe 7 years old. Dirty, holes in her shoes, blond pigtails, wearing a dress hanging on her frail body. Silent. She held out her hands. 23-year-old Corporal Jimmy Hayes, a farm boy from Iowa, watched. He had a chocolate bar in his pocket, a Hershey’s he’d saved from his ration pack.

Sargent Mike Donovan saw what was happening and placed a hand on Hayes’ shoulder warning him it was against regulations to feed the enemy.  

“She’s just a kid, Sarge. Look at her. She’s starving,” Hayes pleaded.

“She’s a German kid. Yesterday her father may have been shooting at us. Civilians are not our responsibility. They wait for relief organizations,” the Sargent replied.

Hayes looked back at the little girl still standing there with her hands outreached. “Did she support Hitler, Sarge? Did she start this war?” The Sargent’s face hardened as he gave his final warning.

Then one of the younger girls started to cry. Silent, weak tears.

And Hayes made a decision. He took out the chocolate bar, unwrapped it, and broke it into small pieces. He gave the first piece to the little girl and then gave pieces to as many children as he could. It wasn’t enough. As the children turned to walk away, the little girl was the last to leave. She looked back at Hayes one more time and then followed the others.

Lieutenant Parker walked over. “Corporal, you disobeyed a direct order.”

“Yes, sir.”

“You know that’s a court-martial offense.”

“Yes, sir.”

The report quickly reached General Patton’s desk. It said a Corporal had defied direct orders not to feed enemy children and asked how to handle it – to proceed with discipline or to let it go.

General Patton immediately called the division commander and said not to do anything until he arrived. The next morning his jeep rolled into the checkpoint. Hayes was terrified as everyone knew General Patton’s reputation for not tolerating insubordination.

The General looked Hayes up and down. “You gave away your ration to enemy civilians.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Why?”

“Because they were hungry, sir. And they were just kids.”

When the General asked Lieutenant Parker for his recommendation, the Lieutenant recommended discipline. But General Patton walked over to the children huddling near and knelt down in front of the girl with the pigtails. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a candy bar and handed it to her.

Then turning back, “Lieutenant, you were right about discipline. Corporal, you were right about humanity. We don’t give out rations randomly but we also don’t let children starve either. Corporal Hayes, you’re in charge of setting up distribution stations. Make sure each child gets fed something every day until relief organizations arrive.”

Two weeks later, the little girl with the pigtails came up shyly to Hayes and handed him a folded sheet of paper. She had drawn, in pencil, a picture of him giving her a piece of bread. Hayes kept the drawing for the rest of his life, eventually hanging it in his Iowa home.

One decision. A court-martial offense. Still, one man had the courage and compassion to risk it all to place food into outreached hands.

The Trump administration talks a lot about ‘winning’ with epic fury, objectives met, charting milestones by points of devastation. They’re hoping the vibrato will drown out the memory that, in fact, Iran did not pose an imminent threat. And they are betting that the civilian toll, now exceeding 1400, including 200+ children, will soon be forgotten, and that the actual bodies, buried under the rubble out of sight will soon be out of mind.

I’d guess there are many Corporal Hayes serving in our military today. But where is our General Patton?

When I remember the school children killed early on, I wonder what might have happened if, instead of posturing around blame, America’s top commanders and generals had simply acknowledged this horrific, tragic, accident and offered some sort of humanitarian help and support to the grieving families?

Perhaps because Hegseth has called this a religious war, he and the top brass still standing were only able to imagine Middle Eastern children practicing Islam. The enemy. But Corporal Hayes didn’t notice race, nationality and likely wouldn’t have given a thought to religion. Neither did General Patton. All they saw was the innocent, the starving, the victims. And they responded.

And still today we remember a true hero and the picture he kept for a lifetime drawn by a small child with dirty hands. 

And all it took was a chocolate bar.

* Accounts of this well-known story, rooted in a real incident, appear in oral histories, unit reports and postwar recollections, not in a single primary source.

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March 22, 2026 · 11:46 am

A Call to Love

It’s true that I’m at least twenty-five years older than my classmates in the Adult Beginner-Intermediate Ballet class at a well-known local dance studio. It’s true as well that it’s “the” highlight of my week. Not because I harbor any fantasy of dancing like I once did when I was young. Not because I imagine performing on some stage again. Instead, it’s about those seconds for which I can only set an “inner” stage, so to speak, and wait.

Seconds when something beautiful happens in me, no one can see, when I’m working hard to hold my posture at the barre or trying to follow a movement sequence across the floor. It isn’t about perfection. Not enough years left for that. No. It’s about those seconds that arise of their own accord and then are gone to reverberate across time. They’re like sparks of joy, only the sparkler never goes out.

Doing something we love changes us or rather returns us to a place we may have forgotten, a place where life suddenly breaks through like the sun after a violent storm. It says no matter how dark the night, no matter what we’ve endured, we are alive and each moment, each step, can be a new beginning.

Gratefully, we don’t have to look far to find such sparks, for the ones who have shared their love in the midst of such dark nights. A March 2022 article from the New York Times highlights how when Ukrainians found themselves under siege from Russian forces, many artists turned to music for comfort and connection. They filled streets, apartment buildings and train stations with the sounds of Beethoven and Mozart.

A cellist, Denys Karachevtsev, performed Bach in the center of a deserted street in Kharkiv, with the blown-out windows of the regional police headquarters behind him. Vera Lytovchenko, a violinist for the Kharkiv Theater of Opera and Ballet, gave impromptu concerts almost every day for a group of 11 neighbors. In the cold, cramped basement, with nothing in the way of decoration except candles and yellow tulips, she performed Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky and Ukrainian folk songs. A man played the Ukrainian national anthem on his trumpet in a subway station being used as a bomb shelter. A pianist played Chopin in her apartment surrounded by ashes and debris left by Russian shelling.

And sometimes, sharing what we love is not a personal choice but, rather, something one could say is brought to life by the unseen hand of providence working through us. Such a time was the creation of the Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz, consisting mostly of young female Jewish and Slavic prisoners, who played daily for long hours by order of the SS for nineteen months. They were, indeed, “playing for time” as one of the members, Fania Fenelon, would title her autobiography. But the music they made lives on.

Some might say that to go enjoy life, our love, is selfish when all the world appears to be dismantling from one crisis after another. I would disagree. It turns out that sharing our love, our joy, what sparks us alive, can also spark a remembrance in others when life’s circumstances can leave any one of us feeling alone, desperate, and helpless.

It says I will not escape into safety but will sit with you as the bombs fall, the children are maimed and the stench of our burning neighbors fills the air. It says I will hand you, my brother on the street corner, a fast-food card and a blanket because, yes, here, beauty, kindness, lives.

So, I go dancing. For when I’m home and still can’t stop myself from twirling around in our tiny kitchen, I feel alive and sparked by this thing called life in all its forms. It allows me, today, to be more available, to see, hear, respond to my loved ones, neighbors, the stranger ahead or behind me in line, as I am drawn.  

For in the end what calls us to love is not about us. Instead, it makes us a conduit for the beauty and wonder so easily forgotten when life chokes off our joy. It reminds us that what binds us together as fellow human beings transcends national, cultural, political agendas. It reminds us that it is always the gift of love, in any form, that endures when all else falls away.

And this gift may or may not conform to our social norms or expectations. Recently I saw a video from the Royal Academy of Dance of Silver Swans around the world. In one group, there was a very old women, all hunched over, determined to move her feet alongside the others, dancing away. Every time I think of her, I smile and think, “Thank you, my teacher, for you have called me to love.”

Me in my at-home 5 x 5 ballet studio:)

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March 10, 2026 · 9:17 am

Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Life is but a Game

“War is Not a F*ucking Video Game,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Illinois, Posted on her official X account, March 6, 2026

The sun rose as usual on that 28th day of February, 2026, the first day of the US-Israeli attacks on Iran. And like every morning, 165+ girls woke up and likely ate a breakfast of flatbread with butter, cheese, jam or honey. If it was chilly out, a bowl of lentil soup might have been in order. And always tea. They would have dawned their headscarf, put on their long tunic and pants, and headed off to the Shajareh Tayyebeh girl’s elementary school in Minab, Hormozgan province, southern Iran. Most were between the ages of seven and twelve years old.

They would not come home.

Three missiles were dropped on the school and, as of this writing, many news outlets have concluded that the U. S. was likely responsible. Yes, of course, it was an accident but, so far, no country has assumed responsibility. And it’s not likely we will. “We’re investigating,” continues to be the only official response. After all, such an untidy blip in the messaging would certainly not play well with the Trump administration’s use of video game campaigning and other memes to sell the war. If you’re not on X, TikTok or Instagram, you may be missing the hype. For a good summary of the strategy, see Reuters, March 7, 2026, “SpongeBob, Iron Man and the Call of Duty: Inside the US Meme War Against Iran.”

Yes, SpongeBob.

Sadly, I can imagine the optimal projected result of such a campaign might be an increased number of young men, a core target audience, wearing ball caps backwards, sitting in front of screens, sounding something like: “Hey, man! It’s wild! ‘Operation Epic Fury!’ I mean, how f*ckin cool is that? And check out the latest ‘Call of Duty’ kill score. That’s the numerical value we’re earning eliminating enemies. Hey, wana good laugh? Check out SpongeBob!”

Any imagined image of the 165+ little girls killed is quickly replaced with footage from such films as “Braveheart,” “Top Gun,” “Iron Man” and “Gladiator.” Any thought of the last sounds of screeching children is quickly drowned out by the pounding beat of rapper Childish Bambino’s song “Bonfire.” In Trump’s universe, we’re expected to merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily roll along where life, and war, is but a game.

So, I pause here and offer a moment of care to the memory of all those girls who lost their lives that day and to all who grieve for them. It can be so tempting, especially when it comes to self-accountability, to distance ourselves with quaint colloquialisms such as “collateral damage,” or the “spoils of war.” So easy to forget that these were bouncy, chatty, some clumsy some graceful, beautiful young beings who will never grow up to be women. In addition, the Guardian has reported that over 700 Iranian civilians have now lost their lives. Make no mistake. These deaths are on us and more will follow.

Tragically, this is what happens when we have a Commander and Chief who’s never commanded anyone except for those willing to play in his virtual game universe where children don’t scream and bodies don’t bleed. The only qualification is being willing to applaud every talking point, and show complete and unquestionable loyalty to him, regardless of the human, national or international cost. Those who do, have conveniently forgotten that when it was his time to serve, he hid. Their would-be-hero, now dreaming of the Medal of Honor, ran.   

Sen. Duckworth was one of the first to call this out in 2018. In the January 21, 2018, CNN article by Caroline Kenny, she refers to Trump as “Cadet Bone Spurs,” and blasts the Cadet for being a “five-deferment draft dodger.” And I’d say she’s one quite qualified to speak on the matter. A retired Army lieutenant colonel, who lost both legs, and partial use of her right arm, serving in the Iraq war.

We could also ask the families of the seven service members already killed in the Iranian war to speak. And let’s not forget the untold number of veterans currently suffering from PTSD from “real” war exposure. I’ll bet they’re not humming the theme to “Top Gun” while trying to fall asleep at night. I can only imagine how shallow and deeply disrespectful Trump’s video campaign must seem to them.

Americans, I pray we will be brave enough to stand with Sen. Duckworth and not, through silence and inaction, become complicit with those who fall in line, head down, gleefully marching alongside SpongeBob, high-fiving the latest up-tic in the “Call of Duty” kill score.

If we do not, we could “all” soon be marching to merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily pretending life, and war, is but a game. 

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February 13, 2026 · 5:08 pm

Everybody’s Girl: For Virginia Giuffre

“But the worst things Epstein and Maxwell did to me weren’t physical, but psychological. From the start they manipulated me into participating in behaviors that ate away at me, eroding my ability to comprehend reality and preventing me from defending myself.” Virginia Giuffre, “Nobody’s Girl.”

It doesn’t happen as a flash headline. It goes unnoticed behind the scenes meticulously woven into the tapestry of society. Hidden, like the lost piece of a puzzle, revealed only to those courageous enough to pause, see, hear. Left unnoticed, it soon fades, silent and lost, and becomes like a footnote you’d look for later to try and understand. It is the voice, song, of our most vulnerable girls and in the notation, the redacted names of rich and powerful men.  

The great irony of the enslavement was, Giuffre writes, “There were no bars on the windows or locks on the doors. I was a prisoner trapped in an invisible cage.” Having worked as a mental health counselor, I know all too well about that invisible cage. It forms early around children who’ve experienced abuse. And Giuffre recounts how good Epstein was at “spotting girls whose wounds made them vulnerable to him.”

With no intervention, the long-term effects of abuse are insidious, preventing the development of healthy boundaries, and leave a child confused about what love is. Meanwhile, any sense of healthy autonomy is stunted creating a void, one Epstein knew masterfully how to fill. Simply, he’d promise, initially, what a girl most wanted. Giuffre gives examples of an actor or painter. He’d promise to help get them roles or introduce them to key people in the art world. To the often poor, sometimes even homeless, girls, this seemed like finally a new start, like someone cared.

But, of course, it was never to support their voice to sing its song. No. The only song allowed was one that made Epstein smile. And Maxwell, co-conspirator and key recruiter, scouted the streets to fill the auditions.

Sadly, this silencing of the voice, the song, of women can be seen throughout women’s lives in the tapestry of our society often cloaked in the most acceptable of disguises. As a minister, I’m most sensitive to how it shows up in the religious sector. I’ve seen firsthand, across faith traditions, how the song is silenced when gender dictates and segregates participation. Silenced when men tell us scripture ordains men to preach and women to listen.

As a predominantly Christian nation, we see many factions which remain committed to silencing the songs of women at the top levels of leadership in all three branches: the Orthodox traditions, Catholicism, and in conservative Protestant traditions. Many cite1Timothy 2:12 as biblical precedence, “I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man.” At the time, men feared repercussions to the conventional domestic order. You could say the same today.

What is not so often noted is that in the very early Christian Church women had key roles in both ministry and teaching. Historical and cultural contexts are conveniently contorted by those wishing to cherry pick scripture to enforce a modern-day return to what is quaintly called traditional family values, where women know their place and don’t dare to sing. And ultimately, I fear the songs of women will go silent and die in a society that desperately tries to impose a template of gender ideology on the spirit of its people.

While the Blessed Mother is revered in Orthodox and Catholic traditions, girls grow up praying to God the “Father.” Jesus and the disciples were men. Ascribed authors of the Biblical canon were men. In many faith traditions, all community leaders are men. The earthly father is heralded as head of the household. Is it any wonder a girl might find herself asking, “Where is someone important who looks like me?”

Woven into that tapestry is the silent message, “Men have the power,” long before the ubiquitous implications can be considered or understood. Add to that a history of abuse and it’s not hard to understand how stealth predators find and then are able to keep their prey in those invisible cages.

Attorney General Bondi: Imagine you had the courage of the survivors who’ve come forward? Imagine you were brave enough to use your voice to open an untold number of those invisible cages in pursuit of justice? If so, you’d remove all redactions from names of perpetrators in the Epstein files, long protected by privilege, wealth and connection, to finally face accountability.  

Giuffre states at one point how she sometimes marvels at how she managed to endure. But then concludes, “There’s something within all of us, even when we’re not aware of it, that fights to keep our spirits alive.”

Sadly, she would lose that fight. But her words, her voice, indeed, her song, will continue on, uncaged and free.

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January 22, 2026 · 10:58 am

1984

The Party told you to ignore the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. George Orwell, from the novel,1984.

1984 is here and we’re in grave trouble, America. The reasons why or how no longer matter. We’re nearing a crucial tipping point from which there could be no return. Historians, assuming there will be any, will long debate how we got here. Right now, it’s too late for that. Time necessitates we state the obvious and courageously chart a new course.

President Trump’s modus operandi, imbued with his narcissism and fanned by his faithful followers, has succeeded in eroding our basic freedoms as spelled out in the First Amendment to our U S Constitution. Gone is “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” Far-right religious leaders, like the Rev. Franklin Graham repeatedly points to unrest, like the recent shooting of Renee Good, as largely the result of Godless secular values antithetical to Christian doctrine and calls for our nation to return to the true Word. Trouble is the First Amendment doesn’t call for us to be a Christian nation. Quite the opposite. Such rhetoric is actually antithetical to our democratic belief in religious freedom and only fuels further division.

2026: Ignore what the Constitution says. 

Gone is “there shall be no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.” Here, Trump assures us he knows our true history, conveniently disconnected from the uncomfortable parts including the quests for equality by many disenfranchised groups. And freedom of the press? For some time now any news that does not validate Trump’s views is quickly dismissed as fake.

Voices have gone silent in our classrooms and universities. Media newscasters, reporters and journalists are increasingly bowing to censorship. Many law makers now fear for their political, or sometimes, actual lives. The tragic irony is that they, along with the U S Supreme Court, have become complicit, cowering in silence and eliminating guardrails leaving only one functioning branch of government, the Executive.

2026: Ignore all except for what I tell you. 

Gone is “there shall be no law prohibiting the right of the people peaceably to assemble.” And here we are today. Regardless of how you view the many videos of the shooting of Renee Good, the bottom line remains. She was not posing an imminent threat. She was attacking no one. She was trying to get away from a volatile situation. If detainment had been the goal, shooting the tires on her vehicle would have sufficed. But that was not the goal.

2026: Ignore what you think you see or it could cost you your life.

It would be bad enough if his pathology only impacted our country. Perhaps, we could live with his illusion that if he says something, no matter how unsubstantiated, it’s true. For example, the 2020 election was stolen or the January 6th insurrection was simply a peaceful protest.

Perhaps we could tolerate his delusional belief that the White House is his personal property, permanently marring its glory by destroying an entire wing, or proudly denigrating the walls with disparaging comments under the portraits of former Presidents.

Perhaps we could even try and ignore that, for the first time in our history, people are being rounded up off the streets and hauled away without any due process. Perhaps we could try hard to silence the cries of all those in hiding, a chilling reminder of the Jews in Nazi Germany. Families being torn apart.

But now it’s not just our country.

Many of us watched in abject disbelief as Putin invaded Ukraine. Now, it’s us. In what universe has it become okay to invade and take over a sovereign nation because we want their oil or believe it’s in our national security interests? Only in Trump’s universe. Gratefully, in response to Mr. Trump’s claim on Greenland, our NATO allies had the courage to stand up and support the many Greenlanders wearing red hats that read, “Make America Go Away.”  

2026: Ignore what our allies are saying. I know what’s best for the world.

But perhaps the most disturbing, the final red flag that should jar anyone still sleeping awake was his recent vengeful remarks and declaration, after not being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, “No one deserves the Nobel Peace Prize more than me.” This reveals something even more troubling than narcissism, more dangerous than an inherent sense of invincibility. It reveals a school-yard pathology disconnected from any true sense of self or reality.  

And this man thinks his power is only limited by his own mind.

Americans, will we ignore the evidence of our eyes and ears or will we stand up, speak out, and show up as if our very lives depended upon it?

Because now, it does.  

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December 8, 2025 · 9:03 am

The Weaponization of Christianity

“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost but now I’m found, was blind but now I see.”

We are all wretched. And by grace in many forms, saved. John Newton knew this when he wrote the well-known Christian hymn “Amazing Grace” in 1772. He’d been a slave trader capturing natives from West Africa to be sold to markets around the world. But during a fierce storm he feared would cause a shipwreck, he experienced a conversion which would lead him to become an avid Abolitionist and later an ordained minister of the Anglican church.

Sadly, much in our history did not follow such an example of humility born of grace. And today, if we are going to confront and solve our systemic problems together as Americans and preserve our democratic republic, we too must first “see” when and where we’ve been “lost” before we can get “found.” For starters, we must acknowledge that Christopher Columbus did not discover America as many of us were taught. This nation was stolen from Native Americans who’d called it home for thousands of years. In our country’s early formation, much of our wealth was built on the backs and brawn of slaves deemed to be 3/5 human, as was stated in our U S Constitution, for the purposes of determining congressional representation. Women had to take to the streets with a decades-long struggle to demand the right to vote. Still, it would be another forty-five years, with the passage of the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights movement, before African Americans could begin their quest for full citizenship.  

In our more recent history it’s immigrants, often escaping life-threatening conditions at home, coming here glad to work menial labor jobs, who are now in danger of being labeled criminals and rounded up off our streets and deported without any due process.

President Trump, surrounded by Christian evangelical ministers, tells us we can make America great again. Again? As it was when? Oh yes, must be before DEI policies. A time when largely only white males were valued and those of other ethnicities, as well as women, knew their God given place. Before the social movements of the 1960s began unraveling the former idyllic Mayberry American society. Before exposing the barely half-truth of the “All men are created equal” proclamation in our Declaration of Independence. Modern blasphemy!

A particularly egregious expression of being “blind,” is seeing female legislators proudly displaying crosses around their necks while taunting the value of rounding up thousands of the so-called “worst-of-the-worst,” terrorizing communities and separating families, many of whom just happen to be people of color. And they eagerly join their male counterparts in slashing SNAP benefits to the most vulnerable, cutting money to Medicare and Medicaid, reducing access to doctors and threatening the closure of hospitals and nursing homes putting millions of Americans at risk. Such actions I would call no less than the weaponization of Christianity. 

What might they “see” if touched by just a hint of amazing grace? They might see the immigrant they’re rounding up as not so different from the ones in their own family, just several generations back, who came to this county in search of a new life. They might see the face of their own son or daughter when they indiscriminately round up a mom or dad leaving children behind. They might see the struggling single mom going to the food pantry for the first time because her benefits were unexpectedly cut. Perhaps they might even feel the desperation of the young man, recently laid off, who knows he must swallow his pride and rely on church and strangers to be Santa so his kids can still believe on Christmas morning. They might see the elderly woman who lives alone who must choose between food and heat. They may even see the crowds in our emergency rooms growing daily because so many can no longer afford medical insurance.

Imagine in moments of grace, such professed Christians just might ask themselves, “What would Christ do now?”

If our history has taught us anything it’s that our great American spirit is too grand to allow itself to be silenced, nullified, or codified into any ideology that erases diversity, ignores equality, and resists inclusion. Perhaps this is why Chicago priest, Rev. Pfleger, said, “I believe it’s time for the churches to lead the revolution, a spiritual revolution to stand up to this fascism, or the streets are going to do a revolution and it’s going to be bloody and ugly.” (Irish Star, Falyn Stempler, 12/6/2025)

I pray for a spiritual revolution. Yet, who will emerge victorious? The slave trader deciding who is worthy and who is not or those touched by grace ready to reignite the torch of our Lady, the beacon of light for the world?

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December 3, 2025 · 12:32 pm

A Lil’ Christmas Magic & Three Gifts

One of my favorite things over the weeks leading up to Christmas Day is to get up before the sun and just sit in the lights with my headphones and favorite carols and hymns. Pure magic. Here’s a sample . . .

It’s not yet dawn with only the reflection of lights in the window flickering against a dark sky. And before I know it, I hear the Little Drummer Boy from afar coming to play in the chambers of my yearning heart. Do you see what I see? A star, a star, dancing in the night with a tail as big as a kite ~ with a tail as big as a kite.

I do! I do! I am dancing with that star!

Do you hear what I hear? A song, a song, high above the trees with a voice as big as the sea ~ with a voice as big as the sea.

I do! I do! My voice is singing big as the sea!

Then comes O Holy Night. A thrill of hope, a weary world rejoices, for yonder brings a new and glorious morn! Fall on your knees! O hear the angels voices! O night divine! O night, O night divine.

And I am on my knees now, empty and fully surrendered, in the sweet silence.  

And soon I’m lifted back up by Andrea Bocelli’s angelic voice singing The Lord’s Prayer. Our Father which art in heaven, or in Jesus’ words, Abwoon D’bwashmaya, exulting Abba, the Holy One breathing all creation into being.

And by the end of the Prayer, I can only say, Abba, I Belong to You,* over and over.

In a world weary and torn, let’s be the dancing star. Let’s make a joyful noise. Let’s fall on our knees to be filled with that peace that passes all understanding. And let’s remember we are all children of the Holy One, the One called by many names.

And all before breakfast!

And into our day, let’s carry three gifts: a compass to forever point us toward the North Star; a sword to slay the fear within so we may transform hatred and injustice without, and a medicine bag with a never-ending flow of stardust to remind us that the more love we give away the more we have.

For there’s no force more powerful than love.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!  

*Originally from the prayer by Brennan Manning

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November 17, 2025 · 11:23 am

The Office of the First Lady

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” Eleanor Roosevelt

I believe if Eleanor Roosevelt were here, she’d have a word or two to say about President Trump demolishing the East Wing of the White House. Built in 1902, it served as the official office for First Ladies. Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd president of the United States, was the first to professionalize the East Wing using it as a base of operations for her activism. She used the East Wing to expand the role of the first lady specifically to highlight women’s issues and organizations from the Girl Scouts to the Women’s Trade Union League. Her first news conference, March 6, 1933, featured 35 reporters, all of them women helping to elevate the role of women in national and political life as well as in journalism. (The 19th, Haines, Becker, October 22, 2025)

Since then, all of our first ladies have gifted the American public with initiatives in support of causes they championed. Following Roosevelt, First Ladies Bess Turman, Mamie Eisenhower and Jacqueline Kennedy were deeply involved in White House restoration with Jacqueline Kennedy founding the White House Historical Association in 1961. First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson, championed the “War on Poverty” initiative and programs like Head Start. First Lady Pat Nixon engaged in much volunteerism visiting schools, orphanages, and hospitals.  

First Lady Betty Ford reportedly said, “If the White House West Wing is the ‘mind’ of the nation, then the East Wing, the traditional power center for First Ladies, is the ‘Heart.’” (4NBCWashington, Darlene Superville, October 26, 2025) She and First Lady Roselyn Carter were strong advocates for mental health reform. First Lady Nancy Regan is remembered for her “Just Say No’’ antidrug abuse program. First Ladies Barbara Bush focused on literacy, Hillary Clinton on healthcare reform, Laura Bush also on literacy and women’s health. Michele Obama is known for her “Let’s Move!” initiative to combat childhood obesity, Melania Trump for her BE BEST program focusing on child welfare, and Jill Biden for her advocacy for military families.

Anita McBride, chief of staff to first lady Laura Bush, described the East Wing as a place of “purpose and service” and “tearing down those walls doesn’t diminish the significance of the work we accomplished there.” Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, policy director for first lady Michelle Obama, said the demolition was a “symbolic blow” to the East Wing’s legacy as a place where women made history. In an interview she said, “The East Wing was this physical space that had seen the role of the first lady evolve from a social hostess into a powerful advocate on a range of issues.” (4NBCWashington, Darlene Superville, October 26, 2025)

And here we come to the key issue. It’s not hard to understand why the very place the wives of presidents have used to create and foster their own initiatives, dreams, indeed, exercise some measure of power unique to them, would be the very place demolished. The Trump administration is primarily focused on the implementing Project 2025, created by the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation along with many Trump loyalists, aiming to restructure and concentrate power in the executive branch to execute policy strongly influenced by Christian Nationalism ideals. They seek, “to impose a hierarchical, gendered, patriarchal vision of society.” (National Women’s Law Center, “Project 2025 and What it Means for Women, Families and Gender Justice,” September 17, 2024)

This increasing concentration of power in the executive branch, a hallmark of authoritarian regimes, is Trump’s modus operandi. With an overly compliant judicial branch and a majority yes-man legislative branch, he says it and it happens, even when it comes to demolishing a wing of the historic People’s House — even when over half of those very people don’t approve. And for women, the symbolism is clear. Go home. Fall in line with the traditional role we conservatives envision for you. You are not here to make history. You are here to create children and support your family. Trouble is women have dreams too, of course, and need our democratic republic, free from homogenization and the imposition of religious tyranny, to thrive and serve just as men always have.   

So, I write today to highlight all the first ladies and the dreams they pursued in the East Wing of the White House in service to our great nation. Though their space has been so ruthlessly and disrespectfully demolished, the historical imprint each has made on our nation, the many lives they touched through their efforts, cannot be so easily dismissed, erased and forgotten. Thank you.

And to all girls and women going forward, I say: Be brave. Follow in the footsteps of Eleanor Roosevelt. Dare to create your own space for the beauty of your dreams and, in doing so, make a future that belongs to you, our nation, and the world.

Image by EyeEm@freepik.com
(a representation of demolition – not the East Wing)

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