Peace, not Hate

Tulsi Gabbard spoke to a TurningPointUSA gathering this week about the need for American unity—and then she attacked American Muslims. This is how right wing governments work: they seek to unite their own base by stirring up fear and hatred of a minority. Orwell’s 1984 depicted a daily “two minute hate” against the scapegoat Goldstein.…

Hegseth’s War on Chaplains

Pete Hegseth, the current Secretary of Defense (styling himself “Secretary of War”) recently issued a video saying it was time to “Make the Chaplaincy Great Again.” He attacked the Chaplain Corps in toto, and a new US Army Spiritual Fitness Guide in particular. I was able to review that guide before it was purged from…

Three Ordinations and a Wedding

The Wedding. Joy and I met at the beginning of my freshman year of college. I was a freshman, she was a senior. We married at the end of my sophomore year, forty-three years ago. Our wedding took place at the Village Church of Seventh-day Adventists in South Lancaster, Massachusetts. Our music professor played the…

Another Step Forward

This morning, I was ordained as a minister of the Western District Conference of the Mennonite Church USA. It’s been a long and deliberate process. I first visited Houston Mennonite Church six years ago. I was beginning to study peace churches, and how they taught the principles of peace and nonresistance (or non-violent resistance) to…