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I am what you call a “cradle Lutheran.” I grew up going to the same Lutheran church in Lebanon, PA until after I finished seminary and moved to the Quad Cities. I was baptized, confirmed, married, and overall raised in the faith at Holy Trinity. I at…
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Every year I look forward to watching the NFL draft on television. I love college football, and I’m eager to see the reactions of some of my favorite players when a team selects them. What an emotional moment to finally realize that their dreams of p…
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Over 50 years ago, Ezra Jack Keats helped a lot of people to see. It was simple, really. He wrote and illustrated a book called The Snowy Day about a child waking up in the city to a snowy day. Peter, the little boy, bundles up in a red snowsuit and…
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Some of the most beautiful transactions in the world occur without money ever changing hands. We all know this since we’re regular participants in such transactions. I find it inspiring to remember the particulars of different encounters, if for no o…
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Europe and America are experiencing a high level of tumult and anxiety in the last 24 months, thanks to a number of deranged people and terrorists who have a killing impulse. Amateur and professional analysts alike wonder if this ugly turn of events…
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My high school did not offer a class in cosmology. It’s a good thing it didn’t. I wouldn’t have survived. I barely passed math, struggled in physics, and to this day do not understand what a mole in chemistry is. The only mole I know is the one that…
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There exists a little-known hero of Thanksgiving Day. The turkey gets all the accolades it needs. Presidents are even required to take a break from their busy days to pardon one. Even canned cranberries have their loyal fans. Then, of course, there’s…
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I enjoy watching football. It doesn’t matter if it’s on a flat screen or in a stadium. There is that undeniable dopamine rush regardless of where one sits. How weird that some men wearing plastic helmets, and chasing after an oblong (sometimes-proper…
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There is a fear epidemic in America. We are a people full of fear. Swapping stories of fright has become our national pastime. If you want to kill anything in politics these days, just get people good and scared about what some action or legislation…
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Muslim leader Dalil Boubakeur had an idea for addressing the shortage of mosques for Muslim communities in France – convert some unused churches into mosques. It’s not hard to see why the idea occurred to Boubakeur, a Frenchman. Many of the 45,000 ch…
It’s just a simple brown metal shed on the outside. Along the gravel road of Camp Shalom, the Craft Barn is tucked into the trees. A creeky door greets visitors. And so does Emily Crowe. “Welcome to the Craft Barn!” she says as a crew of kids on thei…