Presby-Musings

This past weekend my wife and I spent some time in New York City with a friend who was having surgery there.  We also took the time to experience some of the sights of the city.   One of the most meaningful things that we did was to visit the National 9/11 Museum and Memorial on the site of the World Trade Center, which was destroyed in an evil terrorist attack seventeen years ago.   It's hard to fathom the kind of hatred and twisted religious fundamentalism that would cause such death and destruction.  As a people, we lost a lot on that day.  We lost our innocence, our naive view of the wider world, our overall sense of safety...  I felt old resentments well up inside of me, and hard words began to form on my lips.  And then Merideth said to me, "We have to be better.  We have to come from a place of love. We need to speak that into the world."   About that time we rounded the corner and saw a display in the gift sh...

To the Members and Friends of Shepherd of the Hills Presbyterian Church, 
 I know this past week felt as though we were reliving some of the worst moments of our nation's history.   The harsh rhetoric and tensions surrounding the conflict with North Korea are eerily familiar, reminding us of some of the tensest moments of the Cold War.  Likewise, the news from Charlottesville is a harsh reminder of the violence surrounding the Civil Rights struggles of the 1960’s.  I know I am not alone in feeling a deep sense of sorrow and hopelessness as we experience these same tensions decades after those conflicts supposedly ended.  
 It would be all too easy to give in to fear and even despair as we listen to world leaders taunt and goad each other to war, and to succumb to the tyranny of helplessness and resignation when it comes to the tragic and violent ends of racism and bigotry.  
 However, the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. are as relevant today as...