Mark's Blog
The Supreme Court on Abortion: An Invasion of Privacy
Years ago, when I was receiving training in community organizing, we wrestled with the tension between personal and private. Expressing the challenge of being a parent of teenage children was personal, and appropriate; but going into the details of that challenge,...
Drilling Down on Justice
There is a lot of public wrestling these days over the issue of justice. What is it? Who should receive it? Who is regularly denied it? My favorite definition of justice comes from scripture scholar Walter Brueggemann, who has said that justice is sorting out what...
Easter as a Communal Event
On Sunday, April 17, the Western Christian world celebrated Easter; the mystery and wonder of Jesus rising out of death into new life. Because of calendar differences that go back a thousand years, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church celebrated Easter yesterday,...
Easter as Koan
Koan (koh-ahn) is a Japanese term for riddle, an unsolvable enigma. Koans are foundational to Zen Buddhist practice. Adherents meditate on the koan -- the most well-known being, “what is the sound of one hand clapping?” The rational mind can’t solve the riddle;...
Palm Sunday: Triumph, Prophecy and Tragedy
Much of the Christian world observed Palm Sunday yesterday, which involved reenacting the emotionally wrenching Passion story, which outlines the events leading to Jesus’ crucifixion. There are several parts to the story. The first is the triumphal entry: Jesus is...
The Fallacy of Woke
In 2009 journalist Bill Bishop wrote a compelling book, The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart. He makes the case that over the past several decades people have been living, working, worshipping, recreating, and vacationing in...
Confirmation Hearings: A Display of Self-Righteousness
Self-righteousness can be a crippling disease. We saw self-righteousness on full display this week when one Senator after another tried to trip up Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson with their arrogant and aggressive questions. Except, for the most part,...
Scapegoating: Its Legacy and Current Use
Questions, if not accusations, abound about the mental status of Vladimir Putin as he continues to wage war against Ukraine. Is he unhinged? Is he psychotic? Is he evil? Is he the willing stooge of a villainous Russian cabal which seeks to reap economic benefit from...
The Challenge of Dealing with Evil
I first learned the saying as a boy. As a young adult I saw the images of three monkeys carved over a door at a shrine in Nikko, Japan, which gave it language: “hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil”. We are seeing evil march through Ukraine and onto our screens...