by Mark Beckwith | May 23, 2022 | Uncategorized
As I near the end of my backpacking trip across the Highlands of Scotland, I find that I can’t stop thinking about hospitality. Which is rather odd, given that my feet, having carried my weight plus an extra 35 pounds on my back over 200 miles of bogs, hills, endless...
by Mark Beckwith | May 9, 2022 | Uncategorized
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,...
by Mark Beckwith | May 2, 2022 | Uncategorized
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...
by Mark Beckwith | Apr 25, 2022 | Uncategorized
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,...
by Mark Beckwith | Apr 18, 2022 | Uncategorized
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...
by Mark Beckwith | Feb 14, 2022 | Uncategorized
These days free speech doesn’t seem so free. There are gotcha squads all over the internet – in the media, on college campuses – and nearly any place where people gather. And increasingly, the accused people are paying a price: they are getting vilified,...
