Bill Tammeus is a Presbyterian elder and former Kansas City Star columnist who tries to observe the world through his theological lenses and then offer to readers the gift of the meaning he discovers there.
The oldest of my six grandchildren just turned 9. What a stunning child: Smart, curious, beautiful, creative, obedient, compassionate.
Which is why I worry about her and my five other grandkids, my descriptions of whom would include many of the same words that describe Olivia. But my worry is not overwhelming, partly because she’s surrounded by people who are models for her and who can teach her right from wrong.
When I was a boy of almost 13, I went with my family to Jerusalem, which at the time (late 1957) was divided between Israel and Jordan.
We had to stay on the Jordanian side because next we were headed to Egypt, and that country wouldn’t allow us to enter if we were coming from Israel, with which it had no diplomatic relations and no intentions of ever having them.
The morning of the walk dawned crisp and spectacular, and our team collected in a church parking lot near the start.
More than 20 members of our congregation gathered with about 3,500 others for AIDSWalk 2011, the annual event that raises funds for the AIDS Service Foundation of Greater Kansas City. Through our own donations and the pledges of others -- mostly gathered by our AIDS Ministry from other church members -- our team turned in nearly $4,000 to the cause.
It has taken me some time to think through and identify the worst error that Bishop Robert W. Finn made in the case of a Kansas City priest accused of possessing child pornography.
Perhaps you saw the recent PBS series on forgiveness or read the related book by the director, Helen Whitney, Forgiveness: A Time to Love, a Time to Hate.
Both are clear-eyed, moving, even disturbing looks at how to understand forgiveness.
Just as I brooded about the pernicious life of Osama bin Laden, so have I also been brooding about his recent death.
And what I now understand is that my initial reaction to the news -- in concert with the jubilant reactions of millions of Americans -- needs a harsh, corrective word.
The Web site of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops devotes lots of attention to health care. As it should.
But my own recent personal experience with our health care system makes me think the bishops -- and all American religious leaders -- might do well first to insist that the system be built on rigorous honesty instead of relying on the incomprehensible money games that now seem to characterize it -- games a friend who serves as CEO of a major health care non-profit agency tells me are “absurd.”
Ten-plus years ago I wrote a piece for Celebration, NCR’s worship resource, in which I suggested in all seriousness that humor is holy.
At the time, I still was writing an alleged humor column for The Kansas City Star and perhaps I was trying to justify my continued employment.
Last June in this space I wrote about a Creighton University student’s intriguing project in which he tried to apply Catholic social teaching to the production, distribution and consumption of food.
I recall thinking then that in some ways Catholics seem more sensitive to this matter than do most of the Protestants I hang around with. For Protestants to get more interested in this, I thought, they need a way to root concern for food issues in the Bible.
What opinion should a Protestant like me have about the small controversy over whether the late Pope John Paul II is being rushed to sainthood?
None -- that would be the proper and courteous thing to say. But, in fact, Protestants, like Catholics, have lots of opinions about things that may not directly concern them. So I’d like to share some of that with you Catholics so that you might have a better sense of how non-Catholics may be thinking about you and your church.
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