Religion
Immigration, Law, Religion, Trump
‘Christians Build Bridges, Not Walls’
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
In Texas, a white adobe chapel built in 1899 on the banks of the Rio Grande sits in the proposed path of President Donald Trump’s border wall. A Border Patrol agent stands sentry yards away. A military helicopter—part of Trump’s troop surge at the border—drowns out Father Roy Snipes. It’s akin to “saying Mass in…
Politics, Religion
Who Said It Better: Falwell or Christ?
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
City, Local Government, Religion
Humility in Discerning God’s Will
by JOHN ADAMS • • 4 Comments
One hopes – sometimes in fulfillment, sometimes in vain – that the simple circumstances of a small town might encourage humility in discernment. In the course of listening to politics, one may encounter a local politics that is grandiose where it should be plain. Indeed, local claims of this kind may arrogate to people and…
Holiday, Religion
Happy Easter 2018
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
America, City, Culture, Local Government, Politics, Religion, School District, That Which Paved the Way, Trump, University
Rabbi Sharon Brous’s Advice for Small Towns (and Everywhere, Really)
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Over at The Atlantic, there’s an interview with Rabbi Sharon Brous, the senior rabbi at IKAR, a non-denominational synagogue in California. See ‘I’ve Spent My Life Studying These Books That Say Decency Actually Matters.’ Rabbi Brous describes religious belief among progressives in contemporary America, and two of her observations are particularly suited even to Whitewater…
Holiday, Religion
Easter 2017
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
America, Authoritarianism, Ethnicity, Law, Liberty, Religion
Against a Registry
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Politics, Religion
The Rev. William Barber at the Democratic National Convention
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
I watched the national conventions of both major parties, although I am a member of neither. Of the many speeches over many days, some were exceptional. The one from the Rev. William Barber, for example, is worth watching, either for the first time or again. The Rev. Barber’s political views, to be sure, sometimes (but…
Animals, Conservation, Environment, Nature, Religion
The Nature Display at St. Peter’s Basilica
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Adventure, Food, Religion
Dinner at Hogwarts
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Film, Holiday, Religion
Happy Easter: An Easter Weekend in Rome
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Gov. Walker, Government Spending, Politics, Religion, Science/Nature, State Government, Wisconsin
Budget First
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Last week, Gov. Walker declined to answer Englishman’s question about whether he, Scott Waker, believed in evolution. Today, in the Journal Sentinel, one learns that Assembly Speaker Robin Vos does believe in evolution. (I’ll bite: I was raised in a liturgical, high-church tradition that taught that the theory of evolution was consistent with faith. I…
Politics, Religion
Presence Rather Than Partisan Answers
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Years ago, during a controversy in Whitewater, someone told me a story about an official who, I learned, asked God’s help to relieve that official from a political burden. The official delivered his request, apparently, in blunt, specific terms. I don’t know whether the official received an answer to his prayers, or whether he believed…