As Skot Welch and I prepare for our weekly radio show, we sort and skim our way through 70-80 topically related articles per week.  Most of them (blogs and mainstream sources) are not very well written and many miss the mark completely as America still continues to struggle through a mature and meaningful conversation about race.  Occasionally something will hit the e-mail in box that pierces the continual fog of white denial and makes it all worth it. (continue reading…)

You hear it so much from those who package God and country – “America needs to return,” they say, “to the Judeo-Christian ethic that our founding fathers understood.”  Quoting Thomas Jefferson from the Declaration of Independence in reverential awe, they speak of a uniquely American, faith based ideal – “All men are created equal.”  Did Jefferson REALLY understand it like that?  Is he a part of a faith heritage making the United States a “Christian nation?” (continue reading…)

Glen Beck                     Barack Obama

Glen Beck – that champion of American idealism and identity – has spoken again.  This time the “red meat” to his base of lap dog conspiracy theorists has to do with President Obama’s name and just why he changed from the much more acceptable “Barry” to the decidedly “un-American” Barack.  “He chose to use the name Barack for a reason,” Beck said on his radio show,  “not (to identify) with America.”  Why?

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Toby Barlow                                                                    Mark Covington

My friend Susan talks a lot about the need to define community.  Take a look at this very short film clip – just under eight minutes long – which not many people have actually seen.  In a simple and profound way – it’s about a neighborhood in a place that many people have given up for dead.  It’s called “Detroit Lives – the Farmer and the Philosopher,” – I have never seen community better defined anywhere else. (continue reading…)

“Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world,” Humphrey Bogart said in the movie Casablanca, “She walks into mine.”  As the owner of Rick’s Cafe, he was talking about the love/hate relationship he had with Ilsa Lund played by Ingrid Bergman who unexpectedly walked into his life again forcing him to sort out the relationship.  Of “all the towns in all the world” Detroit has that same love/hate dynamic for me.  My home town, my misspent youth, a lot of good and not so good memories are all coming back as a new project unfolds that just might take me home again.

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In the midst of the unconscionable devastation and deep personal tragedy that is the Haitian earthquake experience, Pat Robertson’s words came crashing through the air.  “Something happened a long time ago in Haiti,” he said.  “They swore a pact with the devil.  The Haitians revolted and got themselves free (from the French) but ever since they have been cursed by one thing after the other.”  Outrageous, insensitive, unverifiable, offensive – yes -  and pure Pat Robertson.  But there is a much deeper level within a statement like this, resting squarely within the context of racism and religion.

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By now most of us know what Nevada Senator Harry Reid said last week in a private pre-election comment in 2008 – calling Barack Obama “light skinned with no negro dialect unless he wants one,” (”Game Change.”)  The result was a fire storm of political and emotional rhetoric that produced charges and counter charges.  The comments were either racist or they had nothing to do with race and Reid should step down or he should stay where he is.  What’s really at work here?  Race is a an essential conversation but apparently we lack the language skills to have it. (continue reading…)

One of our Christian colleges is convening a panel discussion in February about the moral and ethical side of our current economic challenges.  The specific topic – “West Michigan’s role in avoiding the next fiscal crisis,” will examine “the connection between economics and morality,” “what moral/ethical trends need to occur to sustain improvement” and “how west Michigan can emerge as an economic moral agent.”  I’m not an economist but I think we’re missing something here.

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Tis the season to be reflective and this is my last shot at yawl in 2009.  I didn’t want to bore you silly with a lot of resolutions that none of us ever keep.  So – let me share in the coming year what – from my perspective – really counts, things that really matter. (continue reading…)

Alan Hartwick died last night – a great friend who will be missed by so many of us.  Alan and I grew up professionally at TV13 – he as a news photographer and I as a production assistant.  Later we worked together for a long time in all kinds of church/non profit projects – in fact, he affectionately called me “church boy” because of all the church image pieces we did around the country.  He was a special man. (continue reading…)