Right From the Hip

Recently, in the wake of the Parkland shootings, former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens published an op-ed in the New York Times calling for the repeal of the 2nd Amendment.  Below is my posted response. The real purpose of the 2nd Amendment was to prevent the federal government from disarming the states. It was, as all the amendments comprising the Bill of Rights were, a limit on federal power, not directives or prohibitions to any state by or from […]

He sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing . . . The wings of my dove are sheathed with silver, Her feathers with shining gold. – Psalm 68 Background music of ‘Song to Woody’ by Bob Dylan. My adventure in hitchhiking across the United States in June of 1967, from Lansdale, Pennsylvania to San Francisco along Route 66, stalled in Elk City, Oklahoma. Prior to that I had gotten two long rides through Pennsylvania and […]

If Christ is for us, who can be against us? Being in the world, but not of the world, occasions some interior conflict at times. It is possible to avoid some of that conflict by giving everything a soft and fuzzy focus; that avoids the harsh criticisms resulting from a spotlight, glaring and unforgiving on the people and acts who are in the world. But that isn’t really love, either. When you put a soft and fuzzy focus on someone […]