Carroll High School, Jimmy Carter’s Iran Hostage Crisis, Definition of ‘Palestinian’ One of the things that Critical Studies (that’s right, Critical Race Studies, Critical Gender Studies, and the like) has taught us is the importance, even the necessity, for individuals, groups, and peoples to be able to tell their own stories. And for the rest…
Graylan Hagler and I have known each other for at least a dozen years. He was our guest speaker for our 2018 Annual ICMEP Commemoration of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. And I was a guest interviewee on his weekly radio show a couple of years ago. Graylan is Pastor Emeritus, Plymouth United…
Dear friends, I want to highlight two recent articles from American Jewish voices of conscience. Along with The Electronic Intifada, Mondoweiss comes into my InBox every morning. It is a “must-read” for anyone involved in the ongoing struggle for civil, political, and human rights in Palestine and Israel. It identifies itself as “a news website…
The following is a sermon offered by Michael Spath on Feb. 5, 2023, at Emmaus Road Mennonite Fellowship in Berne, IN. You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under…
“What is theologically significant about national borders?” “What might the Christian theological tradition have to offer on the subject of national borders?” That was the question posed to me by Sandy Garcia as part of an assignment at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis where she is a student. Sandy is one-half of the husband-wife pastor-team…
I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!…
There is so much that I found offensive about President Joe Biden’s recent trip to the Middle East, but I wanted to wait a week so I could cool off. “First, do no harm,” the medical adage says, and yet – and my expectations were ‘zero’ – he was able in a few short days…
POWER: “the capacity and extent to which one can influence the behavior and beliefs of another.“ In discussing the current political and religious climate, I have often mentioned that the Left, particularly the Religious Left, is especially uncomfortable with discussions of and strategies that employ the use of power. Power, its use and facility, makes…
Dear friends in Fort Wayne and around the country, We are approximately halfway through our solidarity tour to Palestine and Israel. And we have had a very full last few days. Thursday, June 16, was spent touring holy sites. In the morning, we toured the Al Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock; with the permission of…
When you read this, I will be in Jerusalem traveling with 18 people in Palestine and Israel after a three-year COVID hiatus. We have now surpassed 250 people from within 60 miles of Fort Wayne who have traveled with me in my 15 “solidarity tours” since 2002. If I am to be honest, it’s been…