Campaigning for civility, compassion Jewelry Portal BR

Campaigning for civility, compassion

Pastor Jay Geisler had grown weary of fellow Christians squabbling over political ideology. He wanted issues put in the context of the poverty and hopelessness in neighborhoods near his St. Stephen Episcopal Church in McKeesport, Pennsylvania.

So he called Call to Renewal, one of several faith-related groups touring the country this election year to draw Americans together from both sides of the ideological divide for polite conversation, social cooperation or both.

Geisler, who pastors in a once-prosperous steel town that has rusted alongside its shuttered mills, appreciates Democratic attention to health care and other safety-net issues. But he also finds merit in Republican efforts to encourage marriage and discourage abortion.

He hadn't decided which presidential candidate to vote for. And he rejected both election-year stereotypes of "godless liberals out to destroy the family" and "quasi-fascists dropping bombs for Jesus." Adds Geisler: "This polarization is tearing churches apart, tearing our country apart. Each side wants winner-take-all. We don't seem to want to see win-win anymore."(Continue Reading)

Campaigning for civility, compassion
Pastor Jay Geisler had grown weary of fellow Christians squabbling over political ideology. He wanted issues put in the context of the poverty and hopelessness ...(Continue Reading)

Noir lite - Film "Out of Time" - Movie Review
IN Out of Time, Matt Whitlock (played by Denzel Washington), a police chief in a small Florida town, is sleeping with Ann Merai (Sanaa Lathan), his high school girl friend, now unhappily married to(Continue Reading)

Wanted secular miracle worker
THE COUNTRY THAT became a world power with Horatio Alger in its collective book bag has evolved into a nation seeking secular miracle workers. While ...(Continue Reading)

American Handgunner
(Continue Reading)

Holy intrusion: the power of dreams in the Bible
WE CHILDREN OF the Enlightenment do not regularly linger over such elusive experiences as dreams. We seek to "enlighten" what is before us ...(Continue Reading)