By: Mathieu Yuill on April 4, 2024
I found Portland Seminary when a classmate from the masters program I attended posted some really interesting thoughts online about an assignment she was working on. I messaged her to find out what she was doing and she told me about the doctor of semiotics she was perusing. She encouraged me to take the same…
By: Sara Taylor Lattimore on April 4, 2024
We all have some level of influence over the circles in which we live and operate. The amount of influence, the impacts of the influence, and the lasting effects of our influence varies and sometimes can’t even be felt in our lifetime but, is discovered when looking back at our history. Dominion The book Dominion…
By: Kim Sanford on April 4, 2024
Then he rose, grenade in hand. He was pulling the fuse. He cocked his arm back to throw— and then he saw me looking at him across my rifle barrel. He stopped. He looked right at me. That’s where the image of his eyes was burned into my brain forever, right over the sights of…
By: Graham English on April 4, 2024
On December 18, 2016, the church that I was pastoring experienced a devastating church fire. The fire department fought valiantly but the building couldn’t be saved. Unfortunately, the fire was caused by a person in the church who was later charged with arson. As a result of the fire, we had to move a congregation…
By: Diane Tuttle on April 4, 2024
For the longest time, I thought multi-tasking was a great way to get lots done in a short time period. I am not sure, exactly, what changed my mind. It might have been the stacks of papers that were left unfiled on my desk or the mountain of work I had yet to do. Regardless…
By: Jenny Steinbrenner Hale on April 3, 2024
In his book, Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World, Tom Holland, historian of ancient societies, writes an extensive account of the influence of Christianity on Western Civilization. In Holland’s own words, “This book explores what it was that made Christianity so subversive and disruptive; how completely it came to saturate the mindset of…
By: Christy on April 3, 2024
In March I went on a lovely vacation to Japan with my family. I am half-Japanese and my mother’s side of the family lives in Japan. My mother’s conversion to Christ and marriage to my father wasn’t well received from her family, so I didn’t have the opportunity to know my extended family during childhood.…
By: Jenny Dooley on April 3, 2024
I read The Good Kill: Just War and Moral Injury, by Marc LiVecche on my flight to Phnom Penh, Cambodia last week. I then watched We Were Soldiers. I understood the film to be an accurate representation of the impact of war not only to soldiers on both sides of the Vietnam War, but that…
By: Daren Jaime on April 3, 2024
Reading the newspaper was a daily ritual in my household. In fact, we had the news delivered to us daily at our doorstep. Sometimes, my sister would wake up early before work just to get an early jump at the goings-on in the world. My parents were also affixed to the headlines, which would prompt…
By: Chris Blackman on April 3, 2024
The first chapter of this book, “Your Brain at Work,” got my attention. I loved the stage analogy and could relate to it. I have a very large stage in my brain, with way too many actors and a large audience. It is hard to stay focused. I never thought of it as a stage;…
By: Chad Warren on April 3, 2024
“Real men don’t eat quiche” is a phrase from the 1982 book Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche by Bruce Feirstein.[1] The book is a satire of masculine stereotypes. In a clever tongue-in-cheek approach, Feirstein explained what was acceptably “masculine” and “feminine” behavior according to the era’s societal standards. For real men, quiche was, apparently, a…
By: Scott Dickie on April 3, 2024
There is at least a little irony in considering the Christian-based philosophical arguments for killing people as we are approaching Good Friday and we reflect on a God who emptied Himself and surrendered his life for the sake of world. Was that a unique ‘call’ and pathway for the Messiah, or an example for all…
By: Jennifer Eckert on April 3, 2024
“My mother was an actress and when I was a kid, I wanted to act, too. But she didn’t want that for me. She said the lifestyle is so hard, it’s either feast or famine. Today, I am a businessman who acts,” Jess Akerman (not his real name). When my former boss posted this quote…
By: Pam Lau on April 3, 2024
As I sat in the library reading The Good Kill: Just War and Moral Injury by Marc Livecche I wrote a question in my notebook: What do Christian theologians say to the warriors who are morally, spiritually and psychologically injured as a result of war? I also wrote down the following questions: What is moral injury? What…
By: Kally Elliott on April 3, 2024
Last week, as he was home for spring break, I asked my nineteen-year-old business major son what he was thinking he might do after college. Assuming he’d say he would pursue an MBA, I was taken aback when instead he mentioned going into the military. (This, of course, was a fall-back idea in case his…
By: Tim Clark on April 3, 2024
I grew up in a denomination that began with a full-throated support for The United States. In the 1930’s and 40’s, the Foursquare Church, led by the Canadian immigrant Aimee Semple McPherson, supported patriotic musicals, sold war bonds, and prayed against the godless hordes the US seemed to be battling on every front.[1] In many…
By: Cathy Glei on April 3, 2024
I have never served our country as a Veteran. My dad was a Chaplain in the Vietnam War and my son-in-law served seven years in the military. My oldest son-in-law comes from a family of Army Generals (his dad and grandfather both served; frequently moving from base to base). Several of my close friends have…
By: Esther Edwards on April 2, 2024
As I read “The Good Kill Just War and Moral Injury” by Marc LiVecche, so many people came to mind. Living and pastoring in the Washington D.C. area has given my husband and me the unique honor of having many congregants who work for the CIA, State Department, and Military. Many have served our country…
By: Noel Liemam on April 2, 2024
For the past few weeks, there were few unexpected happenings and people just dropped into my schedule and derailing it into various directions. Some family members living nearby that never visited decided to visit; others flew into town, and I have to make time to see them, while others were work-related stuff that decided to…
By: Jonita Fair-Payton on April 2, 2024
This past week has been so peaceful and filled with so many joyful interactions. I love Holy Week; it is my favorite time of the year with Thanksgiving being a close second. I welcomed the week off from class, readings, and posts as I desperately needed the week to not be on a schedule. I…
