Columns, Letters to Editor, and Instant Messages submitted to the Bloomington Herald-Times that were not published

12-24-2016 - "Our Predator Presidency"

11-15-2016 - "Election Outcome No Cause to Eat One's Words"

2-25-2017 - Letter to Editor

3-29-2017 - "The Current Context of Worship Requires Articulation and Engagement"

1-9-2018 - "Ordinary People May Become Instruments of Extraordinary Evil"

8-6-2018 - "New Hate Crimes Law Ill-Advised"

3-9-2020 - "If We Pay Attention, Might We Yet Know What to Do?"

2-12-2021 - Instant Message response

5-6-2022 - Letter to Editor

Columns published in the Bloomington Herald-Times

2-12-2005 - Divisions Based on Perceptions

4-2-2005 - Living Wages and Moral Values

5-28-2005 - Torture on our Hands

6-25-2005 - Science and Religion: A Call for Reconciliation

12-31-2005 - Christianity and Empire

2-4-2006 - Politics as a Religious Vocation

3-4-2006 - Assaulting the Body Politic

4-29-2006 - Taxation: A Religious and Ethical Proposition

6-3-2006 - What Price Security?

7-8-2006 - What About Inheritances?

8-12-2006 - Knowing the Truth

9-16-2006 - Fear Is Obstacle to Faith

10-14-2006 - The Spiritual Aftermath of 9/11

10-28-2006 - Stopping at Nothing (Published as "Politics and Religion a Volatile Mixture")

11-18-2006 - Be Thankful, Not Proud (Published as "Thankfulness More Sensible than Pride")

12-16-2006 - Christmas Musings

1-13-2007 - Be Babes in Evil, but in Thinking Be Mature

2-10-2007 - In God We Trust?

3-24-2007 - In Remembrance of Jesus

4-21-2007 - Engaging in Dialogue When Everything Is Not OK

5-7-2007 - Taking the Bible Seriously: Peril and Promise

6-23-2007 - Jesus and Wealth

7-21-2007 - Without Vision, the People Perish

8-25-2007 - Saving the Soul of the Nation

9-22-2007 - Discerning the Truth Regarding Human Affairs

10-20-2007 - In the Grip of the Fear of Death

10-27-2007 - The Practical Value of Ethics, Religious and Otherwise

11-17-2007 - The End of the World Is Coming

12-22-2007 - What We Must Take on Faith

3-1-2008 - Hope that "Better Angels" Prevail

3-29-2008 - Breaking Silence, Building Bridges

4-12-2008 - Thoughts on Pastors, Preaching

5-3-2008 - Some Hymns Can Speak With Truth and Power

5-10-2008 - Wright, Religion, and Race

7-5-2008 - The Worst People on the Planet?

7-26-2008 - The Relevance to Politics of Religion's "Impossible" Ideal

9-6-2008 - Our State of Moral Confusion (Published as "Isaiah's words on 'moral confusion' frequently come to mind")

10-11-2008 - Forgive Us Our Debts? (Published as "We need a new sense of priorities")

11-8-2008 - Judgment: Discerning vs. Condemning (Published as "A lesson in judgment")

11-29-2008 - Dividing Walls of Hostility (Published as "Walls an affront to human dignity")

12-20-2008 - Change Requires Truth Spoken to Power

1-24-2009 - While the Jury Is Still Out (Published as "Thinking priorities in light of Jesus' teaching")

2-28-2009 - Darwin, Science, and Religion

3-28-2009 - On Being Christian (Published as "Thoughts about being Christian")

4-11-2009 - Two and a Half Cheers for Taxes!

5-9-2009 - Taking on the Myth of American Exceptionalism

5-30-2009 - The Profile of Evil (Published as "So where does evil come from?")

6-20-2009 - Put Not Your Trust in Princes! (Psalm 146:3)

8-8-2009 - Doing the Right Thing (Published as "Addressing issues in accordance with our various faith traditions")

9-5-2009 - On Being Good Without God (Published as "Being good without God")

10-3-2009 - On Punishment and Mercy (Published as "There's nothing blessed in locking people up")

11-14-2009 - What Good Is Religion?

12-19-2009 - Home for the Holidays

1-9-2010 - If the Messiah has now come . . .

2-13-2010 - A Plea for Fairness and Shared Sacrifice

4-17-2010 - God Our Ultimate Destiny

5-22-2010 - Perspective on Religion and the Interpretation of Scripture

7-17-2010 - Pardon Me, but the World's a Mess

8-1-2010 - Our Duty to the Truth Makes Us Responsible for What We Believe

8-21-2010 - The Mosque: Test Case for Religious Freedom

10-2-2010 - Time and Chance Happen to All (Published as "Reflection: Nothing new under the sun")

11-6-2010 - Where Would Jesus Bank? (Published as "Where would Jesus bank? And would you do the same?")

12-18-2010 - The Trouble with Punishment

1-22-2011 - Our Words Matter (Published as "Language shapes our perceptions")

3-6-2011 - What Would Jesus Cut? (Published as "Wondering: Just what would Jesus cut?")

4-9-2011 - The Case for Christianity

5-28-2011 - A Christian Perspective on Public Life (Published as "Public life/Christian perspective")

6-25-2011 - Scattered Remains (Published as "Passing on what may be of value to others")

7-23-2011 - Read This Book! It May Do You Good

9-24-2011 - To Be, or Not to Be . . . a Christian

11-5-2011 - Not the Highway to Heaven (Published as "Erosion of cherished values")

12-3-2011 - Miracles, Resurrection, and Other Matters (Published as "Miracles, resurrection and more")

12-31-2011 - The End of the World as We Know It

2-18-2012 - What if We Are Not Alone in the Cosmos? (Published as "Could it be that our God is too small?")

3-17-2012 - What if it's not All About Us?

4-28-2012 - The Potential Inhumanity of Humanity is Universal

6-9-2012 - Would Jesus Occupy?

7-21-2012 - What's a Government to Do? (Published as "What's a government to do about disparities in America's wealth?")

8-25-2012 - Pitfalls of Wealth and Charity (Published as "Thoughts on pitfalls of wealth and charity")

9-29-2012 - "For the Living of These Days" (Published as "It's all 'For the Living of These Days'")

11-17-2012 - "Remember -- and then Forgive!" (Published as "One can remember -- and then forgive!")

12-29-2012 - "Revisiting American Exceptionalism"(Published as "Revisiting the idea of American exceptionalism")

2-2-2013 - "We Must Change, or Perish by the Gun"

3-9-2013 - "Those Bothersome Passages of Scripture"

4-13-2013 - "Death and Taxes" (Published as "Jesus does not spell out specifics about taxes")

5-18-2013 - "A Flawed and Partial Remedy for the Human Condition"

6-12-2013 - "The Second Amendment, the Bill of Rights, and the Constitution" (Published as "Take a careful look at Second Amendment")

8-3-2013 - "Seeking to Be Honest About Jesus"

9-9-2013 - "Of Means and Ends" (Published as "Evil means can't yield good results")

9-14-2013 - "The Selective Remembrance of Those Whom We Celebrate" (Published as "Let's not forget the real message")

11-9-2013 - "Biblical Justice Requires Meeting Human Needs"

12-14-2013 - "On Being a 'Not Exactly' Religious Liberal"

1-18-2014 - "The Contemporary Relevance of a Religious Idea"

2-22-2014 - "Living, Dying, and the Fear of Death"

3-19-2014 - "Specific Rights Don't Exist in Isolation"

3-22-2014 - "Embracing Lent With a Smile"

5-3-2014 - "In Defense of Monotheism"

6-7-2014 - "Jesus' Life and Death as Consequence and Sacrifice"

7-19-2014 - "The Challenging Art of Giving"

8-30-2014 - "Hobby Lobby Decision Favors Corporations Over People"

11-15-2014 - "What Are We to Make of Ourselves?"

1-3-2015 - "Thought for Today and Every Day"

2-7-2015 - "What You Are Paid No Measure of What You Are Worth"

3-7-2015 - "Religion: Illusion, or Path to Reality?"

4-4-2015 - "In the Light and Shadow of Death"

6-6-2015 - ""The Crisis of Our Time" (Published as "Have we reached the tipping point?")

6-27-2015 - "Some Thoughts Abouth Christianity's Failures to Challenge and Inspire"

8-1-2015 - "Virtuous Living: A Prospectus" (Published as "A prospectus: Life without the seven deadly sins")

10-10-2015 - "Living with Regret, Failure, and Finitude" (Published as "Doing our best, but living with regret, failure and finitude")

11-21-2015 - "Reason, Experience, and Other Claims to Authority"

12-19-2015 - "Beyond the Scourge of Fear" (Published as "Seeing beyond fear")

1-9-2016 - "Lamentable Abuses of Religion"

2-20-2016 - "Secular Humanism Revisited" (Published as "Talking another look at secular humanism")

4-2-2016 - "Life Is a Gamble" (Published as "Seeking what sustains on the journey of a life")

5-7-2016 - "Politics and Religion We'd Be Better Off Without"

5-23-2016 - "Is GOP Still the 'Party of Lincoln'?"

8-6-2016 - "A Parable for this Time and Season" (Published as "Considering the lessons of a parable for this time and season")

10-8-2016 - "Empirical Evidence and the Life of Faith" (Published as "'Given what we know': Connecting empirical evidence and the life of faith")

1-14-2017 - "Have White Christians Lost Sight of Good and Evil?"

2-13-2017 - "Abortion Poses Complex Moral Issues" (Published as "Abortion debate involves complex moral questions")

3-11-2017 - "Some Thoughts About Evil and Evildoers" (Published as "Evil: A tragic consequence of the disharmonies of existence")

5-6-2017 - "Beware the Easy Path that Leads to Destruction"

6-3-2017 - "Our Survival Requires a New Standard of Living"

7-15-2017 - "Many Conflicts Cannot Be Helped, but Should Be Understood"

8-26-2017 - "Religious Freedom and the Democratic Limits of Toleration"

11-18-2017 - "The Conflicts and Factions Among Us Are Currently Unavoidable"

12-23-2017 - "What's Needed at Christmas and in Every Other Season" (Published in significantly edited form as "Sense of worship needed in every season")

2-10-2018 - "What Might Jesus Say About American Christians Today?"

3-31-2018 - "What Do the Events of Holy Week Signify?"

5-19-2018 - "We Live in a Time of Spiritual Crisis" (Published as "We are currently living in a time of spiritual crisis")

6-23-2018 - "Resistance Against Injustice is Very Biblical"

8-11-2018 - "Love in a Time of Enmity, Dissolution, and Division" (Published as "Love is so needed in a time of enmity, dissolution and division")

2-2-2019 - "Ancient Counsel Regarding the Grievous Human Condition"

2-16-2019 - "A Prescription for all the "isms" that Divide Us"

4-27-2019 - "Some Calls to Repentance Should Be Heeded"

6-8-2019 - "This World Is My Home, and I'm Not Planning to Leave it"

6-22-2019 - "The Human Condition and Our Current State of Affairs"

7-20-2019 - "The Human Search for Meaning Knows No Bounds"

10-12-2019 - "Coming to Terms with Human Finitude"

11-13-2019 - "Reject Name Calling, but not Naming and Calling Out" (Published as "Reject name calling in politics")

12-21-2019 - "We Are Not the Measure of All Things"

1-18-2020 - "There Is Much that We Really Cannot Bear to Know"

6-4-2020 - "Time to Re-Think Our Future" (Published as "Times have changed, and so should we")

7-3-2020 - "Is the Coronavirus a Message from God?" (Published as "Humanity needs to change its ways")

8-1-2020 - "Discerning the Signs of the Times" (Published as "Biblical prophecies and discerning the signs of the times")

8-29-2020 - "A Religious Perspective on the Relationship of Love and Justice"

12-1-2020 - "A Time and Season for Restorative Justice" (Published as "Thoughts on needed restorative justice")

12-19-2020 - "Taking a Cue from the Social Gospel's Critique of Individualism"

2-28-2021 - Letter to Editor (submitted 1-12-2021)

4-10-2021 - "The Challenge of Living an Authentic Existence"

6-14-2021 - "Attacks on Our Electoral Process Threaten Democracy" (Published as "Who was the worst U.S. president?")

7-31-2021 - "Truthfulness in Religion Presents a Highly Demanding Challenge" (Published as "Truthfulness in religion a challenge")

8-28-2021 - "Reach for the Sky or Prepare to Die?" (Published with one edit as "Should humans reach for the sky or prepare to die?"

9-27-2021 - "The Stories We Tell Ourselves Are Often Blinding and Horribly Consequential" (Published as "The stories we tell ourselves are blinding, horribly consequential"

10-9-2021 - "A Brief Telling of a Long and Poignant Story" (Corrected; published as "Deadly explosion at Ohio church recalled 50 years later")

10-23-2021 - "God, Noah, the Sixth Mass Extinction, and Us"

1-28-2022 - "Lies, Big Lies, and Ballistics"

3-25-2022 - "We Urgently Need a "Higher" Standard of Living"

4-15-2022 - "Real and Perceived Self-Interests Distort Perceptions of the Truth" (Published as "Self-interests distort our perceptions of the truth")

6-19-2022 - "U. S. Military Sees Climate Change as Major Threat" (Published as "The military is preparing for our climate's unpleasant future")

10-9-2022 - "Democracy is a Challenging Possibility" (Published as "Does your vote count? That's not the right question to ask")