Blogs

Join us on Monday, March 22 at the Louisville International Convention Center as we call on our school and juvenile justice system to "Plug the School to Prison Pipeline" by including Restorative Justice practices in their options for responses to student misbehavior.

A fact sheet on the issue is available, as is the content of an op-ed (written in part by Joe Phelps) that has been submitted to the Courier Journal.

Tomorrow would be Bobby’s 28th birthday.

It's been almost three years.  Friends sent flowers.  Family members call to check on us.  Jan in Austin is taking Carly out for fish tacos (a Bobby specialty) as a tip of the hat to Showtime Chervil, as he was known in the kitchens where he worked.  Kara and Luch will do the same tomorrow in Jacksonville Beach.

Like most folk in the circles I run in, Haiti has called to our hearts to come to the aid and comfort of the wounded and grieving.  But requests for pastors to rush to the scene with a Bible and a sermon is nil as compared to the urgent need for rescue workers, medical teams, water consultants, and construction workers.  Sending money does little to assuage the Calling Voice, but it seems all we can and should do at this point. 

Following are a selection of daily Lenten devotional that can be accessed online.  You may wish to explore each of them and then decide on one that you’ll use each day, or perhaps one in the morning and one in the evening.

May you create a daily Lenten rhythm that brings you life, reflection, peace, intimacy with God.

HBC's Lenten Schedule

From Passport (sponsors of the youth camp HBC attends)

From Upper Room (publishers of the Daily Devotionals that are available in print around HBC)

From The Lutheran Hour

From Explorefaith.org (a group of authors and ministers many of us appreciate, including Marcus Borg, Barbara Brown Taylor and Phyllis Tickle)

Letters, emails, voicemails continue to arrive in response or reaction to last Sunday’s op-ed.  The overwhelming majority are affirming and grateful.  Of course, some disagree.  A few are so hatefully dismissive, like Tuesday’s letter to the editor, that they warrant no response.  Others, however, ask pointed questions that get to the heart of the matter.  Here are few more responses to some of the recurring questions.

I spent quite a bit of time today answering this email that was one of many that came in response to the op-ed on homosexuality. I’m posting the email and my loooong reply in hope that perhaps others might be interested in this exchange on this important, complex and many-layered topic.

From my in-box: