There are movements afoot in our country – by those on the political right, including many elected officials at all levels of government – to reverse social, racial and economic progress that most Americans acknowledge has been made over the past 40-50 years. “Progress,” however, is not how those Americans on the right characterize certain […]
Guardian Angels: With Us, Helping Us
In the Roman Catholic tradition, there is a simple and common prayer to one’s Guardian Angel: Angel of God My guardian dear To Whom His love Commits me here Ever this day Be at my side To light and guard To rule and guide. Amen The paranormal evidence supports the existence of guardian angels for […]
Praying the Psalms: Age-Old Jewish Poetry in a Christian Context
Most Sundays, and in many contexts around the world on weekdays as well, Christian worshipers read, sing or chant portions of a Psalm, an entire Psalm or even several Psalms during a service. The standard collection of Psalms, the Psalter, found in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) portion of the Bible, is “an anthology of […]
The New Democratic Progressive Caucus
One of the most significant results of the 2022 midterms was the election, across the country, of the “most progressive Democratic Caucus in decades.” With wins of almost all of the 18 candidates supported by the Democratic Progressive Caucus (DPC), the DPC will now have 103 members in the 118th Congress (Senator Bernie Sanders [VT] […]
The Apocryphal Origins of the Cherry Tree Carol
Tis the season when many of us are singing – and/or listening to – Christmas carols. These carols often reflect the stories of Jesus’ birth as recounted in the New (Christian) Testament Gospels of Matthew and Luke, but many others originate considerably later in the Christian tradition. One of these later tales is the Cherry […]
Kabbalah and the Paranormal: Parallels around Consciousness
The mystical component of Judaism, often referred to as Kabbalah, is relatively little known to modern Westerners. Although developed during the Middle Ages, Kabbalah’s 20th-century practitioners who would have been able to carry on the tradition nearly all perished in the Holocaust (Cooper, 13). It is possible that up to 80 percent of religiously observant […]
Post-Election Musings
Election Day 2022 – the midterms – is now history, although many votes are still being counted. Fortunately, casting ballots across our country generally appears to have gone quite smoothly (although some voters did experience intimidation in some areas). Given the fact that the Georgia Senate election will go into a runoff and the long […]
Index to the Seventh Year
Thank you for your interest in these blog posts! Here is a listing by topic for posts since October 2021. (Some topics overlap.) Social and Racial Justice, Diversity Honoring the Wampanoags Today and Moving Toward a More Perfect Union, November 26, 2021 Suggested Readings for Black History Month: The Self-Education of White Americans, February […]
Family Values and the Future of Our Nation
The issue of family values has been a theme of American conservatism and the Republican Party since at least the 1970s. Generally speaking, those values as articulated by the right have come in the form of attacks on LGBTQ rights, the Equal Rights Amendment, sex education in schools, abortion rights, certain government programs, supposed “socialist” […]
America’s Continuing Low Democracy Score and the Urgency to Improve It
Americans should know about the Democracy Index if we do not know about it already. In the latest report published by the Economist Intelligence Unit (The EIU), the US is described as a “flawed democracy” – for the fifth straight year, and lower than the 2020 score. The Economist Intelligence Unit (The EIU) is a […]