Can Love Cast Out Fear?
Last week in this space, I suggested that most of us Americans—conservative and liberal, coastal and middle America, urban and rural—share a weird type of common ground: fear. We fear the white-hot public square, in [...]
The Weirdest Common Ground Ever
Many people are bemoaning America’s vicious public square. Few are discussing the weird common ground that most of us share—and what might be the best way to address it. Two recent conversations brought this into [...]
The Second Step Toward Dialogue Is a Doozy
People ask me what my book is about. I tell them it’s about how to change from the inside out so you can talk with people who drive you nuts. They say, “Boy, do I [...]
Singing the Lord’s Song to the “Other Side”
“How shall we sing the Lord’s song on alien soil?” —Psalm 137:4 This haunting question—asked by the psalmist after the people of Israel had been swept into captivity, hundreds of miles from home—formed the theme [...]
Of Dreamers, Realists, and Dialogue
A few years ago, my wife and I had the privilege of visiting a monastery in South Africa. Like many monasteries, Mariya uMama weThemba observed the Great Silence from roughly 8:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. [...]
Reading Material for the Dialogue Journey
I will be away from the laptop for a few weeks, so instead of an original post I thought I’d link you to some other food for dialogical thought. Read one a week, and it’ll [...]
Upcoming Dialogue: LGBT Issues and the Christian Church
When a pillar of our quasi-evangelical church came out in 1989, I had just started rethinking the whole issue of gender, sexuality, and the Bible. So I was not prepared for how torturous the resulting [...]
Dialogue by Being There
Can you start a dialogue just by showing up? Miki Kashtan’s friend did. At a conference on reconciliation, this friend realized with despair that there was no exploration of gay issues on the agenda. On [...]