All Posts By

Steve Mathonnet-VanderWell

Blog

Bonnemaman’s Ladle, Progress, and Hope

The soup ladle pictured above is from Bonnemaman’s girlhood home. Bonnemaman was my wife’s lovable, buoyant grandmother whose life came up a few months short

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Blog

My Mom, Fear, and John Wayne

Don’t try to figure out your own life. That’s too much. The most we can hope for is to try to figure out our parents.

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Blog

Names & Power

The first football game I ever attended in Iowa pitted the Dutch against the Norse. Who knew such strong ethnic sentiments still persisted? Team names

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Blog

Endearing, Muslim Millennial: Ramy

Can a flailing, often failing, young Muslim man present the most appealing portrayal of “religion” on recent television? A millennial from an immigrant family in

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Blog

A Mansion Just Over the Hilltop

I’m satisfied with just a cottage belowA little silver and a little goldBut in that city where the ransomed will shineI want a gold one

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Blog

To Be a Witness

I never did put a fish sticker on the back of my car. Many years ago, I considered it for a while — a discreet

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Blog

Two Takes on a Pandemic

Jesus says, “For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has

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Blog

Pandemic, Postponing, and Polity

When the Covid-19 pandemic appeared, it soon became apparent that most annual gatherings of Christian denominations in the USA would not meet this summer, as

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Blog

Three Sweet Stories

I flatter myself and say that someday historians will note when The Twelve stopped being All-COVID-19-All-the-Time as an important landmark in the history of the

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