Language Learning: Moving from Hostility to Hospitality

Language Learning: Moving from Hostility to Hospitality

If I had wanted to become a fluent German speaker, I should have started before I was ten years old, which seems to be the best time in life to learn a language. But I didn’t know that one day I would be living and working in a German-speaking part of the world, in a country where a work permit requires proficiency in one of the country’s four official languages.

Doug Brouwer
On March 24, 2025
The End of White Western Male Supremacy – Lessons Learned from Henk Hart

The End of White Western Male Supremacy – Lessons Learned from Henk Hart

Before I go any further, I should clarify that I’m not channeling Critical Race Theory or parroting something I picked up in a DEI training. The phrase “white Western male supremacy,” is a direct quote from a 1985 January Series talk by Hendrik (Henk) Hart.

Joseph Kuilema
On March 17, 2025
Taking the Plunge in the Secular City: Harvey Wasn’t on the Bus

Taking the Plunge in the Secular City: Harvey Wasn’t on the Bus

It may have been The Secular City by Harvey Cox that stirred the pot. Five years after the book’s debut in 1965, a yellow school

David Larsen
On March 10, 2025
In the Overlap: A Short Story

In the Overlap: A Short Story

I have no idea how to be a decent soon-to-be-former-mother-in-law. My local library has no self-help books on the topic. I find no such books on Amazon. But I discover that “mother-in-law” is not even a legal term. In family law, blood is primary. “Consanguinity” is the legal term. Its contrasting term is “affinity relation.” Affinity is a friendly-sounding word for a flimsy bond. Nothing I can do will prevent me from becoming a former-mother-in-law.

Caroline J. Simon
On March 4, 2025

Featured Articles

Featured
Caroline J. Simon

In the Overlap: A Short Story

I have no idea how to be a decent soon-to-be-former-mother-in-law. My local library has no self-help books on the topic. I find no such books

Featured
Don Tamminga

A Lesson Never Learned

Because synod has left no space for other opinions, the end result is going to be disaffiliation. The fact that our congregation was even in

Featured
Rebecca Tellinghuisen

Remember to Take and Eat

I wonder if I kept that cup of July 2023 yogurt because I was savoring a memory or because I was fearing loss. But there

Featured
James Bratt

1925

Let’s look back at 1925 to see the portents of the year but also its other possibilities, to compare what looked big at the time

Featured
Rick Patterson

An Insurrectionist Set Free

A raucous mob of religious stalwarts gathered on a day centuries ago outside a palace. Like many of those gathered in the Capitol on January

Featured
Tom Boogaart

Tears and the River of Life

The God of the scriptures does not have a heart of steel; God has a heart of flesh, a bleeding heart, and God has eyes

Featured
David Landegent

Drawing 101

While many art classes were designed to enhance creativity, this drawing class mostly helped us learn to draw realistically and accurately. I enjoyed this extended

Featured
Wes Granberg-Michaelson

Jimmy Carter’s Lonely Pilgrimage and Lasting Legacy

It was Carter’s election as President which made “evangelical” and “born again” public terms rather than the private vocabulary of a minority religious community. Ken