What's Tony Thinking

Fatigue and Endurance

May 15, 2020 — I’ve been hearing the term “pandemic fatigue” a lot this week. No big mystery about the meaning. We’re tired of it. Tired of the disruption. Tired of the anxiety. Tired of the relentless numbers of sick and dying. Tired of this issue too being politicized. I signaled my own P. F. with a post, earlier... Read More

Some Off Beat Movie Suggestions

May 14, 2020 — Part of our pandemic pattern of survival has been to watch a movie together several evenings a week. We specialize in finding humane — sometimes funny, sometimes sad — movies that might be called “small,” as they don’t feature big stars and are often set in out of the way places. Here are some of... Read More

You Tired?

May 12, 2020 — People tell me that they are dreaming a lot during this time. Last night I dreamed that I couldn’t, for the life of me, find where I was on a map. I kept turning the map one way, then another. I turned it over to the other side, then back. For a moment I would... Read More

Weird Christianity

May 11, 2020 — One of my most-read posts of last week (to my surprise) was titled “What Happened To Liberal Christianity?” In that blog I quote Huston Smith who argued that liberal Christianity had devolved into “rallying cries to be good,” morality shorn of a theistic world-view and transcendence. Yesterday’s NYT had a piece, Christianity Gets Weird, that... Read More

A Both/ And Time

May 9, 2020 — I used to have an old VW Bug. On the back of it I had two of those fish symbols. One said “Darwin.” The other one “Jesus.” Personally, I never saw the theory of evolution as a contradiction of the biblical creation stories or vice-versa. Nor do I see science as intrinsically opposed to faith.... Read More

What Happened to the Liberal Protestant Tradition?

May 8, 2020 — I have a friend who has been after me to write something for a broader interest publication, say Atlantic, about why mainline churches are faltering and what to do about it. I’ve not jumped to the task. Partly because a large part of what I’ve already written has been along these lines. Moreover, as time passes,... Read More

The Revolution of Lowered Expectations

May 6, 2020 — The other day the local PBS affiliate, KUOW, was asking guests and listeners alike, “What are you missing during this time? And how are you replacing it?” My thought was, “What about this time are you enjoying, and might you miss when it’s over?” I’m enjoying lowered expectations. The day doesn’t have to be “full.”... Read More

You are Both: A Sheep and A Shepherd

May 4, 2020 — Thought you might enjoy my sermon preached last Sunday, via Zoom, at Bethel UCC in White Salmon, Washington. Edited for length. The Hidden Gate John 10: 1 – 10, May 3, 2020 By way of introduction let me say that my regular m.o. is to take my starting point from the biblical texts appointed for... Read More

Places in the Heart

May 3, 2020 — Do you remember the 1984 movie, Places in the Heart? Sally Field was the lead as a young widow trying to keep a farm going with two small kids. The cast also included Danny Glover and Ed Harris. In the movie there were a number of incidents of violence. As I recall, most but not all racially... Read More

And Now . . . More of the Same

May 2, 2020 — Yesterday Washington’s Governor, Jay Inslee, extended his stay at home/ shelter in place orders through the end of the month. They had been slated to expire on Monday, May 4. I get the extension, but I gotta say it felt a little like having the air knocked out of me. Or the wind out of... Read More

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