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What's Tony Thinking
December 19, 2024 —
Here’s an amazing prayer that was written and offered by a lay person during Sunday worship at one of the congregations I served. I’d like to think my brilliant ministry had something to do with such a powerful expression of faith, but I’m pretty sure it owed way more to that person’s own wisdom as... Read More
December 17, 2024 —
In response to my blog of last weekend, “America’s Great Division (And How I Missed It),” one of you readers who I think is a non-college grad, got in touch to comment about her experience at Plymouth Church in Seattle, where I was then the Senior Minister. She wrote, “I was reminded [by that blog]... Read More
December 16, 2024 —
Here’s a story I liked from the world of sports, but which applies to life generally. It is from writer Michael Silver in The Athletic, via friend Dave Zahl at Mockingbird. Headline at the Athletic was “How Jared Goff hitting rock bottom became his and the Detroit Lions’ salvation.” Summoned to Detroit Lions coach Dan... Read More
December 14, 2024 —
We’ve long known that Seattle, where we have lived since 1990, is a very blue bubble politically. Something like 12% of the vote in Seattle went for Trump this November. But lately I have become aware of what is arguably the much more important bubble in which I dwell, managing to do so with little... Read More
December 10, 2024 —
A common characterization of the Old and New Testaments is that the Old Testament God is a God of judgement, while the New Testament God is a God of love. It is as persistent as it is mistaken. The readings for this coming Sunday, the Third Sunday of Advent 2024, challenge this simplistic if durable... Read More
December 6, 2024 —
Ezra Klein had a great interview with Rahm Emmanuel this week. He was Obama’s chief-of-staff, but before that the architect of bringing the Democrats back after their 2004 thumping. Klein asked Emmanuel if had the same job again in the wake of the 2024 defeat — that of recruiting candidates to run for Congress in... Read More
December 3, 2024 —
I met up with my daughter, Laura, in Minneapolis the day after Thanksgiving. She was driving cross country from Greenville, South Carolina to Seattle. So I was on board for Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho and Washington. (North Dakota sky at right, can you find the alligator?) Here are a couple impressions from the trip,... Read More
November 27, 2024 —
One of my favorite hymns is, “Now Thank We All Our God.” I love the words, the tune and the sound of great organ in the midst of a singing congregation. “Now Thank We All Our God,” was written in 1636 by the Lutheran pastor, Martin Rinkart. Rinkart served the church in the walled city... Read More
November 25, 2024 —
You may be done with election post-mortems, but one came to my attention recently that I want to share and to comment on. It was written by a progressive Christian minister, Phillip Gulley, who says he “has been asked the question ‘Who Would Vote for Donald Trump?’ literally hundreds of times” and so offered his... Read More
November 22, 2024 —
As I mentioned in a blog earlier in the week about the coming Advent season, the medieval church had a different set of themes for the four Sundays of Advent than the contemporary church. These days the four Sundays are themed “hope,” “peace,” “joy,” and “love.” I’m not sure who decided this. Maybe Hallmark? In... Read More
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