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What's Tony Thinking
April 19, 2025 —
Easter is a not “a triumph of the human spirit” story. It is not about realizing your “human potential.” It is not a story about how the good people endured and overcame. We love those stories. Especially we Americans love those stories. Hero stories. Rags to riches stories. Fighting and winning stories. No, we are... Read More
April 16, 2025 —
In recent weeks I have written several times on themes of the dignity of Work and the importance of Sacrifice. In our current moment, both have fallen on hard times. Work has often come to be viewed as a source of drudgery or frustration. Or it is a necessary evil, to be got through so... Read More
April 15, 2025 —
“One Day Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This” is the title of a new book by Omar El Akkad, an Egyptian-Canadian journalist and novelist. His title has in view the Israeli war in Gaza. But this compelling line is one that has multiple resonances today. El Akkad’s phrase suggests the way people can be... Read More
April 11, 2025 —
Holy Week begins tomorrow, which is Palm Sunday. The word most associated with Palm Sunday is “Hosanna,” which means, in most definitions, “Save us, we pray.” But that’s the genteel, the polite, version. What it really means is “SAVE US, dear God, right now, right this very minute!” It is a cry of desperation. Which... Read More
April 8, 2025 —
In 2003 when the dot.com bubble burst it hit Seattle pretty hard. At the congregation I then served we had a number of people who had, overnight, lost jobs as companies folded. We started a support group for those out of work and looking for work. As it turned out, it was a men’s group,... Read More
April 4, 2025 —
It’s spring in the Northwest, or at least the part of the NW on the west side of the Cascade Mountains. I am enjoying the many colors of green. Here are some photos from walks with Georgie, the dog. All green, save one which shows the cherry blossoms against an April sky. And here... Read More
April 2, 2025 —
Last December I flagged a post by Freya India, a 20-something Brit who writes on Substack. She also contributes to Jonathan Haidt’s site, “After Babel.” Haidt is the author of the best-selling The Anxious Generation that is about the cost to kids of spending too much time on phones and devices, and too little time in... Read More
March 31, 2025 —
I very much liked this piece on Substack from David Fitch. If I were a still the pastor of a church I would be encouraging us to reflect on this piece and consider implementing those practices to which we felt called. In the meantime, I encourage those of you who are pastors or lay people... Read More
March 29, 2025 —
This week Pope Francis sent a letter to U.S. Catholic Bishops addressing the policies of mass deportation of the current administration. He begins with the Exodus story of a people who were migrants and aliens, going on to note that Jesus too was a refugee whose family fled their homeland when his life was threatened.... Read More
March 25, 2025 —
Netflix is running a new whodunit, The Residence, about a murder in the White House. It stars Uzo Aduba as the relentless, no-nonsense detective, Cordelia Cupp. It’s great fun. Witty and fast-paced, well acted by a large cast. Spoiler Alert: Although I will not name the culprit, I will give sufficient description that you will probably be... Read More
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