ACROSS THE LINES - Archive (2006-2020)

A sermon preached on November 21, 2018, in La Jolla, California, at the 38th Annual Thanksgiving Eve Service celebrated by Congregation Beth Israel and the First United Methodist Church of San Diego.   I WANT TO BEGIN BY SAYING “THANK YOU.”   Thank you to the good people of Congregation Beth Israel for your hospitality.   Thank you to Rabbi Berk, for the many years of friendship and partnership, and congratulations on your upcoming retirement.   Thank you to Phil Amerson, our interim Lead Pastor at First United Methodist, for the generous invitation to speak this evening.   I think Phil knew how much this would mean to me, to preach on this occasion.   My brother and I used to ride our stingray bicycles across this land when there was nothing but dirt mesas as far as the eye could see.   I count it a great privilege and honor to share this time with you tonight.   Will you pray with me? "Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation ...

Widespread conservative indifference to Donald Trump's personal failings raises fundamental questions. If a President pursues policies we like, and advances our party's agenda, why should we care if he (or she) is of questionable personal character? When it comes to Presidents, does personal morality matter?  And if it does, how? Immersed, as I have been, in the study of early American history, I thought I’d seek answers to these questions by turning to the men who led the American revolution and framed the U.S. Constitution. Like many people in the late eighteenth century, the founders of the United States conceived of human societies as composed of many bodies – individual bodies, ecclesial bodies (“the body of Christ”), political bodies, and so on. The struggle to establish, maintain and restore right order in these many bodies dominated every dimension of life in the early American republic - from the practice of medicine, to disputes over church doctrine and polity, ...