The ongoing debate over health care has overlooked my very simple solution. What is missing is a discussion whether health care is a right. I say it is, and that there should be no compromise on that. Everyone is entitled to health care, period end of story. My proposal to deliver it is as follows and should be in the form of an Amendment to the US Constitution 1. All persons lawfully present in the United States are entitled to…

Holy Week begs the question, “Why did Jesus die on the cross?” Many Christians believe in “penal substitution.” They believe: all humankind has sinned, God’s justice requires a penalty be paid for sin, so God sent Jesus to suffer the penalty in our place by dying on the cross. But what does that say about God, and is that how Jesus saw himself? “Penal Substitution,” the dominant theory of Calvin and Luther in Sixteenth Century Continental Europe, has been widely…

Having been a lifelong baseball fan and having umpired from 1970 to 1984 (including the minors), I have concluded that Organized Baseball needs a bit of a facelift and updating. First, we need to expand by two franchises to cover up and coming metropolitan areas. One is the Winston-Salem North Carolina area and the other is Portland, Oregon, both of which now have minor league teams so we know there is interest there in the game. That would bring the…

This election is known as a “watershed election,” also known as a “political realignment. Having been raised by a liberal Democrat mother in a progressive Angl0-Catholic parish, one would expect that I would reflexively support Barack Obama and the rest of the Democrat tick and would vote NO on Proposition 8. That is indeed how I will vote. But even if I did not have those background cultural advantages, I would still arrive at the same conclusion. This is not…

My favorite job in Church is that of thurifer. While I usually shy away from literally interpreting scripture, I do believe there is one verse every Christian church should take seriously: “And in every place, incense SHALL be offered unto My name, thus says the LORD.” (Malachai 1:11). Thus, I am known for stoking the thurible for maximum smoke output and making it do tricks in processions, such as 360’s, double and triple 360’s, figure 8’s, corner swings. Some may…