Commentary

Besides symbolizing God’s eternal promise, the rainbow’s physical and spiritual beauty can be viewed as a metaphor for how we humans age. As we go through life, we admire rainbows from afar, pure light scattering myriad hues through crystal prisms of raindrops. The naked eye detects only bright colors, distinct yet inseparable.

I have found my step-son’s assumption that folks go to church so that they’ll land in heaven rather than hell quite common among non-church goers. Perhaps this assumption comes from the presence of hell-fire-and-brimstone preachers on street corners or from the seeming monopoly fundamentalists have on popular media. It sure doesn’t come from the actual church-goers I know.

Scripture is the language of the Eastern Orthodox Church. In 2 Thessalonians 2:15, Saint Paul says, “Brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions (τας παραδόσεις) which you have been taught, whether by word (oral) or our epistle (written).” These holy traditions are defined as the living continuity of everlasting and unchanging boundaries, beliefs and practices as they were imparted and received from Christ and the apostles.

November is Native American Heritage month, and it is astounding how many stereotypical and wrong ideas are out there about America’s indigenous people. For starters: We are still here.

I read, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” I did not need any prior church or explanation to tell me that this sentence meant something extraordinary: the foundation of all meaning-making was in the beginning … and it “became flesh and dwelt among us”… and this was Jesus.

There has never been a balance when it comes to a Muslim woman's personal dress code choice. This and thoughts like these came to my naïve mind when I heard the news on Mahsa Amini, the Iranian girl who was arrested, detained and then died after being beaten by the morality police for violating Iran’s dress code law. Amini was a young girl of Kurdish ethnicity who was merely visiting Tehran.