Russell E. Saltzman

The old love song asks: Tell me why the stars do shine/Tell me why the ivy twines/Tell me why the sky’s so blue/And then I’ll tell you just why I love you. I have always found it an affecting little bit of music. I’ve gone so far as embarrassing middle school kids on youth retreats by making them sing it to each other while holding hands around the campfire. Sure, they probably still hate me, but I think it will do them less harm in the long run than singing Kum Ba Yah… . Continue Reading »

I must have been living under a rock. Here it is late June, The Voice appeared a whole month ago, and it wasn’t until last week that I heard anything about it. It is a new Bible, of course, from Thomas Nelson Publishing and the Ecclesia Bible Society, the latter an outgrowth of Ecclesia Church, Houston, an “emergent” congregation. There was an earlier 2010 release of The Voice New Testament, but I slept through that as well… . Continue Reading »

All my clothing comes from stores with names like “Community Thrift Store,” “Family Thrift,” and “Vintage Value.” These are places several retail notches below Macy’s or Target, and even further down the retail chain from all the “dollar” stores. If “cheap used clothing” has an endearing ring for you, these are the places to shop. Here “second hand,” if not “third hand,” is an honored and expected description. And “clean,” clean is a nice word to run across… . Continue Reading »

Richard John Neuhaus was born seventy-six years ago last week. A friend made note of it at the time, and it sent my mind tumbling again into memories of the friendship we had. There’s little doubt in my mind that compared to all the people he knew and befriended in life, I was a bit player… . Continue Reading »

The dead are not really dead. They hang around to pester us. Not as ghosts, no; I don’t believe in ghosts. Nor do I mean the dead “live on” in our memory and in our hearts, nor even necessarily”as I’ve noted before”that they now have “gone on” to a “better place.” This isn’t the time to go all metaphysical, anyway. No, I mean they all leave residue behind that commands attention and occupies mammoth periods of time and sometimes space, stretching, as far as I can see, endlessly into the future… . Continue Reading »

The percentages, based only on this man’s intuition, are the proper numbers to use ascertaining what people spend on a wedding, the ninety-nine being relative to the one. Weddings for the ninety-nine percent, well, they are cheap. Inexpensive may be a better word. Frugal might work too… . Continue Reading »

I have decided to stop aging. I’ve tried it now for awhile but it simply doesn’t suit me, so I am giving up on it. Other people have gone through it, I’m aware, but from what I can observe it almost always turns out badly for them. As lifestyles go, there’s just not much to be said for it in the long run. It will be like giving up cigars, I think. I can expect some lapses from time to time but if I keep at it with grit, determination, will power and cessation pills I’ll be done with it once and for all, finished, all fixed… . Continue Reading »

Preaching Death: The Transformation of Christian Funeral Sermons ? by Lucy Bregman? Baylor, 263 pages, $24.95 If thirty years ago my seminary classmates and I had any notion of how to talk about death, we learned it from Elizabeth K¸bler-Ross’ “death awareness” model, reinforced . . . . Continue Reading »

Domestic chickens inside the city limits of Lawrence, Kansas are no longer being threatened with slaughter. Any chickens elsewhere will have to fend for themselves. This, it may surprise you to know, is disappointing news to performance artists everywhere and to one performing artist, Amber Hansen, in particular. It was Ms. Hansen’s ambition to do just that, kill a few chickens, and call it art… . Continue Reading »

In Paul’s eschatology, Christians living at the Lord’s return will be swept up in Christ and the dead in fact will be the first to participate in the grand trumpet-call summons to resurrection. “Console one another,” Paul laconically concludes, “with these words.” I am trying, but what I hear isn’t helping. I was told again a week ago at my father’s funeral”I’ve heard this now in one version or another at four funerals within the last three years and, truly, I am weary of hearing it”that “we all know where X is; he is in a better place.” … Continue Reading »