Russell E. Saltzman

At army boot camp, young recruits, like my Number Three son, aren’t given much free time, and what they are given is restricted to just a couple activities: writing letters home and reading the Bible. The boy has never really read the Bible beyond anything he picked up in catechism instruction, so it was an experience. He never finished it cover-to-cover during recruit training, which he said was his goal, but he did write letters home. Incessantly, it seemed, but we were very glad to have them… . Continue Reading »

Al-Jumuah is my favorite Islamic magazine. There are several publications geared to Arab-American concerns, but like many publications with an immigrant readership they seem bent on showing how successful Arab-Americans are at getting their slice of the American pie. They are completely secular, complete with photos of folks attending the latest Arab cultural heritage gala and announcing who’s moving up with the latest promotion at work… . Continue Reading »

I am traveling this week so I must produce this column early and hurriedly. I am unable to devote the hours and hours of labor necessary to produce anything as seamlessly smooth as my previous submissions. (You detect, I trust, a little of my sly, winsome humor.) What I’m saying is: You all cut me some slack this week. What I do have are a couple of items, both, in my judgment, deserving some little skewering … Continue Reading »

There was a student exchange program with the Methodists and the Roman Catholics when I was at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio. Most guys, by my recollection, signed up for Biblical studies at the Methodist seminary, a much shorter drive. Boring, I thought. I instead hauled myself up to the Pontifical College Josephinum and signed up for Mariology in Ecumenical Dialogue and Sacramentology… . Continue Reading »

My mother was buried Monday this week. If you are scheduled to preach on the Sunday of the Resurrection here are a few things I need to hear (and one thing I don’t want to hear) and it is up to you to make sure I hear them. I do not want to hear the word Easter. It is time to resurrect, so to speak, resurrection. Call this coming Sunday what it is: Resurrection Sunday… . Continue Reading »

Thanks to Vatican II most Christian denominations now use some version of the common lectionary from 1969”a set series of scripture readings designated for each Sunday repeated over a three-year cycle conforming to the liturgical calendar. The three years in the cycle are called Year A, Year B and”yes, wait for it”Year C. And because it is a “common” lectionary Catholics and most Protestants frequently find themselves on the same biblical page on the same Sunday (or only a Sunday or two apart) reading the same passage as everyone else from one of the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John… . Continue Reading »

Richard Neuhaus described something I once wrote for First Things magazine as “winsomely forceful.” I thought that was an unusually charming turn of phrase, he was good at them, and it honestly was the tone I tried to achieve in my “uninformed” piece last Thursday on immigration. For those of you who missed last week’s column due to life threatening illness or because you had to get the dog wormed (the only plausible reasons I can imagine for skipping my golden prose) I talked about illegal immigration … Continue Reading »

Let me say right from the beginning I do not know what I am talking about. Oh, sure, I did some research but everything goes ten different ways on this topic and at the end of it I knew less than I did at the start”which was nothing. Should anyone in the comments section below challenge me to a battle of wits, fair warning, I am unarmed. … Continue Reading »

Congress doesn’t get much respect. It never has. At the dawn of our republic John Adams famously muttered: “In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress.” A century after Adams, citizens resonated (and still do) to Mark Twain’s assertion: “Fleas can be taught nearly anything that a Congressman can.” … Continue Reading »

It annoys me to no end, church leaders occasionally given to touting political influence within the circles of government. Hubristic self-service is a phrase that comes uncharitably to mind. Put not your trust in princes is another. So there was a press release some little while back in early February from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America announcing the coming appointment of Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson to the Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships… . Continue Reading »