These articles first appeared on the website: www.spiritrestoration.org. If you use them please attribute them both to the author and to the website on which they appeared.
Is 2008 going to be the year of unconditional forgiveness and reconciliation? Not in America if election campaigning is anything to go by. 28 January 2008
I was once asked to give the invocation for the Oregon senate. I was introduced and the senators duly bowed their heads. As I spoke astonished heads were slowly raised. It might have been the English accent, or perhaps it was the invocation, unlike others they were used to. I simply told the story of a politician who I thought was a good example for politicians anywhere, anytime. 16 November 2007
The turmoil in Myanmar/Burma brings to my mind some great men and women from that country whom I met in 1947 as a young teenager attending a conference at Mountain House, Caux, the newly created centre of reconciliation in Switzerland. 01 October 2007
As I was pondering what to write this month, my Sunday paper had a headline, 'Old age isn’t for sissies.' It was a columnist writing about the need to plan ahead even when we seem to believe that old age is never going to happen to us. 11 September 2007
The summer is what some people in newspapers here call the ‘silly season’ when there is often a shortage of big news and all sorts of lesser stories fill the gaps. Not that this is so with terrorist attacks and floods. But I am filling this summer gap with a look at a little religion-based humour. 11 July 2007
Every now and then, those of us who feel deprived without our regular news infusion, however gloomy, are treated to a pleasant surprise. As, for instance, the way the Amish killings were rapidly followed by stories of Amish forgiveness. In fact, as one who often writes about forgiveness, I am much encouraged by the number of forgiveness stories I come across these days and even stories of conflicts ending. 01 June 2007
I rest my hope of the end of the ‘troubles’ on two specific counts – the dramatic change of attitude by Sinn Fein to the police and something that happened or didn’t happen at a recent rugby match. 01 March 2007
Many secular-minded Westerners, particularly in Europe, have a real problem with ANY religion being taken seriously. And there's a refusal to believe that Muslims who believe in their faith and try to take it seriously can become part of modern democratic society. 19 February 2007
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