Coming out of the Great Depression, one of the Civil Works Administration projects of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal was the construction of a small stretch of road through Bergen County, New Jersey and into lower New York State. It’s maybe one of the most beautiful drives you can take in this part of the […]
Tag: Easter
Jesus, Antifa Revolutionary: Reflections around Easter
From a certain corner atop the Temple Mount, there’s a good view of the Mount of Olives looking East, though the olive trees there are sparse and kind of sad. It was a sunny summer day, and the Israeli sun can really beat down on you, but we walked from the Temple Mount, out the […]
The Republican Promise of a Negligent Homicide against America
America believes, perhaps because of our history, that freedom is our most cherished quality. Maybe because of violent beginnings, our independence has long been interpreted to mean “freedom from tyranny,” as opposed to “freedom from want.” That is, when we obsess over the need to be free, we assume ourselves victims of some fast-approaching enemy […]
The Lie of the ‘Great American Resurrection’
Last week when Trump said he wanted the country “open by Easter,” a Fox News anchor referred to it as the “great American resurrection.” The reference to the Easter tradition, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, is an obvious attempt to signal to Trump’s evangelical base that this president really is a person of faith, a […]
Reflections on Holy Week
Someone told me today this is “Holy Week,” that Easter is this Sunday, and it caught me off-guard. There was a time very recently when, not only would that have been incredibly pertinent to my life, but my work would have revolved around the whole week in some way or another. Nowadays, it couldn’t be […]
Some Thoughts for a Good Friday
The world has become ugly and dark. Terrorist groups slaughter. The wealthy grow wealthier as the poor remain poor. The planet itself is slowly but surely dying off, we’re told. Our most precious resources are grown increasingly scarce. Our best politicians follow the money instead of the heart. And for most of us that’s just […]
Sheep in the Taxi Trunk
The big holiday known as Eid el-Adha or Eid el-Kbir is just around the corner. The holiday celebrates the almost-sacrifice of Ishmael. This same story appears in Christian and Jewish texts, though is slightly different in that it is Ishmael who is almost sacrificed by Abraham in Islam, not Isaac. In either case, that God […]
