He was quite the fellow. Appointed as the first Chicago detective, founder of a famous national investigative agency, bodyguard to President Abraham Lincoln, undercover operative who infiltrated the Confederate Army, pivotal in the formation of the U.S. Secret Service, tracker of Jesse James and other train robbers and responsible for the establishment of a central criminal database system, Allan Pinkerton was quite the fellow. He wrote 15 detective books and novels, during which he popularized the word “lam”, a term used to describe fleeing fugitives who thus “were on the lam.” His detective agency became the “go to” place when […]

I’ve read books, blogs, articles, tweets and Facebook posts. I’ve kept up with the bestsellers book list, listened to dozens of hours of podcasts, visited countless churches and have been educated by Christian institutions. I’ve shared meals with fundamentalists, conservatives and liberals. For years I’ve listened to, gleaned from and observed evangelical Christians from various cultures, ethnicities and denominational backgrounds. What I’ve discovered is that they all have one thing in common: they are all, in some way, spiritually wounded by the church. Some have been spiritually abused, others profoundly disillusioned by church and cultural Christianity. They all love the Church yet are tired of existing in a world of exhaustion, pretending, […]

Walking out of our lovely, in-person commencement ceremonies last month, I found myself humming a classic hymn of the faith, thanks to Stewart Foster, talented organist from the Royal Poinciana Chapel in Palm Beach. The soft strains of Stewart’s music filled the spaces between the names called out as graduates received their diplomas. One particular hymn kept replaying in my mind, until I concluded: We should set up an Ebenezer after ending a year under COVID-19. I bet many of you know exactly the hymn I mean, and in your mind you’re singing along with me, “Here I raise my […]