Breaking News

Local Columns

To spank or not to spank; that is the question

Driving down the highway several years ago I remember listening to a radio talk show host debate with his guest the merits of spanking children. The talk show host was a bigger proponent of spanking by parents than his guest. The host also argued in favor of corporal punishment in public schools while his guest disagreed. I was not in a position to call in and share my opinion but I definitely had one. I still do. I believe a parent has an obligation to lovingly discipline a child. At a young age, when reasoning doesn’t work, spanking — sparingly and wisely applied — can be ...

Not my will: The heartbeat of Resurrection living

As most of the world pauses to celebrate Resurrection Sunday, millions reflect on more than just a religious tradition — they remember a story that has forever altered history. This is not merely a holiday. It is a call to encounter the deepest love humanity has ever known. The final week of Jesus Christ's life, often called Holy Week, is not just a page in Scripture — it is a collision of divine purpose and human pain, of heaven's hope and earth's brokenness. At the very heart of this sacred journey lies a moment of raw, gut-wrenching surrender in the Garden of Gethsemane — a ...

Hugging to the music

Facebook friends are posting photos of their kids and grandkids all decked out for proms at their high schools. These photos are rekindling a 60-year trauma. During the years of childhood my only acquaintance with proms were news stories of teenagers driving recklessly after proms. The reality of a prom didn’t hit me until I was a sophomore in high school. Sophomores could volunteer to be servers at the Junior-Senior Prom. I thought I had better things to do. The next year our junior class staged a fundraiser to finance our prom and I pitched in. In those days proms included a ...

Would you believe me if I told you the tomb was empty?

He is risen! He is risen indeed. But — Would you believe me if I told you the tomb was empty? I mean really. Would you? Not in the Sunday school answer kind of way. Not because it’s Easter morning and we’ve got lilies and bright colors and eggs filled with confetti. I mean in your ...

Here are some things I didn’t know

Here are some things I didn’t know before today: Jerita Nelson loves shoes as much — maybe more — than I do. AnNyce Kelting Hoff knows that my mother, who was a dear friend of her mother, would have had a cup of coffee front and center with her dessert at the Lenten Luncheon on Tuesday at Trinity Lutheran Church. AnNyce remarked on this because I was quaffing water. Someone would have had to scrape me off the ceiling if I drank the coffee. That someone would likely have been Kolleen Taylor, seated on the other side of me, who remarkably realized that I was having too good ...

Who you are because of where you were

A convention program many years ago left a lasting impression on me. I have remembered its message all these years since. The presentation was entitled “You Are Who You Are Because of Where You Were When” — or something similar. Dr. Massey, a professor from a Colorado university, was the presenter. His theory was that at about age 9 or 10 the average child looks around and — concluding that what is seen must be what is right — creates a values system on which judgments will be made the rest of his or her life. Only two things, Dr. Massey said, will change that values ...