Steve Mathonnet-VanderWell

Morning routines. We all have them. Unless you’re like Pentecostals and contemporary worship folk who say they have no order of worship or liturgy. They just do the same things in the same order every week.My morning routine includes looking…

Someday I’m going to compile a list of “Christian words” which need a 200 year time out -- mothballed until they can be brought out again, fresh and new. Words that aren’t necessarily untrue, just exhausted, exploited, stretched almost beyond…

The first football game I ever attended in Iowa pitted the Dutch against the Norse. Who knew such strong ethnic sentiments still persisted? Team names like Highlanders, Celtics, and Vikings express similar ethnic heritages. Last month, after years of pressure,…

Can a flailing, often failing, young Muslim man present the most appealing portrayal of “religion” on recent television? A millennial from an immigrant family in northern Jersey illumines the potholed path to meaningful religion? Ramy, a comedy series on Hulu,…

I'm satisfied with just a cottage belowA little silver and a little goldBut in that city where the ransomed will shineI want a gold one that's silver lined. I've got a mansion just over the hilltopIn that bright land where…

I never did put a fish sticker on the back of my car. Many years ago, I considered it for a while -- a discreet little fish. Nothing attention-grabbing. Now I'm glad I didn't. What was my intention? Was I…