Steve Mathonnet-VanderWell

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…

Jesus says, “For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able…

When the Covid-19 pandemic appeared, it soon became apparent that most annual gatherings of Christian denominations in the USA would not meet this summer, as they usually do. In the Reformed Church in America (RCA), a decision was made to…

I flatter myself and say that someday historians will note when The Twelve stopped being All-COVID-19-All-the-Time as an important landmark in the history of the pandemic. Not that the pandemic is over, not that it no longer merits comment, but…

“I wish you would tell my pastor that ‘the love of money is the root of all evil.’ Money is not the problem!” This woman and her comment pushed about every button I have. A pinched, haughty, know-it-all. “Cow of…