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The Discerner

Culture and politics, read for meaning. No rage. No mush.

An Ohio Pastor Was Convicted for Sheltering the Homeless Overnight. An Appeals Court Just Threw It Out.

An Ohio Pastor Was Convicted for Sheltering the Homeless Overnight. An Appeals Court Just Threw It Out.

An Ohio pastor was criminally convicted for keeping his church open overnight to shelter homeless neighbors. An appeals court just found the trial court never actually ruled on his constitutional defenses. Dad's Place is still open tonight, and the harder question was never really about fire code.

Fifty Clerics Signed a Peace Accord in Abuja. Six Weeks Later Gunmen Killed a Pastor Walking to Church.

Fifty Clerics Signed a Peace Accord in Abuja. Six Weeks Later Gunmen Killed a Pastor Walking to Church.

I have signed things I did not expect to change anything. In August more than fifty Christian and Muslim leaders signed a peace accord in Abuja, and the killing did not pause for the ink to dry. What a signature can and cannot do in Nigeria, and why I have decided to take it.

I Have Checked My Watch During the Missions Slot at Church. The Man Who Spent Twenty Five Years Filling That Slot Died on Saturday, and the Thing He Was Trying to Close Was the Distance Between His Chair and Mine.

I Have Checked My Watch During the Missions Slot at Church. The Man Who Spent Twenty Five Years Filling That Slot Died on Saturday, and the Thing He Was Trying to Close Was the Distance Between His Chair and Mine.

He spent twenty five years carrying what he had seen back into rooms like the one I was sitting in, checking my watch.

Engraving in black ink on cream paper with a single crimson accent.

I Have Shaken Hands I Did Not Check Because Someone I Trusted Vouched for Them. On September 11 the Archbishop of Canterbury Gave a Pakistani Cleric an Award for Protecting Christians. Six Days Later She Took It Back. The Bill Lands in Punjab.

Lambeth Palace gave Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi an interfaith award on September 11 and withdrew it on September 17 after his 2007 praise of bin Laden resurfaced. Michael Nazir-Ali says Pakistani Christians fear the backlash. On the handshake nobody checked, and who pays.

I Would Not Have Gone to the Festival at St. Martin's. On Tuesday Southlake Told the Church It May Not Host It, and Gave No Reason. I Have Argued for Years That the Reason Is the Whole Point.

I Would Not Have Gone to the Festival at St. Martin's. On Tuesday Southlake Told the Church It May Not Host It, and Gave No Reason. I Have Argued for Years That the Reason Is the Whole Point.

Southlake, Texas, voted unanimously on September 15 to deny a permit for a Pride festival on the grounds of St. Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church, after its planning commission recommended approval. No debate, no questions, no reason. The Discerner would not have gone, and says why that matters.

Engraving in black ink on cream paper with a single crimson accent, the Discerner desk image

I Have Initialed Boxes I Did Not Read to Get Something I Wanted. Oregon Asked a Widow With Five Children to Initial One She Did Not Believe Before It Would Let Her Love a Sixth. On September 9 the State Signed Instead. Read Paragraph Five.

Oregon told a widowed mother of five she could adopt no child unless she agreed to words she did not believe. On September 9 the state signed a two page order. Paragraph five is the part worth reading.

I Have Sat Through Funerals Where the Fight Was Over the Hymns. In a Village in Chhattisgarh the Fight Was Over Whose God Got the Body, and It Ended With Ganga Water on the Living.

I Have Sat Through Funerals Where the Fight Was Over the Hymns. In a Village in Chhattisgarh the Fight Was Over Whose God Got the Body, and It Ended With Ganga Water on the Living.

The worst argument I have witnessed at a funeral was about a hymn. One side of the family wanted the old one, the other side wanted the new one, and the pastor, wiser than any of us, had both played and let the organ absorb the grievance. Nobody's