Daniel C. Bruch, is a retired pastor, professor, and activist. He has earned six degrees (including a D.Min., Ph.D., & Sc.D.) and served as a college, university, and seminary professor, both in the USA and internationally. He has been a police, emergency room, and university chaplain and is an activist in civil and human rights, women’s rights, gay rights, peacemaking, and economic justice. He became a liberal by conviction, not by birth. Dr. Bruch is founder and President of LiveLiberal (www.liveliberal.org) and founder and an owner of The Purple Tree (www.thepurpletree.org).
It was Martin Luther King who said that “No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.” I begin with this quote because The Purple Tree (www.ThePurpleTree.org) is partnered with Plantables (www.Plantables.net) to help manufacture the new Sprout Worthy (www.SproutWorthy.com) window boxes. In our numerous…
It was Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007) who said that “we are all addicts of fossil fuels in a state of denial, about to face cold turkey. And like so many addicts about to face cold turkey, our leaders are now committing violent crimes to get what little is left of what we’re hooked on.” One of…
Thomas Edison once said that “restlessness is discontent and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied person and I will show you a failure.” I confess to being restless and dissatisfied about trying to be an active participant in the kind of self-government our form of democracy used to exhibit.…
And so the 2015-16 academic year begins once again. As I was thinking about what to say concerning something that has happened almost four score years for me, I remembered something that one of our U.S. Supreme Court Justices, Elena Kagan, said. In terms of important learning, she said “I’ve led a school whose faculty…
My guess is that many of you share my compelling lack of enthusiasm for another early start to a presidential and national political campaign. Once again, the negative and divisive comments and personalities predominate, and mostly unimportant sideshows take center stage. In the midst of it all, the most important and compelling human social needs…
As we again celebrate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from Great Britain, a comment of interest may enhance our understanding of that great event. It was our first president, George Washington, who said that “as mankind become more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all…
The school year has wound down, the summer activities have begun, and some are already lamenting the long summer ahead. How can we fill the hours, days, weeks of summer with the many needs of children and others? I remember well the boredom and restlessness that can set in after the initial spurt of joy wears…
