IN AUGUST 1988, I flew out of Cleveland Hopkins Airport, bound for a year abroad on a Rotary Foundation Scholarship. At 24 years old, I was finishing my BA in English, history and education from a small evangelical Christian college in the … [Read more...] about Memoir: Learning to Dance
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Thanks for Joining the Journey
Thanks so much for continuing to spread the word about this website. I encourage you to leave comments here and respond to the posts and podcasts that make you think. The whole concept of this virtual cafe, after all, is to encourage … [Read more...] about Thanks for Joining the Journey
Dominic Orsini: Discovering the Essence of Faith in Steubenville
I WAS ATTENDING my first football game with Catholic Central High School in Steubenville — a few weeks after being hired. Shortly before the game began, a new teaching colleague took me to the top of the bleachers to meet two men, one a steelworker … [Read more...] about Dominic Orsini: Discovering the Essence of Faith in Steubenville
Myrrl Byler: Why High School Teachers Are So Important
WE WERE 15 minutes into the root canal. The contraption inside my mouth, which isolated my back tooth, made it impossible to speak. Through a large headphone set, The Killers played in my ear. A rubber jam held my mouth open. I submitted to all … [Read more...] about Myrrl Byler: Why High School Teachers Are So Important
The Scent of Fear
IN AMERICA, EVERY normal child has the opportunity to watch television. It provides news, instructs, entertains. Often, it babysits. In the 1970s, however — that decade of lame sitcoms, atrocious hairstyles and puke green everything — TV was … [Read more...] about The Scent of Fear
The Shack: The Dilemma of Evangelical Christianity
MY BROTHER DAVE is a hard-core construction boss, a man who can stand toe-to-toe with any bricklayer, outwork his entire Amish-Mennonite crew, and hustle all day pushing wheelbarrows and slinging block. So I was surprised by the vulnerability he … [Read more...] about The Shack: The Dilemma of Evangelical Christianity