Russell E. Saltzman

Fr. John Jay Hughes’ very fine piece at today’s First Things web site, “Proclaiming The Good News,” has many good things to say to preachers. Being one myself, I found much to appreciate in his remarks. What especially struck me though was what I take to be a yet distinctive . . . . Continue Reading »

One of the most remarkable things about President Obama’s race is the difference it made both before and after the election. It made some difference before the election. It has made little difference since. I take this as a sign. A mere 143 years from the abolition of slavery, an African . . . . Continue Reading »

There were three things I wanted to get done before I left Kansas City for twelve weeks in New York for work at First Things . I wanted my sixteen-year-old daughter, Joanie, to get her driver’s license. That would be a help to her mother in my absence and insure getting the younger girl . . . . Continue Reading »

The Day the Earth Stood Still , a remake of the 1951 black and white movie classic of the same title, will be released December 12. I can’t wait to see it. A emissary from the galactic federation is coming to warn Earth about its bad environmental habits. We’re trashing up the . . . . Continue Reading »

A pastoral colleague finds it “Orwellian.” He is describing the proposal before the church council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) to appoint “racial justice monitors” for its meetings, according to an ELCA press release . “Racial justice . . . . Continue Reading »

Last weekend I did something I have avoided doing for years. I went to a political rally. I am no longer a political junkie, but there was a time in my life when I was. From high school, through college, and for many years beyond I had no greater ambition than to be a, uh, politician. I started out . . . . Continue Reading »

Remember the story of the guy who died in the flood? A Red Cross boat had come by earlier when the water was above the window sills, but the fellow refused rescue saying, “The Lord will save me.” A second boat came when the water was to the eaves and the man was hanging from the gutters. But . . . . Continue Reading »

I still enjoy telling the story of my adoption. I was a “gray market” baby in 1947, a private arrangement made between birth mother, doctor, lawyer, and adoptive parents. The attending physician had arranged to telephone the good news to the waiting couple, my parents”something . . . . Continue Reading »

My fourteen-year-old son has decided he is of the wrong race, culturally at any rate. He wants to be black—or is it now African-American? Well, whichever it is, that is what he wants to . . . . Continue Reading »