Nancy’s Blog

Fewer and fewer high school age kids are working these days. There are lots of jobs: Fast food service, summer landscaping, pizza delivery, auto detailing, data entry, and step-and-fetch-it jobs for teens in almost every industry. The list of potential money-making opportunities is almost endless, but there seems to be a lack of wanna. Snowplow...Continue reading Why Kids Should Work →Read More »

Police investigators here and across the country are concerned about the growing ties between social media and youth homicides. Just connect the dots. In many cases the victim in a shooting was previously warned or threatened on Instagram, Twitter, TicTok, and others. Mothers are literally buying bus tickets to get junior out of town. When...Continue reading Social Media & the Rise in Youth Homicide →Read More »

Let’s just put the answer out right up front: Yes. Here’s what the experts say… Jeffery Ulmer, professor of criminal law and justice, who oversaw a study by Penn State’s Social Science Research Institute says, “In the big picture, religious presence seems to [influence] the amount of violence and crime in a community, it matters...Continue reading More God, Less Crime…Really? →Read More »

For those who think that ex-offenders can’t make a stunning comeback, I give you Charles Dutton. He was sentenced to five years for manslaughter in 1967 after a knife fight in which a man was killed. Out on parole, he was arrested on robbery and handgun charges and was sentenced to the Maryland Penitentiary for...Continue reading From Solitary to the Stars, From Convict to Closer →Read More »

It has long troubled me that our state legislators do not pass a 36 percent APR cap on payday loans in Indiana. Ninety percent of Hoosiers agree that a 36 percent Annual Percentage Rate (APR) cap should be enacted—so what’s the hold up? These small loans are aimed at those with an urgent need and...Continue reading Ohio Payday Loan Legislative Scandal…Here? →Read More »

A good friend who I’ll call “Benny” is a former inmate who is having a rough time. He’s been out of prison for a couple of years, but it has been a series of uphill battles with few successes. He entered prison as a teenager and made very few decisions on his own for the...Continue reading It’s Up To Him →Read More »

A few years ago, I put together a recidivism map that showed re-incarceration rates in Indiana counties were between 30 and 50 percent, using source data from the Indiana Department of Correction (IDOC). But after learning that IDOC only counts Indiana prison inmates who are re-incarcerated in an Indiana prison, it became obvious why the...Continue reading Amended Recidivism Rates & The High Cost of Prison’s Revolving Door →Read More »

We all know there is an epidemic of gun violence and we are all shocked every time we hear of the latest murder. But did you know that far more kids are killing themselves with guns??? I didn’t know it. Yet, a little research into youth gun violence uncovers the horrific number of children who...Continue reading Kids Kill Kids But More Kids Kill Themselves →Read More »

When people compare the United States to just about any other country with a low incarceration rate it is usually far from a realistic comparison. While many first world countries have lower rates of incarceration, they also are much smaller and do not have the melting pot of cultures and values that we have in...Continue reading Why Are So Many Incarcerated in the U.S.? →Read More »

Across the United States, approximately 1.22 million people are incarcerated in state and federal facilities. This does not include the 3000+ county jails in the U.S. that have begun to hold longer-term prisoners as well. About a half million reentrants are released every year. In Marion County, Indiana alone, annual estimated releases are about 12,000....Continue reading The Recidivism Yardstick →Read More »

Last month a 13-year old Covington, Indiana boy killed himself. His passion was baseball. He had a batting average of around .400 last season, and on the Saturday before he died, he threw a pitch that clocked in at 71 mph. Not surprisingly, he dreamed of playing in the major leagues. But he was relentlessly...Continue reading Why Youth Suicide Is Up 15 Percent →Read More »

Buried in the book of Ecclesiastes is the concept that if we wait for all conditions to be ideal, we will never sow a seed or reap a harvest. It’s in Chapter 11, actually. It is also said, “From a tiny acorn a mighty oak doth grow,” a saying that has inspired so many who...Continue reading From a Tiny Acorn →Read More »

Click here for a full size version of the graphic. When you hear that 75 percent of the juveniles in prison come from fatherless homes, an alarm goes off. There is absolutely a tie between the lack of a father in the home and kids who get sent to prison. Here in Indianapolis, Fathers &...Continue reading The Revealing Statistics of Incarceration & Recidivism →Read More »

What a revelation to have found Daniel Labbe’s blog, Between The Bars. He is a former inmate with some well conceived thoughts about what an improved prison/jail experience could be. The following are his words, but I wouldn’t be sharing them if I didn’t think there are some ideas that have merit. So, if you...Continue reading A Mindful Approach to Prison Reform? →Read More »

When a short-term money crisis hits a family, payday predatory lenders are there for the working poor. These lenders reap huge interest payments that, according to the Federal Trade Commission, can reach up to 390 APR. Meanwhile these companies regularly take working people down the path to bankruptcy. The car broke down and you have...Continue reading Payday Lenders: Another Chance to Fix This →Read More »

Last week a 15-year old and 17-year old were arrested for the shooting of a 15-year-old girl on the City’s far east side. Also last week a national newspaper reported statistics on juvenile homicide. It’s reported that juvenile murderers acting alone rose 30 percent in 2020 from a year earlier, while homicides committed by multiple...Continue reading “Just Kids Killing Kids” →Read More »

UNITE INDY started in December, 2016, so we have recently passed our 5th anniversary! Yes, five years of disappointments, mistakes and some smashing successes (if we do say so ourselves). 🙂 All those things have worked to elevate our ability to impact poverty as we find employment for those who are reentering society after incarceration....Continue reading Five Years Old: Our Disappointments, Mistakes, & Goals Realized →Read More »

I picked up a book at a Vintage fair just before Christmas. It was a slim little volume, written by Bud Robinson, who was born in 1860 into a family of seven children, all living in a tiny, windowless, dirt-floored log cabin in the hills of Tennessee. His father was a mean drunkard who owned...Continue reading What Are We Made Of? →Read More »

For all those working with reentrants, or related to someone who is incarcerated, I end this year with my take on some of the important lessons I’ve learned about the pitfalls that sidetrack even the most success-oriented returnees. Here you go: Pitfall #1 – Thinking I’m back!: You are not… yet. Reentry is a marathon,...Continue reading Avoiding the Top 10 Reentry Pitfalls →Read More »

Recently there has been an exodus of folks from a large popular church here. People who were staunchly committed to a certain ideology found that the temperature had changed and some foundational beliefs were now considered to be out-of-date. In response, a group of long-time members picked up and went elsewhere for their divine guidance....Continue reading When A Church Splits →Read More »

We’ve talked until we are blue in the face about the awful consequence of predatory lending, how they are aimed directly at the working poor, or anyone with any income at all. They target those on disability or folks on Social Security—any trickle of money—if its there, they plan to get it. Predatory lenders influence...Continue reading Breaking Bad – Fair Loans For Low Income People →Read More »

About 25 men and women from all over Indianapolis showed up at the police roll call on Tuesday in a crime hot spot at 30th and Post Road. They weren’t picketing or calling to defund the police. IMPD East is one of six districts of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, and those officers serve in...Continue reading No One Moved →Read More »

Society has a way of creating its own difficulties. Like the push to defund police has led to a situation where no one wants to be on a police force, the idea that strong women don’t need a husband or father in the home has led to—surprise!—reduction in fathers. Free love of the ’60’s and...Continue reading Where Are the Fathers? →Read More »

What is it to have a second chance? UNITE INDY’s SecondChanceIndy.com web site gives men and women access to a new future—one that is a gateway to a financially secure life, that opens doors to having successful relationships, raising successful children, and becoming self-sufficient and independent. But second chances are only for those who are...Continue reading You Can Only Do What You Can Do →Read More »

Year after year, exorbitant interest fees and onerous, unrealistic balloon payments are draining money from the meager earnings of Indiana’s most financially vulnerable citizens. Even small financial emergencies regularly take working people and military families down the path to bankruptcy because they must turn to payday predatory lenders, whose schemes trap borrowers in a never-ending...Continue reading Indiana Employers Needed No Risk, Big Payoff →Read More »

Over the last five decades, allegations of abuse combined with the reality of funding shortages caused the closings of mental hospitals here and across the country. Central State Hospital, formerly the Central Indiana Hospital for the Insane, was closed in the 90s, in favor of a “modern” approach, away from institutional methods of treatment. It...Continue reading Expanding Psychiatric Care →Read More »

A man accused of fatally shooting a police officer made a song about killing a cop, then he did it. Early on a Sunday morning he shot 24 year old Elwood Officer Noah Shahnavaz (pictured) in the face. According to the shooter’s rap sheet, (which included the term SVF for ‘serious violent felon’) he had...Continue reading The Damage of ‘Defund’ Rhetoric →Read More »

Is work out of style? My parents were middle-class people. As kids, we didn’t have to work to eat, but we DID have to work. Because my dad owned a manufacturing plant (and since you can legally hire your own children at age 14) my sister and I went to work all summer long at...Continue reading The Era of Aggressive Entitlement →Read More »

Last Friday at 9:30 in the morning, an Uber driver was shot. As the weekend began, four people were shot in a park in Beech Grove. One is dead. Then on Sunday, in the food court at Greenwood Park Mall around dinner time a 20-year old with 3 guns and more than 100 rounds began...Continue reading Would Have Been a Bloodbath →Read More »

Back in November of ’21 folks on Indy’s east side weren’t getting very much sleep. Pop pop pop, every night. Gunshots cracked the silence, pushing Indianapolis homicides to a record 246 by the end of the year. Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett responded, using $150 million in federal American Rescue Plan money to hire more officers,...Continue reading Who’s Next?? →Read More »

It’s a scary time in our country. We’ve cooked up a big old fear cocktail, made with a bottle of violence, a mixer of economic problems and a couple shots of distrust. I was talking with a friend about about all the things people are worried about today, and It reminded me of how afraid...Continue reading Faith or Fear? →Read More »

You’ve been mentored. I’ve been mentored. First by a parent, then by a teacher, later perhaps by a coach, or someone who actually had the title. Paul mentored Timothy. Jesus mentored the Apostles. Without a mentor at critical times in our lives we are nothing more than a blind man trying to cross a highway...Continue reading The Chrysalis →Read More »

Take a look at the childhood histories of juveniles in incarceration, and you will find that most have endured trauma that has changed them, given them a different world view, made them less empathetic, more defensive and often blinded them to the basic norms of social behavior. If you’re tough enough to read the ACE...Continue reading Stick with the Dog →Read More »

The United States Supreme Court is currently in the process of deciding if a football coach in Washington State was illegally fired from his job. Coach Joe Kennedy, a winning and popular high school coach had a habit of taking a knee on the 50 yard line after a game and saying a silent 10-15...Continue reading The War On Faith: Lulled into Silence →Read More »

On Easter Sunday Jim and I attended the bed-side funeral service via Zoom of our nephew’s 38-year-old wife. There were 50 or 60 of her closest friends online. She had died on Good Friday, her time of death was called at 3:33 p.m. For the next three days the hospital kept the machines going to...Continue reading Why God? →Read More »

Thanks Revered actor Will Smith certainly gave the Oscars a ratings boost with his reaction to Chris Rock’s monologue last week. I don’t really care about watching Hollywood prima donnas giving themselves awards, but just about everyone has heard about the recent Oscar kerfuffle. In the old days, the Oscars garnered 50 million viewers. But...Continue reading The Slap →Read More »

UNITE INDY is an effort of the heart, but, by necessity, it is also an effort of the head. Statistics play an important role in understanding what we are doing and how we can impact the need. If we want to ask God to “move a mountain,” we have to know everything about the mountain....Continue reading What If ‘Home’ Was Not a Jail Cell? →Read More »

In the face of a war in the Baltic and a firefight in our streets, I find my immediate challenge is the broken computer on which I am producing this blog post. I am powerless to fix either the computer or any of the bigger issues we face, but as one of my favorite pastors...Continue reading What Doesn’t Kill Us… →Read More »

While Indy’s newest efforts at stopping homicides here get underway, it is interesting to take a look at Dallas, which managed a 12 percent drop in murders in 2021 after years of skyrocketing statistics. In 2020 Dallas totaled 251 homicides—their highest number in more than 15 years and 2021 started at a rate that would...Continue reading Police Presence Works →Read More »

It happens. Your car died a long overdue death. It’ll be expensive to replace, but you need a car. But soon, through Indiana Senate Bill (SB) 352, there may be a new, easy-to-get lending option just for you. But this easy option could be a deal with the Devil. The bill would not only make...Continue reading Dead Car →Read More »

The Link Between Child Abuse and Street Violence Most people don’t shoot someone because they had a fight with their girlfriend, or someone owes them twenty bucks. People get jealous every day. Lots of folks loan money they’ll never get back, but violence never enters their minds. The very thought of shooting someone is crazy,...Continue reading The Link Between Child Abuse and Street Violence →Read More »

My friend, Jesse, spent 20-plus years in prison. When we became acquainted, he was in the Putnamville Correctional Facility near Greencastle, Indiana. Established in 1914, the prison was known for nearly 70 years as the Indiana State Farm, because the inmates all worked in the prison’s extensive farm and dairy operations. By the time Jesse...Continue reading How to Make Prison Hell →Read More »

Here it is: The last blog post of 2021! It’s hard to believe that Covid is still among us and issues we have been facing for years still hang heavy over our heads, but still, I feel a change coming. I believe violence is reaching its zenith, that illness is no longer going to control...Continue reading A New Path →Read More »

What’s the best thing you’ve ever done? I can easily say it was writing Jesse who was an inmate at Putnamville Correctional Facility. He wasn’t much more than a sad statistic: Raised in a fatherless home by a drug-addicted mother, he was put into foster care by age 5, and was moved around until he...Continue reading The Best Thing I Could’ve Done →Read More »

“The victim has been identified as 25-year-old Mo’Nesha McKinley,” said the police report. She was found dead on the city’s near-east side just after noon one day about a month ago, when police responded to the 1000 block of North Rural Street on reports of a “possible deceased individual.” Actually, she had been missing for...Continue reading Praying for Mo’Nesha →Read More »

Most Christians believe if we are faithful and pray for what we need, we will eventually get it. After all, Matthew 7:7 says, “Ask and it will be given unto you.” Like using a vending machine, we have inserted our coins of tithing, faith and commitment, and prayed for that promotion, or that BMW, or...Continue reading The Vending Machine →Read More »

I remember distinctly the night I heard a radio somewhere in our house playing music that was so innovative and new I had to track down the source. In the next room a small transistor radio was broadcasting the Beatles’ American breakthrough hit “I Want To Hold Your Hand” on WLS. I remember thinking that...Continue reading I Want To Hold Your Hand →Read More »

Back in 1942—the darkest days of World War II, members of the U.S. Congress were holding informal prayer meetings together hoping to stem the tide of American dead and wounded from the European and Pacific fronts. They prayed for victory over Nazi Germany and its allies, and for our men and women who were still...Continue reading Let Us Pray: Indianapolis Prayer Breakfast →Read More »

The corpse of Gabby Petito lies under a small plastic canopy somewhere in the 300,000 acres of Grand Teton National Park. Her thousands of YouTube and Instagram followers are shocked. One of them commenting, “she’s so young and looked so happy!” Oh, yes, the couple did look happy. They posted pictures and videos of themselves...Continue reading The Biggest Lie →Read More »

Seriously, with the crisis in Afghanistan, the hurricane Ida floods, and shootings in the streets, I have been blown-away by all the bad news. So, I began purposefully looking for a shot of encouragement—something big. Turns out, a man named Eliot Middleton filled the bill. In a small fishing town in South Carolina, the former...Continue reading How About Some Good News? →Read More »

As Mayor Joe Hogsett announced a $166.5 million anti-violence plan that focuses heavily on public safety, I was beginning to read a book by criminologist Byron R. Johnson. His book, More God, Less Crime, assesses the many studies that have been done on the effect of religion in crime reduction. It is a subject that...Continue reading More God, Less Crime →Read More »

While many of us are shocked, wondering how in the world we can stop the shootings and stabbings that have infected our city, one man went right to the top and got an answer. Dr. Clyde Posley, pastor of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church has received a word from God, and it’s a word we’ve heard...Continue reading Time for Fasting & Praying →Read More »

In 2010 at Wishard Hospital, Dennis Irvin was diagnosed with stage three throat cancer. He was just beginning his 36-year sentence in a maximum security prison in Carlisle, IN. He was at the high point of his gang activities, which involved running a black market in three different prisons that supplied pretty much anything a...Continue reading Dennis Didn’t Die →Read More »

South West England is home to a small village named Combe Martin that snakes through a beautiful valley for a mile and a half until it culminates in the sea. The village has been holding a celebration for the past 300 years called “Hunting the Earl of Rone”. Preceded by drummers and dancers, the Combe...Continue reading What Becomes The Truth? →Read More »

In a world where you can’t go to the bathroom without asking permission and are locked up in a 10 x 10’ cell at night; in a world where you have to endure a strip search to see your wife on visiting day—that’s if you’re lucky enough to still have a wife or a visitor...Continue reading No Heavy Lifting Required →Read More »

There are two voices in that head of yours. Humph, you say. Well, there are. There’s the voice that wants go to that party and the other voice that says “better not.” There’s the voice who takes offense at someone’s actions, and the other voice that sees it from the other guy’s perspective and realizes...Continue reading What’s your plan today? →Read More »

It seemed like a normal Wednesday morning. People were about town with their heads duly sheathed in little face diapers. As usual, those of us who look for friendly faces were left to wonder about the disposition of the folks they encountered. It is almost impossible to tell if people are scowling or smiling with...Continue reading Unmasked →Read More »

When Tyler Perry stood up to accept a humanitarian award at the Oscar ceremony recently, he said words that we all need to hear. “I refuse hate,” he said. “I refuse to hate someone because they are Mexican, or black, or white, or LBGTQ, or Police Officers, or Asian… I dedicate this award to all...Continue reading “I Refuse Hate” →Read More »

\The noted author and speaker Wayne Dyer used to tell the story about a man who dragged a heavy bag of dung around with him. Once in a while he’d reach in and smear some of it on his face so everyone could see it. Dyer said that man is us. We each have a...Continue reading Drop The Bag, Don’t take the Bait →Read More »

This is one of those great stories where everyone is anonymous, but it all happened here in the last few months and days. It begins with a man who was serving time in prison. We’ll call him Paul. When he was released he went to live in faith-based transitional housing. But, the clock was ticking....Continue reading Angels Among Us: Names Withheld →Read More »

One of the biggest myths about poverty in the U.S. is that poor people don’t want to work. In fact, most American adults living in poverty who can work do work. They are in poverty because they work in low paying, often part-time jobs. Of those in poverty who are not employed, a large percentage...Continue reading Manna: Haven’t seen any for years →Read More »

Today in Bible study, the subject was how to have good relationships. The teacher maintained all we have to do, pretty much, is keep the Golden Rule. I’m sure I got that message loud and clear when I was five or so, but who knew my Sunday school teacher was so smart? For those who...Continue reading The Best Advice Ever →Read More »

On the phone with a friend recently, she said, “You know with COVID restrictions I’ve spent a lot more time with my family.” She paused…. “I realize I don’t like them very much.” I laughed—it was surely a joke. But many families have been under a lot of strain with kids home from school, parents...Continue reading Going Shawshank →Read More »

Years ago Jim and I wrote a book on generosity. It began with the classic Starfish Story. You know the one–there are thousands of starfish on the beach dying in the sun and a fellow comes along throwing as many as possible back into the ocean. Another man, walking the beach says to him, “What’s...Continue reading The Starfish →Read More »

In 1967 Martin Luther King Jr. preached the following words as he pursued peace in a time of change: “Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.” But is peace attainable today? Between super powers? Between political parties? Between neighbors? For anyone watching...Continue reading In Search of Peace →Read More »

Almost 20 years ago my husband, Jim, was paralyzed in an accident. As the months went by and he fought to regain his ability to walk and use his hands, a community of differently-abled people became our friends. Hungry for information, we searched online for websites that might show us better ways to live what...Continue reading Feeling Blessed? →Read More »

Christmas time is tough. Especially in times like these—when family and friends are out of touch, when others are gathering and we are quarantined, when the normal holiday rituals are just not going to happen. At a time when the Light Of The World is celebrating a birthday, we should be happy, right? We live...Continue reading Outsourcing Happiness? →Read More »

Last night was shattered by a call from a dear friend. She told me that a man we all love and respect, a good man in the prime of his life has been diagnosed with a life threatening illness. A pawl has descended over us. We echo that favorite question of all needy Christians: “Why,...Continue reading Very bad. Would not visit again. →Read More »

skgiving…iving…..” Last March, at the beginning of our romance with this virus, I never thought that on Thanksgiving of this year I’d be planning a big gathering for two at a restaurant of our choice. My whole life I’ve never been at a Thanksgiving dinner with fewer than 18 people—at home with too many cooks...Continue reading “Happy Thanksgiving… →Read More »

Kids are being taught in school today that everyone is racist—they claim we don’t even know it, but we are all definitely racists. Personally, I hate that kind of thinking. It is a dangerous message. If people believe they are racist, they then have the propensity to forgive themselves for racist thoughts, ideals, and actions....Continue reading Is it Racism? Or Poverty? →Read More »

Indianapolis is a war zone. In a tweet this morning, Rev. Charles Harrison, leader of The Indy TenPoint Coalition, referred to our city as the Wild Wild West. He said, “So far this weekend we have had 18 people shot, 1 person stabbed, & 4 people killed, bringing the total to 192 homicides so far...Continue reading Thou Shalt Not Kill: Indianapolis Homicides hit 192 →Read More »

In the midst of a deepening political divide that destroys friendships and breaks up families, I recently came upon a book* that might help us bridge that great chasm between the right and left. It is interesting that data shows that people on both sides of the political debate feel that they are motivated by...Continue reading Politics & The Culture of Contempt →Read More »

We have lost much during the time of Covid-19. Loved ones, our jobs, some have lost entire businesses. We have been shut off from our friends, unable to hug or even shake hands, which for those of us who are huggers—is a big deal. A lot of talk has been about what we can’t do...Continue reading We Have Been Pruned →Read More »

For some time now we’ve been fighting along side Indiana Institute For Working Families to lower the interest rate cap on short term pay day loans. Anyone with a social security check, or low paying job can borrow quickly and easily from one of the many pay day loan companies that operate here. The catch...Continue reading Pay Day Lenders Expanding Their Reach Here & Nationwide? →Read More »

I have a neighbor who started a business on Monument Circle in downtown Indianapolis decades ago. Business was not always easy, but they survived, employed others, paid rent and taxes, and lived on whatever was left. Just as his business was allowed to reopen after the mandated shut down, a number of homeless people camped...Continue reading The Double Edged Sword of Homelessness →Read More »

There is actually a course offered at some medical schools called Empathetics. It was developed by a psychiatrist who was working with anorexic patients—a population some thought simply refused to eat. Many young girls were dying of starvation, and the words “just eat” were not working. But when clinicians were trained in empathy—trained to listen...Continue reading The Power of Empathy →Read More »

I’ve got to stop watching the news. It’s too hard to see the violence and hate. An argument over a Black Lives Matter vs. all lives matter ended in a woman being shot in the head—right here on the Canal Walk in Indianapolis. She was a mother with two small children, and whatever any of...Continue reading Where Are We In All This? →Read More »

This is a thing. It is really a thing! I recently heard a man talking about how white people are putting signs up in their yards that are nothing but virtue signaling. Virtue signaling? That intrigued me. According to a web site called Simplicable, virtue signaling “is the conspicuous communication of moral values and good...Continue reading Virtue Signaling: What is that? →Read More »

Most of my friends are still very worried about COVID 19. I admit…I am not. I am so over it that I can hardly see it in my rearview mirror anymore. So much has happened that is more concerning to me. More shootings here. More first responders leaving their jobs. And still and forever, the...Continue reading Seated in the Rest of God →Read More »

Is there a need for anything else to be said about George Floyd’s public humiliation and murder? Frankly, I’ve been stunned into silence—a rarity for me. But I ask myself: Can anything I say matter now? Maybe not. We can’t change what happened, but maybe we can join the mourners across the country who feel...Continue reading Come Together Over Me →Read More »

Have you ever noticed that the word “silent” has the same letters as the word “listen?” I have a friend who never says much. She waits to see what other people think on any given subject before she expresses an opinion—or says nothing. I think she loves the safety of keeping her own counsel and...Continue reading Proving You’re Right…Or Not →Read More »

When an opinion columnist at the New York Times asked readers to share the status of their mental health with him in April, a few weeks into quarantine, he received more than 5,000 replies. While many said they were “hanging in there,” the rest of the responses were more like a “river of woe and...Continue reading Sacrificing Sanity →Read More »

So, here we are in the midst of a “quarantine,” the latin root word of which is “forty.” Why is forty so important? Mentioned 146 times in Scripture, the number 40 generally heralds a period of testing and transformation. For example, the flood was caused by a rain that fell for 40 days and 40...Continue reading Quarantine & The Number 40 →Read More »

I do about three miles a couple of times a week walking on the Monon Trail and happened by this goose standing on top of one of the old cottages on Cornell Avenue. All the other geese are in pairs, honking and letting everyone know they are claiming nesting areas, but this guy is abiding...Continue reading Social Distancing & Other Unnatural Occurrences →Read More »

I was at Kroger yesterday. Shelves were bare. People were racing around. There was a line 90 feet long for the two check-out counters they had open and a dozen self-checkout stations with lines of their own. Pandemic Panic has set in. In the line one woman was telling me she had no spleen (?),...Continue reading Let Peace Prevail →Read More »

Rudy Rasmus pastors a church he started in the 90s with 9 members. Today he ministers with his wife to 9,000 souls just outside Houston, TX. But last Sunday he spoke in Indianapolis and began his message by telling us about the day he was planning to end his life. It was August 14th in...Continue reading Running From Failure →Read More »

Taxpayers pay millions to keep lawbreakers off the street, yet when the courts decide these folks are ready to be released, they often find themselves in situations that tend to send them right back behind bars. Recidivism serves no one, and while repeat criminals must be incarcerated, too many go back to prison due to...Continue reading Of Reentrants & Ankle Bracelets →Read More »

With 153 gun-related homicides last year, it’s clear we haven’t solved the problem of gun violence in our city. A new “Gun Violence Intervention Program” has been in effect for more than 10 months here, and while it has promise, utilizing tactics that had its roots in a successful effort in gang-ridden Oakland, CA., there...Continue reading Disbelief & Discontent on the Street →Read More »

Love is a dangerous thing. Martin Luther King was targeted because while he hated the misdeeds of the past, he loved the future. He wanted all races to get together, he professed a future where we all lived in harmony. He talked about that future, he envisioned that future, he brought love to the future....Continue reading The Danger of Love →Read More »

Last week, the Indianapolis Recorder reported on the resignation of Pastor John Girton from Christ Missionary Baptist Church. After five years of leading the church in which he had been baptized, a church that was formerly lead by his uncle, he had to quit. “Pastor G,” as he is commonly called, isn’t old. He’s not...Continue reading Running On Empty →Read More »

They say that life is ten percent what happens to us and 90 percent how we react to whatever happened. Since it’s Christmas time, we know from experience that people will be in a hurry and tend to do things like cut us off in traffic, send us a size small when we ordered a...Continue reading How’s Your 90 Percent? →Read More »

I’m a little lost. The Christmas season is upon us and I have cards to get out, presents to buy, decorating to be done, and everything that everyone else has probably already accomplished. I’m behind the 8-ball, as people used to say when they were behind on their tasks, and I have decided my excuse...Continue reading Where Are You Christmas? →Read More »

In case you haven’t been to Florida lately—News Flash—it is warmer there and there are lots of old people. Ok. I don’t really qualify as young either, but visiting my mother-in-law this week was a lesson in how those who are in their upper eighties and nineties handle life in this temperate bastion of retirement...Continue reading Little Things →Read More »

Many people know that as a result of a UNITE INDY publication that was sent to a prisoner at Putnamville Correctional Facility, I received a letter from an inmate named Jesse. Since then, we have written two or three letters a week back and forth for a couple of years. Letter writing produces a special...Continue reading A Letter From Prison →Read More »

For all those who plant winter wheat, the time is now to plant the seed. It’s a great crop that has many advantages. It matures slowly which gives it time to cover the ground to protect the soil, and it doesn’t cost much. All you have to do is remove competitive weeds. I know a...Continue reading It is planting time. Oh, yes it is. →Read More »

Many were surprised last night at Christian Theological Seminary’s Faith & Action event at Clowes Hall when Van Jones, a CNN commentator, a “social justice accelerator,” and special advisor to President Barack Obama, praised President Donald Trump. I have to say, I’m right in there with him. Anyone who has followed my writing for long,...Continue reading They’re Coming Home →Read More »

It is said that the definition of “poor” is when you have too much month left at the end of your money. You have income. Maybe just Social Security, but you get by. Then the tire blows on your only vehicle, or your child breaks his arm, or the furnace goes out and it’s below...Continue reading Indiana Lawmakers Must Change Usury of the Poor →Read More »

It wasn’t too long ago that Lori Laughlin (of Hallmark Channel fame, no less) and Felicity Huffman were headliners in an investigation that revealed they had paid up to $500,000 to get their children accepted into the colleges of their choice. One headline read “Money and Privilege Make Parents Stupid and Dishonest.” The headline could...Continue reading Crazy Parenting in a Crazy World →Read More »

Poverty is a many-headed dragon. Racism, lack of education, generational cultural issues, drugs, incarceration of someone in the family, you name it—it all stands in the way of lifting folks out of poverty and the limits that surround them. From the beginning, UNITE INDY knew that although there were many hands at work in our...Continue reading Help is On the Way →Read More »

Every year payday loan companies drain $60 million in fees from our communities on the 1.2 million loans they make here. These loans mostly affect those in our urban areas and predominantly people of color. Pretty much, everyone working in the inner-city sees these companies as a cancer that feeds on our most vulnerable citizens....Continue reading Legalized Theft →Read More »

This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. Maybe you’ve heard it? But have you ever taken it seriously? Ever looked in the mirror and asked yourself, “is this is a story about me?” Well let’s read it again: There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure...Continue reading Not My Job →Read More »

My granddaughter was making a deal with her younger brother regarding a swimming competition they were about to undertake at the community pool. I had suggested that the smaller child get some kind of handicap so their race would be more fair and after much negotiation, she said to him, “now draw that up and...Continue reading The Vulnerability of Trust →Read More »

In 2017 I wrote a blog about Brishon Bond and a conversation he had with Jim at our first meeting on racism in Indianapolis. They talked about phrases like “black lives matter” and “white privilege” and how those terms can mean different things to different people. Go to Page 6 to see the conversation. Brishon...Continue reading Brishon Bond: Waiting Time →Read More »

“Beards, they grow on you” -Author unknown In 2 Samuel 10, King David had sent his envoys into foreign territory. Their reception was not friendly. They were seized, their beards were cut off, and clothes cut short. David’s reply upon hearing the news? “Stay there until your beards have grown back.” OK. Clearly, David didn’t...Continue reading Beards, they grow on you →Read More »

I found this special pronouncement online next to a picture of Jesus. Here it is: “You are going to Hell if you are not a member of our FREE online church The True Body of Christ Restored. You can access our entire webs without being a member.” I’m no expert, and normally, I won’t be...Continue reading Jesus Would Be So Proud →Read More »

How many of us have looked to the heavens and said these words. “Lord, if you really have a plan for us,” heal our child, help me with this debt, make the flooding stop, save my marriage. You name it, we’ve asked. These two kids got a quick and amazing answer when they said those...Continue reading “If You really have a plan for us…” →Read More »

Motivational speaker Wayne Dyer said that a lot of people drag a big bag of muck around with them everywhere they go. It is the rotted accumulation of all the disappointment, frustration, unfair things, and loss that they have experienced in their lives. Sometimes it even holds difficulties faced by past generations. So, they walk...Continue reading The Trash Man Cometh →Read More »

We got a notice a couple of weeks ago asking if we or anyone we knew was in the crowd 51 years ago, on the night Bobby Kennedy stopped in Indianapolis during his presidential campaign. It was the night of April 4th, 1968 and Martin Luther King, Jr. had been shot and killed in Memphis...Continue reading Were You There? →Read More »

A man was walking across a bridge when he spotted someone about to jump. “Don’t jump!” He said. “Are you a religious man?” “Yes.” The jumper replied. “Me too.” Said the walker. “I am a Baptist—remember God loves you!” “I am a Baptist too,” said the jumper. “Are you a Southern Baptist, or an Independent...Continue reading Go Ahead and Jump →Read More »

The Bible is full of moving stories. You know, the ones where someone actually moves from here to there. We’ve seen Abraham being told to leave everything behind and “go to a place I will show you.” There’s Ruth who follows Naomi to a new place and a new life. Of course there’s the amazing...Continue reading Wither Thou Goest →Read More »

I was with a group of friends recently in a coffee shop and two of them got into heated debate over potholes. (Yes, potholes.) Each offended the other in an effort to prove who was most informed and most powerful. This is getting pretty common. Friends are offended over a word spoken in error, drivers...Continue reading Taking the Bait →Read More »

Psalm 42:5: Why are you depressed, O my soul? Why are you upset? Wait for God! For I will again give thanks to my God for his saving intervention. This is the low point of Winter. In February my mother used to lighten her hair color. February was just too dull. She needed to do...Continue reading The Importance of Being Grateful →Read More »

Jim and I received an award this week called the Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Award.* I’m still trying to get my head around having received this. MLK was and is too big. Like when I was five walking around in my father’s shoes. King was a superhero, an example of Christ on earth, staring...Continue reading On Radiators & Martin Luther King, Jr. →Read More »

I love it when people say they have reviewed the past year and figured out what went wrong, and what went right. I wish my memory was that good. But in general, I think people tend to remember what they want to remember, the way they want to remember it. My friend has a nemesis...Continue reading A Million Little Things →Read More »

I saw a bumpersticker yesterday that said “Non-Judgement Day is Near”. At first it rattled my sensibilities—challenging as it was to my Christian training. But, after a thought or two, it brought a smile to my lips as I came to agree. Non-judgement day is not only near it has been here for a long...Continue reading It’s Christmas: Celebrate Non-Judgement Day! →Read More »

Jim and I have been watching a widening crack in the whitewash of political correctness. The politically correct narrative says we must go along with all the trends today. It tells us to “be cool.” It says the ideas of our parents and grandparents were for another time. Women, we are told don’t need men....Continue reading Where Are the Men? →Read More »

We all know someone who is terminally grouchy. The sun can be shining, they might have people who love them all around, but really, for them, nothing is ever good enough to raise a smile. They probably think Thanksgiving is a huge bother. There are groceries to buy, food to prepare and of course, there...Continue reading Gratefulness Cures Grumpy →Read More »

Once upon a time, many years ago there was a good pastor who served a flock in a town a mile or so on the other side of the woods at the end of a well-worn path he had walked for years. Also in the wood there lived a group of people who had some...Continue reading The Pastor & The Path →Read More »

Jesus heard that Lazarus was gravely ill…yet he waited. Days passed before He went to the home of his friend and by that time Lazarus had died. Why the wait? Sometimes we learn something in the space between need and the answer to our prayers. Sometimes, the wait makes the problem so pressing that providing...Continue reading Yes, You Can Do That Too →Read More »

All of us are fighting the good fight. There are small and large caring ministries and charities all over Indianapolis working every day to help others. They struggle for volunteers and often for the money necessary to do their work. These people aren’t worried about getting awards, they are worried about people getting hungry, cold...Continue reading Fighting the Good Fight →Read More »

I woke up this morning and walked out to my car to start my round of meetings and appointments. I had parked on the street as our garage is still full of boxes from our move. As I got closer to my little white Jeep, I realized it was covered with coffee. At first I...Continue reading Why is Life So Hard? →Read More »

What does the future hold? Why do we do what we do, making small decisions that seem mundane at the time, but end up redirecting our daily lives? Six weeks ago Jim and I were happily ensconced in a comfortable suburban house in a friendly neighborhood. Then I got an email from a woman who...Continue reading Through A Glass Darkly →Read More »

I’ve always had a little problem with authority. Maybe because my dad was very strict, or maybe because it took me until about 40 to figure out I didn’t know everything. At that point God provided a series of lessons to point out to me that basically, I knew nothing. Anyway, I got the message....Continue reading Coming Under Authority →Read More »

“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself. ― Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol What does Racism have to do with the Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF)—an $800 million charitable foundation that holds assets and helps direct gifts to charitable organizations? Ah! There’s a question I’m sure...Continue reading Changing Times →Read More »

It was a warm Alabama night in mid July when Walter Carr, a local college student, was picked up by police at 4 a.m., walking along U.S. 459/255, a major 4-lane highway. The young man had secured a job at Bellhops Moving and was supposed to start the next day at a client’s house in...Continue reading I Love Humans! →Read More »

My son Chris went to Wabash College. It is one of the last all men’s colleges in the country and there is a kind of collegial mystique among its graduates that has continued since its founding in 1832. Chris loved his years at Wabash and looks back at his time there as critical to his...Continue reading One Rule →Read More »

My father stormed into the house one day exclaiming to his wife and four daughters, “LET’S GET SOME PRECISION IN OUR DAILY LIVING!” He was exasperated, even raised his voice a little, which was not his style. Who knows what we did to deserve it, but we all started pressing our lips together in an...Continue reading Love. Forgive. Make Contact. Start Over. →Read More »

I remember a book I read called the Poisonwood Bible in which a family of fiercely evangelical missionaries go to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They took with them everything they believed they would need from home, but find nothing but sorrow and loss in the cruelty of the African wild. Nothing works, people die,...Continue reading Claiming Peace →Read More »

When England’s Prince William married Katherine Middleton, something like 24.5 million people watched, breaking barriers set by the Charles and Diana affair, which was viewed by a mere(?) 17 million folks. On Saturday when Prince Harry married American actress Meghan Markel, some other types of barriers were broken—for this wedding was infused with color and...Continue reading The Power of Love →Read More »

Three Huts There was a man who was discovered on a tiny island in the Pacific. A castaway, he was found by some sailors blown off track in a storm. The man was thin, but had survived and built three small huts. One of the sailors asked him, “Why are there three huts?” The man...Continue reading Three Huts →Read More »

My parents are gone. My dad died in’ 92 and my mom in 2012. They were older when I was born, so I didn’t have the benefit of them in my life as long as some people do, but I thank them for everything they did for me just about every day. How blessed are...Continue reading A Prayer for Family →Read More »

There’s a robotic telescope in Chile that has found planets that could support human life. They search for a planet that is in the “Goldilocks zone” or “just right” for human existence. If you remember your fairy tails, you’ll remember the story of the little girl named Goldilocks who stumbled upon a home where three...Continue reading Our Own Goldilocks Zone →Read More »

Last Saturday morning I was really late. I had promised my granddaughter that I would come to North Central High School to watch her show choir compete in state competitions. You know the song, “There is power in the name of Jesus?” Well let me tell you, it’s true. I got to the school with...Continue reading The Day The Red Sea Parted →Read More »

Throw out anything that generates self distain or dislike. Anything that promotes fear or hate. (Which feed on each other.) Get rid of jealousy. According to an 18th century scientist and theologian, Emanuel Swedenborg, we create our own problems because we do not choose our thoughts. Mainly, he says, those negative thoughts about yourself are...Continue reading Be Happy: Change Your Thoughts →Read More »

God chooses the unlikely, for sure. Graham was just a tall scrawny farm kid of 16 when a traveling preacher came through his little town in 1934. He loved baseball and went to church…but Billy’s heart was stolen when he was saved. Through the second world war years, Graham attended the Florida Bible Institute and...Continue reading Who was Billy Graham? →Read More »

Jim and I heard someone say “We have become so open-minded, our brains have fallen out”. We had a good laugh. But what are we so open minded about? There is still debate about equality of the races, equality between men and women in the workplace, even on the subject of who may join our...Continue reading The Value Of Every Person →Read More »

I have been communicating with an inmate at the Putnamville Correctional facility. He wrote me after seeing the Unite Indy insert on “Race Relationships” in the Indianapolis Business Journal, asking if we would connect him with a pastor for spiritual guidance. So, I wrote him back, and he wrote again and it has become a...Continue reading Inmate #972181 →Read More »

You can pretty much find out how to do anything by Googling it on your computer, but you won’t even have to do that today, because I have supplied everything you need to make 2018 a great year in three easy steps. Here we go…. 1. Figure out what God is calling you to do...Continue reading Three Things to Do in the New Year →Read More »

On Christmas of 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. preached the following words: “The next thing we must be concerned about if we are to have peace on earth and good will toward men is the nonviolent affirmation of the sacredness of all human life. Every man is somebody because he is a child of God…Man...Continue reading Fifty Years Ago with Martin Luther King, Jr. →Read More »

“If you see a fish go belly up in a lake, you try to find out what was wrong with the fish. You see a thousand fish go belly up in a lake and you better take a look at the lake.” – Unknown Consider the quote above. The lake is Indianapolis, the fish are...Continue reading Flood Warning →Read More »

Thankfulness did not start—as many Americans think—with the Pilgrims. Meister Eckart didn’t start it either, but way back at the end of the 12th Century as a Dominican preacher he is remembered for saying “If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.” I guess those...Continue reading The First Thank You →Read More »

His name is really Jason Petty, but he’s known as “Propaganda.” A Los Angeles-based Christian hip-hop artist and poet, he grew up the only black child in a Mexican neighborhood and later a suburban all-white neighborhood. He was always the outsider and now seems especially equipped to reach across racial and cultural divides to bring...Continue reading “Propaganda” →Read More »

When Robert Lupton came to town to talk about his book Toxic Charity at the Faith & Action event earlier this year, we all got a lesson on how not to be benevolent. Yes, you heard that right. You see them at the airport in matching t-shirs. Generous people flying off on well-intentioned forays with...Continue reading How NOT to Be Benevolent? →Read More »

Cities are fundamental to God’s design and plan for the world. Although the Bible starts in a garden, it ends in a city. We saw the Word revealed in the big cities of the era through willing disciples who, you’ll notice, were not sent to the Gobi desert to preach to the sand, they were...Continue reading Raising the Standard in Indianapolis →Read More »

In 2007, Oprah Winfrey opened a $40 million school to educate 152 girls on a 22 acre site outside of Johannesburg, South Africa. Its 28 buildings offer the best educational environment, the best beds and even 400-count percale sheets, tested by Oprah herself. To me it is interesting that Oprah decided to build a school...Continue reading It Is Harder Here →Read More »

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Indianapolis metropolitan police said a man died after a shooting in downtown Indianapolis early Thursday morning, marking the city’s 100th murder of 2017. Police found the victim with gunshot wounds on the sidewalk beneath the underpass at South Meridian Street just north of South Street. He was identified as Johnny Woods, 34....Continue reading They Heard Shots →Read More »

Jesus often spoke in parables—stories like The Good Samaritan taught us to cross the road to help others. As everyone knows, this wasn’t a story about a man walking across some asphalt, it is a story about stepping over differences, labels, and beliefs to fulfill the commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves. But the...Continue reading Christians: A Poor Advertisement for Christ? →Read More »

All told, the greater Houston area is huge, encompassing more than ten thousand square miles—bigger than New Jersey and inhabited by 12 million people. So the job of trolling to find and save thousands of people in snake- and even alligator-infested waters is not only ambitious, it is risky. Yet hundreds of people are rushing...Continue reading Not a “One and Done” →Read More »

For a few minutes on Monday, the solar eclipse took our eyes off our problems, ourselves, our plans and we looked to the sky. None of us were afraid, however. We knew what was happening. It had been explained ad nauseam on every electronic portal available. But for the Syrians, during the first recorded eclipse...Continue reading The Solar Eclipse: A Signal from Heavenly Places →Read More »

…the very people we are called to serve are required to provide the support for the ones who serve them” -Pastor John Girton (pictured above with members of the community.) Pastor John Girton, Jr. and his wife left Indianapolis nearly 20 years ago, living in various cities. Although the news reports he would read about...Continue reading No Matter How Long It Takes →Read More »

…having some experience with real life, I’ve learned that though we can’t change history we absolutely can change the future.” There’s an ad that runs on PBS for a river cruise company. It features the company owner, Torstein Hagen in some kind of amazing glass dome as he waxes nostalgically over a roaring fire promoting...Continue reading About Time →Read More »

As a young kid you could have called me racist. I didn’t like white people. I didn’t trust white people. I didn’t want to be around white people. And I was an angry young man. But when Christ came into my life, my whole world changed…” —Charles Ware, President of Crossroads Bible College If you...Continue reading “My Whole World Changed” →Read More »

One of the things I’ve learned over the years is that people stand where they sit. If your dad was a worker in a steel plant, odds are he was in a union. He voted that way and he understood the plight of the working man and you do too. If mom was a single...Continue reading Winning the Human Race →Read More »

The concept of the Good Samaritan is one that is understood the world over. Here was a man who stepped over the divide of belief systems to help someone in need. It is a seminal lesson in how we are to care for each other. The man who was robbed and beaten is unidentified. A...Continue reading Go And Do Likewise →Read More »

“I was involved heavily in drugs and gang violence…. I’m originally GD…Gangster Disciples. I was the guy you didn’t want to see on the streets….” Most of us, say 99.9 percent of us, have never talked to a gang member. We probably have never seen a gang member unless he was on the nightly news....Continue reading Turn Around →Read More »