by Rich Hansen | Jun 28, 2020 | Provocative Questions
Sigurd Olsen, an outdoorsman/writer who spent his life paddling the lakes and rivers of the huge swath of wilderness on the Minnesota-Canadian border enveloped by silence broken only by the cry of a loon or the splash of a jumping trout, once wrote: “without stillness...
by Rich Hansen | Jun 28, 2020 | Provocative Questions
I am bearing witness today that there is a growing hunger around the world, including among some of us here in the US. There is a growing desire to move from the safe and familiar performance of religious duties to an unfamiliar and more costly life as authentic...
by Rich Hansen | Dec 10, 2019 | Provocative Questions
Mary (not her real name) definitely lives in Herod’s world. I met her the same day I published last week’s article, “Is there Peace in Herod’s World?” She’s a single Mom with a 15-year-old son and has lived for 10 years in the same public...
by Rich Hansen | Dec 3, 2019 | Provocative Questions
We have a carved olive wood nativity set on the sideboard in our dining room—Mary and Joseph, shepherds, donkey, sheep all gathered around a manger—have you ever thought that that it’s all Luke’s Christmas story? Quiet, peaceful, a baby sleeping, sheep gently bleating...
by Rich Hansen | Nov 26, 2019 | Provocative Questions
The film The Mission tells the true story of Jesuit priests bringing the gospel to the native tribes deep in the jungles of South America. Early in the story, we see a slave trader named Rodrigo Mendoza (played by Robert de Niro) killing and capturing the Indian...
by Rich Hansen | Oct 29, 2019 | Provocative Questions
I thought birds were boring and birders a little nerdy. Then I moved to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. For a Nebraska kid who grew up on sparrows, crows, and the occasional robin, the variety of colors, sizes and shapes of birds (eighty species found only in Ethiopia) were...
