Anthony B. Robinson

Tony is a writer, teacher, speaker and ordained minister (United Church of Christ). He served as Senior Minister of Seattle’s Plymouth Congregational Church for fourteen years. His newest book is Useful Wisdom: Letters to Young (and not so young) Ministers. He divides his time between Seattle and a cabin in Wallowa County of northeastern Oregon. If you’d like to know more or receive his regular blogs in your email, go to his site listed above to sign-up.

Democrats’ Debate: Let a Little Sunshine In

The best thing you can say about Julian Castro’s taunting of Joe Biden about “forgetting what he had just said” (which he hadn’t) is that it is good preparation...

Exploring the Guns-Race Connection

It’s no wonder that gun rights, racism, white nationalism and issues of masculinity continue to swirl together in a toxic brew.

Why the saga of Chief Joseph still haunts our region

I recently finished Daniel Sharfstein’s magisterial 2017 work, Thunder in the Mountains: Chief Joseph, Oliver Otis Howard and the Nez Perce War. Sharfstein, a professor of history and law at Vanderbilt,...

Trump’s Evil Genius

Trump’s evil genius has been on full display of late. On one level his attacks on the four members of Congress known as the Squad has been racist. The...

How to make political change digestible

Several anti-Trump moderate-to-conservatives followed up on the Democratic Party Debates last month by worrying that the Democrats had let themselves be pushed too far to the left in their...

The Work Of Aging: Managing Decline

I was hiking recently with a friend who had turned eighty this spring. I asked how that felt. “I don’t recommend it,” she said. I chuckled. “What’s the alternative?,” “Only...

Round Two: Who Won? Who’s Done?

“This is more difficult than last night.” That was a shared sentiment among my viewing foursome for Round Two of the Democratic “Debates.” Why? Overall, the field was a stronger field...

Round 1: Who Won? Who’s Done?

An unscientific poll of the foursome that watched the first round of the Democrat’s “Debates” where I was revealed substantial agreement.The winner? Cory Booker. Focused, impassioned and looking right...

No Debate Allowed!

I had a note from a reader last week about an event that had been scheduled for Ballard’s Peddler Brew Pub but which was cancelled under pressure. The idea of...

Family Values: To Impeach Or Not?

In 1932 a famous argument took place between the brothers Niebuhr, Reinhold and H. Richard, in the pages of The Christian Century.  The issue at hand was whether the U.S. should intervene militarily...

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