Babylon Bee: For my last story in The Salt Lake Tribune, an invitation: Christians, laugh at yourselves!

Nearly two weeks since the Tribune's "right-sizing" https://bit.ly/2KjlK5m left 34 people (including me) unemployed, my last story -- one of three in the can when my 20-year stint at the newspaper ended -- ran today.

I've have always liked the Babylon Bee website (www.babylonbee.com) for its hilarious, often biting satire aimed as Christian idiosyncrasies and self-righteousness. These off-the-hook "fake news" items make you laugh, and think.

Thinking is a good thing, especially for those of us who believe we have a special connection to the Creator.

So, here it is, my Tribune farewell article about the Babylon Bee and its new book, "How to be a Perfect Christian."

Just click on the headline below:
Thus saith the satirical Babylon Bee to Christians: Laugh at yourselves, for heaven’s sake

Chaplains: Invited into the sacred places at the bedside of the sick and dying, and the human heart

As I've mentioned in earlier posts, I was laid off from my job of 20 years at The Salt Lake Tribune on Monday -- along with more than a third of the staff, 34 reporters, editors, columnists and photographers in all.

It may seem bittersweet that today, Sunday, my package of stories on hospital chaplains ran on A-1, top of the fold, and took up a good portion of the inside of the front section as well with a sidebar and photos.

Me? I see it as a good way to go out on top. This was some of my best work. 

Don't we all wish that when our time comes, in career or life, we go out on a high note?

I'm not done yet with writing, editing and telling human stories. I have freelanced for decades on the side -- magazine articles, ghostwritten and co-written a dozen books -- and now I will focus more time on this.

Here are links to Sunday's stories:

While doctors bring healing to body, chaplains treat the soul

https://www.sltrib.com/news/health/2018/05/19/now-i-can-touch-the-peace-utah-chaplains-bring-healing-hope-comfort-and-faith-any-faith-to-patients/

The bedside of a dying child is ‘holy ground,’ a place where Utah chaplains can offer tears, prayers and solace but no easy answers

https://www.sltrib.com/news/health/2018/05/19/the-bedside-of-a-dying-child-is-holy-ground-a-place-where-utah-chaplains-can-offer-tears-prayers-and-solace-but-no-easy-answers/

Tribune layoffs aftermath: the reeling stops, clarity settles in

Midweek of the Salt Lake Tribune layoffs aftermath. The reeling has stopped, and clarity of purpose, at least short-term, has replaced it.
Been a whirlwind of activity since Monday, arranging finances, medical insurance for both myself and Barbara, networking for possible freelance writing/editing gigs, and doing our own "right-sizing" on the domestic budget.
When you are forced to get down to it, it's surprising how many of those previously "automatic" expenditures you don't need to make, and to actually start better monitoring spending, groceries, travel, etc. Whole new world, and I have found, not entirely a scary one out there.
Still have several stories in the can the Trib likely will run over the next week or so (kinda like being a ghost, lurking around, looking for the light). I believe they will be some of my better work, so a bittersweet, but nice way to go.
And, I haven't been alone in this. My sweet wife has been brilliant, and encouraging; my kids, even the grandkids, supportive; fellow members of the "Trib 34" (aka, #tribrightsizedmetoo) and those editors and colleagues still rattling around in the newsroom at 90 W. 400 S., sharing practical and emotional support; and my brothers and sisters in faith.
Onward.

Thirty-four layoffs at The Salt Lake Tribune; me, too

Monday was a sad day. So many veteran journalists, and not a few young, gifted ones, laid off today at the Tribune. 

Me, too. 

Twenty years, during which I was given the opportunity to report and write on a whole lot of beats, and meet fascinating people and tell their stories. Is there anything better? 

So, with some tears, there also is a lot of gratitude.

The notice came by email, a quick, clean cut. I know some of my colleagues resent the impersonal nature of this -- I do not. None of this was judgment of us, or our abilities; it was a matter of a drastic downsizing, pending reorganization of news operations and audience. 

Utah needs the Tribune. My colleagues at the Deseret News, tied to the Trib through the JOA, also need the Tribune. 

So, sure, emotion cannot be rationalized away; one feels as one feels about loss of income, purpose and self-identity. 

But at least, I go out with the journalistic equivalent of the old Spartan admonition of returning with your shield, or on it. I've done some of my best work this year, and a couple examples (I hope) will run in the coming days as a sort of bookend to my Trib career. 

What is ahead, I don't know. But I have faith that whatever that is for Barbara and me, we will not be alone.

After all, saying you believe God is with you in good times is easy; knowing He is in tough times? That's where, hopefully, we "comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height" of His Love. (Ephesians 3:18)

All the best to those who remain. You are in my prayers, and my heart.

Redefining human sexuality and gender: Our relentless politically correct lemmings' march to the sea

So, it's no longer the Boy Scouts. But it's still the Girl Scouts. Girls can join the former, boys cannot join the latter.

It's just crazy. No, really, it is. And this is just one more mile marker on this politically correct lemmings march to the sea.

Our so-called "culture war" was fought for decades in the political realm, and in the classrooms and lecture halls. Now, increasingly, this struggle has moved into the arena of faith.

More mainstream, "liberal" denominations of After millennia of general agreement of such things, within a generation many mainstream, "liberal" Christian denominations have abandoned old, seemingly written-in-stone beliefs about the nature of humankind, love and what comprises the sanctity of marriage. These changes, they argue, reflect a more loving God, and a more selective, perhaps, reading of scripture.

A new PRRI poll shows that now the struggle appears to also be eroding, through attitudes of millennial members, the once-resolute commitment to "traditional marriage" and associated same-sex issues, within the ranks of the most conservative expressions of faith -- just 10 years after a coalition of such churches, along with Muslims, Hindus and others -- passed California's Prop 8.

While this shift is explosive in terms of religious timelines, perhaps the struggle is ancient. There always has been the dichotomy: Does humankind define the Divine and its intentions, or does a faithful humankind allow the God they claim to believe in to redefine and perfect them? A subset of that would seem to reflect the former -- that the foundations of scripture, doctrine and tradition are now an embarrassment to our more enlightened, evolved worldviews.

The trend seems to be that scripture is antiquated, its commands thus open to revision or dismissal in light of current, more "evolved" thought. In all this, where does love and fidelity come in? Can we, as believers, not love, respect and pray for those who do not share the tenets of our faith, and yet still hold fast, not compromising the heart of our faith given once, for all?

Can those who so rightly fight for civil rights for all humankind, regardless their ethnicity, gender, or personal, political and religious choices also respect -- even protect -- the rights of others who disagree on matters of faith and its practice to live out their convictions?

Once upon a time, such disagreements often would conclude without resolution, but with this statement, accredited to Evelyn Beatrice Hall: "I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it."