Bill Ellis

Sherman Alexie is a Spokane Indian who has become a poet, novelist and screenplay writer.  His first book, a collection of short stories entitled "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven," became the basis of the Miramax film "Smoke Signals," one of my all-time favorite movies.  On my vacation I found the book in a shop in Dayton and discovered it is, if anything, more wonderful than the movie.

If by “Second Coming” we mean the appearance of Jesus on the clouds of heaven, supported by some sort of celestial army come to destroy all the evil people and preserve all the good, something of that sort, then no, I do not believe that will happen.

It has been most of three weeks since I returned from Bend, Ore. and the seminar presented by Marcus Borg and Dom Crossan on “Reading the Bible as a Christian.” My reaction to the three days remains very positive, even upon critical reflection, for though I didn’t hear much that was truly new to me, I got a lot out of the way Crossan in particular framed the issues, and the supporting evidence he developed for his basic arguments.