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Paul Graves

Paul Graves is a retired and re-focused United Methodist pastor and a long-time resident of Sandpoint, Idaho, where he formerly served on city council and mayor. His second career is in geriatric social work, and since 2005 he's been the Lead Geezer-in-Training of Elder Advocates, a consulting and teaching ministry on aging issues. Since 1992, Graves has been a volunteer chaplain for Bonner Community Hospice. His columns regularly appear in The Spokesman-Review's Faith and Values section, and he also writes the Dear Geezer column for the Bonner County Daily Bee and is the host of the bi-weekly Geezer Forum on aging issues in Sandpoint.
Commentary

Drop Your Fig Leaves and Leave Shame Behind

I see the whole Creation story as a metaphor. It’s an ancient story that wonderfully tells how the world began and how humanity was introduced into that creation. In this garment-sewing detail, God’s first post-creation act is to love the creatures who seem overwhelmed with a primal shame that never seems to go away.
Commentary

Being Awake to the Distortions of Being ‘Woke’

Being woke was popularized in 1962 as African-American street slang by black novelist William Sloan Kelly. His explanation of woke spoke clearly that history, black history especially, needed to be identified and affirmed. His description is reflected in how the Oxford English Dictionary defines woke.
Commentary

Like Carla Peperzak, Let’s Sacrifice Our Comfort to Talk about Past and Present Injustices

When we grow up, we want to be like Carla Peperzak. That was how my wife and I felt after our three-hour lunch and visit with Peperzak in her home at Rockwood Retirement Communities. At 99 years old, she is mentally and physically much younger. Her passion for teaching children about the horrors of the Holocaust is keen and always eager.
Commentary

Living Long Enough to Make a Difference

As long as I can remember, something inside of me has nudged my heart to make a healthy difference in someone else’s life. Not so much in my own, but in someone else’s life. It’s no surprise, kids, that making some effort has always made a healthy difference in my own life. I am so proud of you three today because I see you all trying to make healthy differences in other people’s lives in what you are doing right now
Commentary

The Sunday the Christmas Tree Fell

My memory is fresh about the second Sunday of Advent, 1969. A young pastor, I was serving my first solo church appointment. Our congregation had decorated the sanctuary for Advent and Christmas, including a Christmas tree standing between the pulpit and the first row of pews.
Commentary

Escaping the Cult of ‘Sin-nocence’

We’ve just entered the four-week period called Advent, the time when the Christian church prepares for the birth of God (the baby Jesus). Underlying that birth for many people is the concept we call “innocence.” Jesus’ “innocence” is usually connected to his being “without sin.” But what if Jesus wasn’t innocent in that way? What if Jesus wasn’t innocent at all? What if being fully human and fully divine (and being a key word here) meant Jesus was as un-innocent as we are?
Commentary

When democracy is a one-way freeway

I imagine democracy as a one-way freeway headed for the future. The vehicles on that freeway carry inspired concepts such as, freedom of many kinds, inclusion of all persons, equality and justice for all persons, citizenship, civility and mutual respect, consent of the governed, voting rights for all citizens, minority rights and personal and social responsibility.
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