1.4 F
Spokane
Thursday, February 13, 2025
HomeAuthorsPosts by Paul Graves

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

Do Language Barriers Begin with Attitudes?

We too quickly let language stand in our way of what we want to say. And I’m not just talking about the languages from cultural or ethnic backgrounds. We who speak English as our primary language too quickly subvert communication with each other when our personal attitude reveals we don’t really want to communicate with “certain other people.”
Commentary

The Un-Wokeness of Christian Nationalism

Perhaps many persons who think something is “woke” are feigning – pretending – to be ignorant. They may actually know their use of “woke” means the opposite of what it actually means.        
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.
1...345...10Page 4 of 10

Must read

Mission Statement

FāVS News informs and builds faith and non-faith community through digital journalism and online and offline engagement opportunities.

Sitemap

© Copyright 2023, All Rights Reserved | Website By: WELL DRESSED WALRUS