By Jim Nichols I can remember the specific place on the street where the encounter occurred. During my third semester of college, hundreds of miles from where I grew up, I was with a classmate in the evening. He said, “Do you want to go get a Coke?” I replied, “I would like to, but I need to go home

By Jim Nichols The first character we meet in the musical play Mary Poppins is Winifred Banks as she returns to her London home in 1910; she has been attending a Suffragette rally. She finds that her two children have run away from home again, and yet another unacceptable nanny has quit. The father in the house (George Banks) insists

By Jim Nichols Consider with me the following list of categories: UnthinkableRadicalAcceptableSensiblePopularPolicyPopularSensibleAcceptableRadicalUnthinkable In the 1990s Joseph Overton developed the concept of the “Window of Political Possibilities.” This has been an influential concept in public policy, and it has enough logic that we can spin it into church policy and, in fact, personal behavior policy as followers of God. As you

By Jim Nichols It was a conversation I had multiple times in my academic office at the university. A student (frequently in their second or third year of college) appears in my office. They have a serious expression on their face and, eventually, appear to be pushing back tears. A compressed version follows. “I came to college with a well-defined

By Jim Nichols The question from the church class leader sought to stimulate thinking and it certainly did at our table of four. Randomly arranged with three women that I knew only slightly, we were a group that surprised me with the number of ideas and consensus that we had. The consensus may reflect that our collective age was the

By Jim Nichols There is a specific question that I have been asked for most of my adult life. Knowing that I was trained academically as a scientist (and a biologist at that) and that I was also a Christian, questioners have probed me as to whether that creates conflicts of understanding and practice for me. “How can you be

By Jim Nichols A good boss is hard to find, especially if you are sixteen years old and it is your first job with an outside-the-family boss. Do you remember your first boss? Not the neighbor who wanted you to mow the grass or watch the children for a few hours. Not your uncle or aunt who wanted you to

By Jim Nichols Patriotism levels ebb and flow with many of us. When we watch what seem to be bizarre and wrongheaded statements and deeds reflecting it, we sometimes become cynical and critical. At other times, for instance Independence Day, pride in the country takes on a much brighter side for us. Frequently, an individual swings back and forth through

By Jim Nichols We may try to fool ourselves otherwise, but we must truthfully recognize that we do not like change. It seems that about the time we figure out how to use some features on our cell phones or our computers, necessity requires us to “update.” Of course, these newer options are not recognizable to us so we must