Category: Ideas
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Kelly Brown Douglas on Resurrection Hope
Along with members of our adult ACE Sunday School class at Caldwell Presbyterian Church, I have been reading the remarkable book Resurrection Hope: A Future Where Black Lives Matter by the Very Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas. In addition to recommending the book, I want to share the following collection of audio and video resources…
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Against All Enemies
I’ve been watching, reading, and thinking about the fractures in American democracy for several years now — through the lens of a citizen, an educator, a media literacy teacher, and a veteran who took the same oath every person featured in this documentary once swore. So when I say that Against All Enemies (2023) is…
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Values of the Ancestors
Reminders from the Artemis mission patch of Canadian astronaut, Jeremy Hansen Thank you, Henry Guimond, Dave Courchene II, and Jeremy Hansen for this poignant reminder about the values of our ancestors, which are still so important today: Respect (the buffalo), Love (the eagle), Courage (the bear), Honesty (Sasquatch), Wisdom (the beaver), Humility (the wolf), and…
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Ep 4: Cairo and Democracy’s Fragility
Wes Fryer records episode four of the Heal Our Culture podcast from Charlotte, North Carolina on February 15, 2026, framing it as a “letter to the future” for his unborn grandchildren. He shares a story from a November 2017 trip to Cairo, Egypt to speak at the EduForum conference, including visiting the pyramids, the Sphinx,…
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Reclaiming Our News Feeds
To heal our culture, we need to reclaim our news feeds and collaborate to reinvent social media. The loss of many local newspapers, combined with the tendency for our “Big Tech” social media news feeds to polarize and isolate us, have produced a bitter harvest. We can and must do better. This evening I participated…
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Do Unto Others
We need to “love our neighbors” and find ways to demonstrate both individually and collectively our commitment to “The Golden Rule.” While Jesus Christ famously shared the Golden Rule in his “Sermon on the Mount,” the golden rule is an ethic of reciprocity which has support within other religious, spiritual, and philosophical traditions outside of…
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Cast a Truth Spell
Walter Rhein observes and contends, “Truth is a healing spell.” Walter is correct. Our very words can be powerful. Like the spells of Hogwarts students in Slytherin House or Gryffindor, we have the power to curse or bless with our words. When spoken, those blessings or curses not only affect others, but they affect and…
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Anti-Racism
Healing our culture requires us to engage in the work of “anti-racism.” In the introduction to his 2019 book, “How to Be an Antiracist,” author Ibram X. Kendi explains that “neutrality” in the struggle over racism is not possible. The opposite of “racist” isn’t “not racist.” It is “antiracist.” Kendi argues the process of undoing…
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Elections and God’s Will
This is a slightly edited transcript of a video recorded for Wes Fryer’s “Wisdom with Wes” series. Following the contentious election in the United States earlier this week, these thoughts seem appropriate to share as part of the “Heal Our Culture” project. The full video description is: In this episode of ‘Wisdom with Wes,’ Wes…
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Hope, Community and Preparation
Watch the 13 minute video version of this post, which is episode 35 in my YouTube series, “Wisdom With Wes.” As I sit to write this on October 1st, 2024, the recent onslaught of Hurricane Helene has left a significant impact, spanning multiple states and affecting countless lives. Although my own family and home remain…