Author Archives: abfifer

Today is Yom Kippur

September 23, 2015 – 8:43 am

Yom Kippur began last night at sundown, a time when Jews restore their relationship to God through repentance for their offenses. It’s the culmination of a ten-day period of reflection, repentance and return known as “teshuvah.” Repentance can be a refreshing, joyful act, says Louis Newman, a professor who has both studied and practiced it. […]

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LCMS Dispute Resolution

September 18, 2015 – 5:53 pm

The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod has invested a lot in peacemaking. I was part of their effort in the late 1990’s to train hundreds of district superintendents around the U.S. in Christian mediation, in hopes that they would be able to resolve pastor-parish conflicts internally, and well. So it was with real sadness that I came […]

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Rep. Gamrat Apologizes

September 8, 2015 – 4:25 pm

Michigan Representative Cindy Gamrat apologized today before a House legislative committee for her role in a scandal involving fellow legislator Todd Courser. The West Michigan legislator apologized “for the failures I’ve committed, which do not reflect the heart of who I am, the values I believe in, nor the people I serve. I humbly ask […]

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Forgiving Nazis: “I Highly Recommend It”

July 16, 2015 – 3:18 pm

Eva (Mozes) Kor was ten years old when she arrived from Hungary with her family at Auschwitz in May 1944. Despite experiments performed on her by the infamous Josef Mengele, she survived, and now runs a memorial to Holocaust victims in Terre Haute, Indiana, called CANDLES (Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experiment Survivors). Her […]

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Exonerated

July 7, 2015 – 5:12 pm

I’ve been moved by the recent revelation of a wrongful conviction here in Grand Rapids. When he was just 16, Quentin Carter was found guilty by a Kent County jury in 1992 of raping a 10-year-old neighbor girl and sent to prison. He served his full sentence—17 years—, despite his good behavior in prison, because he […]

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