Tom Andel

(For the audio version of this blog, please visit: ) Our God loves variety. Look how different we are from each other! That difference isn’t by accident. Our Creator doesn’t just scatter seed here and there to grow his people.…

(For the audio version of this blog, please visit: ) “Child of God” isn’t a job for sissies. It comes with one of humanity’s most challenging job descriptions. John tells us about it in Sunday’s second reading from his first…

(For the audio version of this blog, please visit: ) More than a century ago, Mark Twain taught that there are three kinds of falsehoods: lies, damned lies and statistics. Ignorance is their common denominator. In the Internet era, we…

(For the audio version of this blog, please visit: ) “From each according to ability, to each according to need.” This is from Karl Marx, Communism’s father.  Knowing this was his mantra, you’d think he’d have been a big fan…

(For the audio version of this blog, please visit: ) The readings for Easter Sunday give us two pictures of Peter the Rock: One telling us that, before seeing and believing the significance of his Master’s empty tomb, he didn’t…

(For the audio version of this blog, please visit: ) Palm Sunday is a study of the difference between fate and destiny. The events presented seem predetermined (fated) to ensure our ability to accept the salvation we’re offered (destiny). Let’s…

(For the audio version of this blog, please visit: ) Last week we addressed academia’s focus on our guaranteed mortality. To counter that study in finality, we cited the gospel reading that forms the kernel of this week’s message: “Unless…

(For the audio version of this blog, please visit: ) The latest issue of Case Western Reserve University’s alumni magazine featured an article titled “A Mindset Reboot: Grappling with the prospect of a finite human future.” That title isn’t surprising,…

(For the audio version of this blog, please visit: ) If we were to boil humanity’s sins down to one, vanity might be the resulting conglomeration. This word has many single-word definitions, and all of them end in less. Useless,…

(For the audio version of this blog, please visit: ) If you believe that bit of wisdom in our headline, people of faith are lucky. It came from the mind of Lucius Annaeus Seneca, an ancient Roman philosopher. And although he…