Random Articles
Spare the Rod, Save the Child
(Copyright) by Catherine C. Kroeger (Brewster, Massachusetts)  The American Journal of Preventive Medicine carries a report of a study on corporal punishment of children. The research was conducted by a medical team at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. One discovery was that spanking with an object rather than the hand raised by nine times the likelihood of other forms of abuse. Parents who spanked frequently were far more likely to beat, burn or shake their children. Pediatrician Adam Zolotor, lead author of the study, wrote “Parents get angry when they’re spanking, and it’s not working. . . If […]
are the shepherds safeguarding the lives of the sheep?
(Copyright) by Catherine C. Kroeger (Brewster, Massachusetts) Â Only yesterday I was told of a Christian woman who escaped a viciously cruel marriage and went to consult her pastor. The man of God, wishing to restore domestic peace and harmony, sent the fearful congregant back to her home along with his well-meant prayers and good advice. Two days later the woman was dead, slain by the hand of her husband. Â Only weeks before a similar tragedy had been played out in a neighboring parish. Although the pastor had intended to reestablish the marital union, his guidance had led to its permanent […]
The Upside Downing of Christmas
by Catherine C. Kroeger (Brewster, Massachusetts)  The young woman stood uncertainly on the threshold of her cousin’s house and drew a deep breath. The time had come when she must reveal to someone that she was pregnant out of wedlock and here she was on the doorstep of a profoundly righteous couple, famed for their scrupulous observation of the Law. They had had no children of their own, and how could they possibly understand? She had as yet told no one of her condition and yet the angel had said that Elizabeth too was expecting a child. Mary stood there a […]
Does Belief in Women’s Equality Lead to an Acceptance of Homosexual Practice?
by Catherine C. Kroeger (Brewster, Massachusetts)
Victims and Vindication
by Catherine C. Kroeger (Brewster, Massachusetts)  Some months ago, I made a duty tour of a section of the Bible that I find incredibly boring. It was in fact the book of Job, composed of interminably long speeches from a crowd of unbelievably rigid and self-righteous snobs. As I started again to plow through their torrent of rhetoric, I suddenly realized that I was hearing the same sentiments that came to me from a far different contemporary source. The opinions of Job’s friends are very much the same as those voiced by faith communities when they address victims of domestic […]