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Rev. Cory L. Kemp's Articles in Religion and Faith

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  • A Simple Act of forgiveness
    Four Amish girls were buried on a hill in Nickel Mine, Pennsylvania, this morning. Charles Carl Roberts IV, the shooter who invaded their schoolhouse, took their lives and shattered their community's private world, took his own life as well. Roberts' wife and three children live nearby. Two other acts of school violence, one in Colorado, one in Wisconsin, occurred only a few days before Roberts' rampage on his neighbors. Trying to understand what is happening in our country, and why, is a confusing struggle of faith and fear.
  • Relational Faith
    "Computers Loom Large in Preschoolers' Lives."

    This headline caught my attention as I leafed through my Sunday paper this past weekend. While my own computer and I are rather close, spending a pretty hefty portion of our days together, I hadn't really considered what an impact this staple of everyday life has had on our youngest community members. Apparently there is a considerable impact, a lasting influence we may want to redirect while we still have time.
  • Common Ground
    Former President Clinton has been in the news the last few days. Appearing in a series of interviews as he entered a three day Global Initiatives Conference, Mr. Clinton mostly has been seen defending his attempts to protect the country from terrorism during his administration. At odds with Fox Television's Chris Wallace during their conversation, Mr. Clinton was later postured against Secretary of State Rice. It is not uncommon for the media to highlight conflict whenever possible. Conflict attracts attention, and sells almost as well as sex.
  • Following Our Voice
    Perhaps you have already heard. The United States Internal Revenue Service is investigating All Saints Episcopal Church of Pasadena, California.

    The Los Angeles Times reported that the IRS targeted All Saints because it is stepping up its probe of allegedly improper campaigning by churches. All Saints has historically been involved in social activism, so it was a surprise that an antiwar sermon delivered by its former rector should trigger such a response. Our tax code bars nonprofits from endorsing or campaigning against candidates in an election. This includes churches. Although no candidate was endorsed in the aforementioned sermon, the IRS is treating the matter as if All Saints had publicly supported a particular candidate.
  • On Being Called
    Our country paused again today, remembering the attacks on the United states that began over our morning coffee five years ago. Most of the talk around this anniversary has centered on how the world has changed since that day.
  • Walking for Doughnuts
    These bright, sunny fall days inspire me to delights I haven't allowed myself in what seems like a very long time.
  • Practicing Forgiveness
    Reading Dr. Wayne Dyer's most recent book, Inspiration: Your Ultimate Calling, has been a joyfully challenging experience for me.
  • Finding Four Amps
    Apollo 13 caught my attention last night as it was broadcast on a local station. The movie is harrowing in its telling details of the ill-fated mission to the moon and equally triumphant in reliving the experience of all that it took to bring the three astronauts home.
  • Hallowed Ground
    Hurricane Katrina came one year ago on August 29. Remembrances of that day welled up from our national consciousness and onto every newscast, newspaper and website, hoping for a way to come to terms with what we have been able to do to help our fellow citizens and what we continue to do to deal with the great task ahead that remains undone. We have learned some hard lessons, and
  • Traveling On
    Five weeks of bombing between Lebanese Hezbollah and the State of Israel ended in a fragile ceasefire last week that seems to be holding itself together. Since the ceasefire began on August 14, passages have been opening for delivery of humanitarian aid denied the 750,000 people World Vision estimates were displaced by the conflict. Many of these people left with minimal food, water and clothing, and when they return their homes may be destroyed.
  • God Only Knows
    While preparing dinner the other evening, I paused to flip through the television channels and came to rest at an old Everybody Loves Raymond episode. Ray's sister-in-law, Amy, had stopped by to visit his wife, Debra, who was not at home. Amy seized the moment, as well as Ray's moment with the basketball game on television, and shared her day in more detail than Ray was ready to absorb. Soon enough, Amy discovers her brother-in-law's discontent with their visit.
  • Bonus Rounds and Treasures
    Ken Jennings, a software engineer from Salt Lake City, Utah, best known as Jeopardy's winningest contestant ever, became known this week for apparently biting the hand that has fed him very, very well.
  • Walking in the Dark
    What's the weather like in your neck of the woods? We've had some pretty intense storms the last few days where I live and another one is simmering outside my front widow. A storm that rampaged through on Tuesday night provided a spectacular light and sound show, which worked out well because it also took out the electricity for my whole city. While I truly love a good thunder storm, losing electricity for five hours was startling. The lights went out, and my first instinct was to reach for the light switch.
  • Going to the Party
    A friend of mine loves to give parties. He delights in putting together all the particulars from decorations, to menus, to flower arrangements. Most of all, he just enjoys sharing his gift of hospitality. As a guest at his home I have been treated to beautiful surroundings, great food and a warm loving atmosphere. But I am also treated to some very fine company in the variety of guests who are welcomed to his table. Although many of us do not travel in the same social circle, we are a part of his circle. Because of this one connection, we have come to know each other, and look forward to seeing each other once or twice a year at our friend's home. It is a place we love to be, and it is another reminder of how much we touch each other lives.
  • The Neighborly Thing To Do
    While browsing through the website for my hometown newspaper, the Door County Advocate, I found myself drawn to the Traveling Back section, an impromptu history lesson of Midwestern sensibilities about small town life ranging back ten, twenty, and sometimes a hundred years ago. Since my own memory is stretching back farther each day, sometimes I stumble upon events I remember or which involve people I used to know. One particular story caught my attention today, and I thought you might find it interesting too. Taken from "50 Years Ago, July 17-19, 1956," the event chronicled includes a cow, a lightening bolt and a resurrection of sorts.
  • A Fourth of July Prayer
    Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion has been a Saturday night staple on Minnesota Public Radio for years. Filled with stories, music and commercials from fictitious companies like Powdermilk Biscuits and Bertha's Kitty Boutique, the showcase of the program's second hour is the news from Lake Woebegone. Keillor claims Lake Woebegone as his hometown, a small place in Minnesota farm country filled with Norwegian bachelor farmers, Swedish humor and human drama that only exists in Keillor's vivid imagination.
  • Faith is in the Gopher Wood
    In an interesting turn of events this week we have had massive rain storms in the Northeastern United States, resulting in flood evacuations in Pennsylvania, and an archeological team from Texas believes it has found Noah's Ark in the Elburz mountains of Iran.
  • Doing With Each Other
    Are you lonely today? If so, you are not alone.
  • Out of the Shadow of Death
    Last week brought fortha moment of joy few expected to see so soon, if ever again.
  • Courageous Love
    Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust, chronicles the ninety-one days that Immaculee Llibagiza and six other women spent stuffed into a three-by-four foot bathroom while almost one million of their fellow citizens were being tortured and killed.
  • Cross-Cultural Communication
    The residents of West Milford, New Jersey, have an amazing story to tell tonight, a story of heroic proportions that will not soon be forgotten. For it was reported today that Jack, the fifteen pound orange and white tabby cat treed a bear in his own back yard. Twice.
  • Reunion
    A bright red postcard told the tale: Mark your calendars for a very special event. The Sturgeon Bay High School Class of 1976 30th Class Reunion.
  • Who Are The Chosen?
    The New England Patriots have announced their desire to create a Hall of Fame celebrating their team's players and accomplishments. While eleven former players are considered Hall of Fame members for their contributions to the sport, their "hall" has been six pages in the team's media guide. With three Super bowl victories to their credit in the past five years, the Patriots are ready to establish something more permanent. Plans are being developed for a Patriots museum, a place at which the team's artifacts and memorabilia can be displayed, and past heroes can be fully honored.
  • What Remains
    Forbes.com recently ran an article that was rather shocking and intriguing all at once. The job market is not what it used to be and it is not going to look the same twenty years from now. Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock and Revolutionary Wealth, is quoted as saying that, "Most jobs are going to change. They'll survive, but they'll change."
  • Custom Costs More
    CBS Sunday Morning recently dedicated a whole program to design. Exploring how we incorporate this powerful, creative tool into our lives was fascinating to consider. Designer food tempted taste buds. Designer puppies melted hearts. Designer household items stirred imaginations. But designer homes, they touched souls.
  • Stopping the Impossible
    World War II ended more than sixty years ago. Its veterans are now as old as their World War I predecessors I remember from Armistice Day assemblies designed to hold our young minds still on the fact that these conflicts were real. They involved sacrifice, huge loss, and human triumph over a seemingly insurmountable enemy.
  • Using Our Words
    Did you know that the number one fear of the American people is public speaking?
  • Misplaced Objects
    Have you ever felt as if something in your life is out of place, but you are not sure what, or how to deal with it?
  • On Mourning
    Two communities continued their grieving this week.
  • Spring Is When You See Pavement
    Growing up in Wisconsin has blessed me with an appreciation for many things. The Green Bay Packers offered lessons in football, loyalty in struggles, and joyful gratitude in triumph. Our license plates still read, "America's Dairyland," conjuring up sweet memories of the best ice cream in the world. Lake Michigan stretches as far as the eye can see, welcoming dreams to soar above it and take flight. But the Wisconsin weather taught me more about the balance and fulness of life as part of God's creation than anything else I've ever experienced.
  • Dancing With God
    Have you become addicted to Dancing With The Stars? If so, you are in good company because there seem to be a whole lot of us watching. If not, let me share with you the premise of this highly-rated television program.
  • Check "Other"
    Fillin our forms, for any variety of reasons, is a tedious necessity of life. Categories listed on these forms reveal some interesting truths about our faith and culture with which we may not be so comfortable.
  • Superhuman Powers
    While updating some changes to my web site this wee, I was also able to enjoy an update on the cnages in the life of a business associate's young son. I learned he has superhuman powers.
  • Nobody In Florida Wears Pantyhose
    On a recent business trip to Florida, my jet propulsion experience began with a 3:00 AM wake up call to maek a 6:35 AM flight. Knowing the challenge that early rising would be on a cold January morning, my clothing for the next day was laid out and ready for me to slip on without a thought.
  • Sanctuary
    Land is at a premium. even Oprah is buying up property because, as she says, "God isn't making anymore."
  • God's Voice
    How do you hear God's voice? Pat Robertson and Ray Nagin recently shared their faith perspectives on this issue.
  • Signs and Superstitions
    Today is Friday the thirteenth, one of those days people joke about, and then hop out of the way of the lightening bolt they assume wil strike.
  • Jill Carroll
    As of this writing, reporter Jill Carroll, kidnapped Saturday morning, January 7, 2006, in Baghdad, is still missing.
  • Private, Prayerful Moments
    What of our personal communications remains private? The Bush administration has admitted listening to our phone conversations and reading our emails. The media gave us access to the last messages from dying West Virginia miners to their families. Where does privacy end and public scrutiny begin?
  • Hope and Creation
    The new year brings us to consider hope and creation as the stuff of which miracles are made.
  • Year End Clearance
    As one year ends and another begins, take some time to consider cleaning out your closets, your heart, and your soul, and dust off your hopes and dreams in the process.
  • Gifts
    Pause for a moment and take notice of God With Us as Christmas comes to our communities, and to our own doorsteps.
  • Traveling to Bethlehem
    Christmas is near, and we are all on the road to Bethlehem.
  • Storytelling
    Christmas is the time for retelling stories, and recalling memories. As Andy Williams used to sing, "It;s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year."
  • Surprisingly, Good Things
    At this mid-point in the season of Advent, what do you hope for, and what do you expect?
  • Unsettled Times
    It is difficult, even if our lives are only lightly touched by tragic news stories, to remember that we are in the middle of Adevnt, the preparatory days before Christmas in which we consider the changes the coming Messiah will make in our lives and the world.
  • What We Have
    Focusing on what we want sometimes distracts us from seeing just how much we really have.
  • Bible Stories: People Prayed, Lives Changed
    Jesus was pretty clear-cut on the subject of prayer: keep it private, keep it short, and forgive each other ,a nd god will forgive you. The Bible is full of information about prayer, especially in the effect prayer had on the lives of the people who equipped their lives with its power and grace.
  • Why Do You Want To Pray?
    Why do you want to pray? Before tackling that one head on, let's start with the more accessible, why does anyone pray?
  • How Do You Want Your Prayer Life To Look?
    Talking about prayer is one thing, and doing prayer is another. But without the conversation, with other people, with yourself or written down in a journal, the activity itself rarely devlops beyond simplistic remembrances and repetitious renderings of prayers from the past.
  • How Do You Address God?
    How we talk about God , and talk to God, reflects our understanding and experience of who God is in the world. What names do you use to call on God's presence? Do theyexpress auw, intimacy, love, fear, hope? You may be pleasantly surprised at how many names the by which the Bible calls God.
  • What Is Your Experience of Prayer?
    Remembering back as far as I can, prayer has always been a part of my life. My memory is filled with prayers, from home and church. What is your experience of prayer? Take few moments of time to consider your experiences of prayer.
  • What Is Prayer?
    Let us pray. With these words we close our eyes, bow our heads, fold our hands together, and . . . then what?
  • When Do You Pray?
    Prayer is the cornerstone of the Christian faith, the communication factor with god that opens us to grace, hope and the very love of God that transforms our lives. So, when do you pray?
  • How To Enrich Your Prayer Life In Three Easy steps
    Would you like to increase the time you pray, deepen your faith, feel more connected to God, feel more equipped to do ministry? You may be surprised at how easy it can be to create the prayer life you want.
  • What Do You Hope For In Your Life?
    What do you hope for in your life? It's a simple enough question, but one I find most people are at a loss to answer, or are very uncomfortable considering.
  • National Magnetism
    Where does our country stand on the economic impact of immigration, guest workers and outsourcing of jobs from our country to other other countries? Where does our historic hospitality to people seeking refuge, opportunity and hope fit into that picture, including the open door our anscestors received?
  • Thanksgiving
    Our national holiday prompts us to consider the legacy we inherited from the people who celebrated the first Thanksgiving, the one officially delcared by President Abraham Lincoln at the height of the United States Civil War, and what we will be passing on to the generations that lead us to the future.
  • Daylight, Savings and Time
    It's that time of year again. We are turning out clocks back, gaining our extra hour of sleep, and the gift of considering how we use our time.
  • Bigfoot Evangelism
    The Texas Bigfoot Conference, hosted last weekend by Jefferson, Texas, welcomed four hundred firm bleievers to discussions of sightings and tracking techniques, as well as souvenir tables that offered a T shirt which said, "Bigfoot: Often Imitated, Never Invalidated." It impresses me when people are willing to devote their weekend to something they feel strongly about, and who proudly wear their faith across their chest in a succinct statement.
  • Trusting The Unknown
    What is your first reaction when you sense a change about to occur in your life? Do you panic, run through a list of things in your head that could go wrong or have in the past? Do you lose sleep, wonder how you will cope, and when the situation will sort itself out? Who will you go to for the answers?
  • Church Growth
    What defines church growth? How much emphasis do we place on numbers, and how much on faith development among existing membership? How much is our ego, as church leader or church member, tied up in how other church members view our congregation's impact on the community?
  • Advent Calendar Revisited
    Do you recognize the signs that Christmas is already on its way? Sure you do. Children are back in school, the Halloween candy and costumes are on display, and very son, the holiday decorations will be nudging their way into every nook and cranny of your favorite stores.
  • Gifts, Service and working
    We talk a lot about gifts these days. Not the concrete, boxed version, but about gfits as a manifestation of the unexpected, but greatly appreciated and valued.
  • You Don't See Many Chickens in Clearance
    Retailers are not always perfect judges of what will sell in any given location or during a particular season. But chickens are another story.
  • Prayers for the People
    Early news reports that indicated Hurricane Katrina had dodged New Orleans enough to avoid the worst were wrong.
  • Katrina
    The first reports and images of the destruction waged by Hurricane Katrina shocked our nation and the world.
  • Organization and Creativity
    Organizing is big business these days. Apparently the closets, garages and storage areas of American households are so stuffed with useless clutter we are drowning in our own consumerism. What can we do to clear away the clutter and make way for creative, productive lives?
  • Crowds and Lonely Places
    In rereading the Gospel of Mark recently, I was taken aback by how many times Jesus was confronted by such crowds of people that he literally could not escape them. Even his disciples were overwhelmed by the masses of people following Jesus into the mountains, to the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and even into the homes of people who had offered them respite and repast around their own talbes.
  • Summertime
    Summer brings new experiences and perspectives every year, including how we view our faith. Vacation Bible School is remembered as one of those snapshots in time that changed a life.
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