Religion

How powerful words are! Rabbi Seymour J Cohen wrote: “Words can inspire, destroy, console us, entice us. Throughout history words promoted hatred, murder, even wars! How many politicians permanently had their careers ended by false rumors and innuendos!” Each of us have experienced the power...

For followers of Jesus, Easter arrives each year with beauty and intention—sunrise services, full rooms, hopeful songs and the deep reminder that life can emerge even from death. These moments matter. They lift us, ground us and reconnect us to what is most true.  They...

We are experiencing a lot of fear these days.  Sometimes fear is legitimate and real. Other times, our fears are overblown and irrational. We call these kinds of fears phobias. The fear of immigrants coming into our country is a phobia, that is, an irrational fear. Some running for...

2026 is trying to be a New Year, but two weeks in, are you feeling hopeful? Where do you find places of solace that bring you hope in the midst of a dark geo-political world? How can all who are here on United States’...

“Fear not, says the Lord” (Isaiah 41:10, 43:1) is a well-known Bible verse offering comfort and strength to believing Christians who are assured that God is with them in presence, protection and power to help overcome fear, distress and difficult situations.  The phrase “Fear not”...

The Jewish holiday of Passover begins Wednesday night, April 1, 2026. On Passover night, Jews conduct a communal meal in their homes, called a seder. The word seder means “order,” because the meal and its accompanying rituals are conducted in a special prescribed order.  We...

Gilroy Life goes online only for rest of year Local news publication Gilroy Life has ceased printing its paper edition until the end of this year following the September death of publisher Marty Cheek, according to Gilroy Life editor Robert Airoldi. The publication will continue...

On Oct. 7, 1885 a 16-year-old German barber named Friedrich boarded a ship for New York.  Fleeing the military service then required in Germany, he became one of over a million German immigrants who flooded these shores between 1880 and 1885.  Once he had accumulated...

Methodists have long been known as “a singing people.” I am not a good singer, but I can say that I am a passionate and, hopefully in God’s ears, a beautiful singer. Singing is one of the important parts of my life and in...

In the San Francisco Bay Area, we seem to be in a bubble of more open-minded thinking and inclusion. There are other places, regions and states that seem to be filled with fear of the outsider and suspicion of neighbors of different ethnicity, national...