Dave Buerstetta on striving to do justice and love others while walking humbly with God
This has been, to say the least, a very difficult week. COVID continues to run rampant in our country with daily cases, hospitalizations, and deaths as high or higher than they’ve ever been. We’re averaging 3500 deaths, the equivalent of a 9/11 attack or more per day now. Then Wednesday we witnessed armed insurrectionists attempt …
Pundits and politicians insist we on the left need to reach out to Trump voters and try to understand them. For example, Rick "gay marriage will destroy the American family" Santorum waited all of seven nanoseconds after the election was called for Biden to declare that it is incumbent upon Democrats to change in order …
Yes, I love "The Mandalorian" but that's not what this is about. Sorry. I was blown away yesterday when I heard Congresswoman-elect Cori Bush's acceptance speech. It is beautiful, powerful, direct, scintillating, and inspiring. I think this will end up being -- like Obama's 2004 Convention speech or Obama's 2008 speech on race or JFK …
I just got back from voting. It is a beautiful day -- sunny and not too cold -- and our polling place is close by, so I walked over. It is also a beautiful day for democracy in USAmerica. Or at least it should be. Republicans in many parts of the country have been up …
Continue reading Love God and Love Your Neighbor with Your Vote
In my previous post I shared a letter I sent to my city officials. Obviously, a lot -- a LOT -- has happened since then. The mayor, several city council members, and the police chief all replied to me. I won't share those personal correspondences, but I do want to share the public statements they …
Here is a letter I wrote to my city's mayor, the city council, and the Chief of Police. Well, actually to the police commander of the Office of Professional Standards because I couldn't find an email address for the chief. He's on Twitter, but apparently not email. I pledge to continue to strive to be …
The short answer?Because I joined 99 other clergy -- two from each state -- in signing an open letter to Congress. That letter ran in Thursday's (October 17th) Washington Post. The more complete answer?I know there are hundreds (at least) of incidents of injustice in our communities, our states, our country, and our world. I …
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed the Global Food Security Act yesterday (Thursday). Our friends at Bread for the World, the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church, and 65 other organizations endorse this bill. Why? More than 800 million people worldwide suffer from chronic hunger. The Global Food Security Act makes into law: …
Interconnected. Mutual. "What affects one directly, affects us all indirectly." Issues overlap. We've talked about this a number of times at my church. For instance, I've been known to say something like this, "If we want to talk about ending homelessness, we have to talk about the lack of affordable housing. If we want to …
Continue reading ‘We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality…’
Here's a little something that got sucked into my black hole of non-blogging during the last [gulp] half of 2015: That is a picture of the results of the Offering of Letters we collected in October. Apparently, it wasn't as memorable as I would have liked. When I asked our church's Administrative Council what the …
All That I Can't Leave Unsaid 