Let’s all take a ‘Forest Walk on a Friday’ with Lynne Golodner

January 12, 2025 by Leave a Comment

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‘I hope readers who generously pick up this book will see themselves in my stories.’

‘Our details may be different, but our desires are universal. We all hunger, yearn, lament and remember.’

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EDITOR’s NOTE: Lynne Golodner has been a colleague of our publishing house since the day we were founded in 2007. She published one of her earlier books with us, Flavors of Faith: Holy Breads. She now runs her own hybrid publishing house and continues to help many writers to find their voices. As we approach her latest book release, especially because this is a deeply personal book, we invited Lynne to write for our readers about what she hopes you will find in these new pages. Please enjoy this personal column and consider ordering one of Lynne’s books—and share this good news with friends via the social-media sharing buttons that accompany this column.

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What’s inside the book? To market her new book, Lynne created this graphic illustrating key themes readers will find in these pages. Click on this link to visit the book’s Amazon page, where you can pre-order your copy.

By LYNNE GOLODNER
Author and Marketing Expert at LynneGolodner.com

I woke early each morning to record the audiobook for my new collection of essays, Forest Walk on a Friday: Essays on home, love and finding my voice at midlife. Early morning was the best time to avoid background noise in the audio files: no traffic on the sleeping streets, no one stirring in the rooms of my house. And as I leaned close to the microphone and recited the words of sentences and paragraphs from essays I’d crafted years earlier, I revisited versions of myself and experiences from my past.

I was excited. Melancholy. Reverent. Embarrassed.

I’d poured it all onto the page—everything, in perfect detail, moments I’d loved and moments I’m grateful to have made it through. I pulled back the curtain on my failed first marriage, my ten years as an Orthodox Jew, my life after I left the strictures of observance to define for myself what being Jewish would mean. I spilled it all onto the page for all to see in the glaring daylight.

Was I crazy to be so honest with the great, wide world? Would people judge me unfavorably? Would the topics and themes and emotions of my life resonate with readers?

And then I remembered the words of Anne Lamott: “If something inside of you is real, we will probably find it interesting, and it will probably be universal. So you must risk placing real emotion at the center of your work.”

As I finished the audio recordings and sent them off for packaging, I reflected on this new book, my eleventh, and my first collection of essays, many of which I’d shared previously with the public by submitting them for publication in magazines and literary journals.

And I knew that it was going to be alright.

Because when we share from a deep well of emotion, honestly and without pretense, we connect on a very human level. I’ve always been an open book, in friendships and in my writing. I have nothing to hide. I’ve lived a lot of years and my experiences have varied from mundane to adventurous, and the truth is that every single person is looking for inspiration and courage to be daring and different.

So I was ok with my decision to collect 28 essays into a book with themes connecting them. This is a brave and daring step in a world where people are canceled and judged all too easily. My desire to connect on a deep level with other deep-feeling people empowered me to take the risk of critical feedback, which always comes whenever we publish.

Gord Downie, the late singer and songwriter from the Canadian band The Tragically Hip, said what I hope will happen for readers of this book: “When I write, I give people access to their own emotions.”

In Forest Walk, I hope readers are interested, intrigued and introspective. Upon reading about my travels to India, Bali, Scotland, and the self-growth that happens when visiting an unfamiliar place. When I detail the practice of family purity that I observed as an Orthodox Jew, I hope readers gain understanding about mysterious, or strange, rituals—and find compassion when I explain why I left that way of life, eventually.

When I write of my deep love for my children, my parenting missteps, and moments of redemption with my children, I hope readers relate to the nuances of parenting and forgive themselves as I try to. When I make my grandmother’s chicken soup or bite into a corned beef sandwich in memory of my father, I hope readers remember someone dear to them, and the little things they can do to bring memories of their beloveds flooding back.

This book gathers several decades of my life in its pages—the early years of trying to decipher who I am and who I want to be, finding my way in relationships and building the courage to not need a partner. And then the awakening, the midlife coming-into-myself that allows for deep and lasting love, calm and patient understanding of the twists and turns of living.

If I’m honest, I hope readers who generously pick up this book will see themselves in my stories. Our details may be different, but our desires are universal. We all hunger, yearn, lament and remember. The art form of the personal essay, in its specificity and details, is the most universal way to connect over the twists and turns of living.

Anais Nin said, “We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.” Sometimes we don’t want to return to those moments. Sometimes we’ve moved so far past that calling them up forces us to face uncomfortable truths. But we do it anyway and are better for it.

This new book contains so many old stories. Versions of who I used to be—not the me that lives and leads today. This collection honors my personal evolution and the power we all have to become better versions of ourselves. So in a way, it’s an homage to what was, and a song of gratitude for the chance to do better.

And, it’s a journey I hope readers will take back to themselves, too.

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Care to learn more?

Lynne Golodner is a Michigan-based author, writing coach and marketing entrepreneur. There are many ways to “meet” her. Sign up for her Rebel Author Newsletter. Visit her website at https://lynnegolodner.com. Follow her on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn

There’s a virtual launch event for Forest Walk on a Friday. Follow this link to register for that event at 11 a.m. ET on Thursday January 30.

Lynne also is a popular novelist. Earlier, we highly recommended her novels. Here’s a link to our 2023 story about Woman of Valor. Then, here’s a link to our 2024 story about her novel Cave of Secrets.

Her novels are available wherever quality books are sold. For Amazon, go to Cave of Secrets or Woman of Valor.

We also highly recommend that first novel and hHere’s a link to our 2023 story about Woman of Valor.

One of Lynne’s earlier nonfiction books is Flavors of Faith: Holy Breads, which explores a wide range of bread traditions related to religious communities—with recipes. That book is produced by our ReadTheSpirit publishing house.

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Remembering Jimmy Carter (1924-2024) and his deep faith that peace is possible

January 6, 2025 by

CARTER’s BRIGHTEST MOMENT: Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian president Anwar Sadat with U.S. president Jimmy Carter at Camp David in September 1978. This U.S. Archives photo is in public domain.

Our last interview with former President Carter in 2012 focused on his Christian faith

“Basic Bible principles still apply today.”
Jimmy Carter in our 2012 interview

By DAVID CRUMM
Editor of ReadTheSpirit online magazine

I first met Jimmy Carter in 1976 at the San Diego Zoo. I was slowly circling the United States that year to report “a young American’s vision of our country during the U.S. Bicentennial” for The Flint Journal in Michigan. The week I ran into Carter at the zoo, I told my editor (in a rare long-distance telephone call) that I had met Carter and maybe our brief interview at the zoo would be a good column for Michigan readers.

“Naw, forget that!” the editor said bluntly. “What about your idea of writing about ‘real cowboys’ in the Southwest? That’s a great story. Everybody’s interested in real cowboys these days. But, candidate whistle stops are a dime a dozen. Nobody cares about that.”

I’ve never forgotten his cynicism, and he was right for his readers. I did wind up reporting two very popular columns about real cowboys—but I now regret never having published my brief San Diego interview with Carter. I had about three minutes with him after watching him work his way along a line of families near the zoo’s bear exhibit. And, now? I can’t find my original reporter’s pad or remember Carter’s exact words—except that he used the word “hope” several times. And, I liked his gracious style.

As it turns out, that wasn’t just a “style.” I interviewed Carter a number of times after he left office during the several decades I was The Detroit Free Press Religion Editor. And, he continued to embody that quality—graciousness—in our conversations about everything from his support for Habitat for Humanity to his long-standing custom of teaching a public Bible study at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia.

To remember Carter in this week of his memorial service, our ReadTheSpirit online magazine is republishing my final interview with him in 2012. The following telephone interview was scheduled as part of his promotion of an inspirational edition of the NIV Bible, created by Zondervan in 2012 with selected texts from Carter’s lectures on the Bible at the Plains church.

Jimmy Carter: How the Bible can help us find peace

A 2012 interview with former President Jimmy Carter

CRUMM: Your new Bible is a window into the depth of your personal faith. Your notations also show clearly how powerful these ancient scriptures are in our modern world. When you were president (1977-1981), how did you read the Bible in those years?

CARTER: For more than 40 years, my wife and I have read the Bible aloud every night. One night, she reads; the next night, I read. We go all the way through the Bible, then we go back and start over again. In the last 15 or 20 years, we have read the Bible aloud in Spanish, just to practice our second language.

When I was president, we did the same thing. I have to say that I really read it with much more deep attention and thoughtfulness when I was president, because I felt such great responsibility on me. And the most critical time was when the hostages were being held and I was being advised by all sides to go to war and to attack Iran because they were holding our hostages. But, I remembered that we worship the Prince of Peace and so I was able, during my term in office, through prayer and commitment, to preserve the peace. We never dropped a bomb. We never launched a missile at another country. And, we also tried to bring peace to other people, like Egypt and Israel, who had been at war four times in the previous 25 years.

Those kinds of applications of biblical teachings were important to me—and so were the ones calling for justice between rich and poor. The Bible teaches us that all people are created equal as Paul wrote to the Galatians: Whether we are rich or poor, male or female, black or white, it doesn’t matter—we are all equal in the eyes of God. So, those kinds of basic principles apply to my life not only as a president, but also when I was a submarine officer, a farmer, a governor—and to this day.

CRUMM: I spent a long time reading through your additions to this new edition of the Bible, including your prayers and your Bible-study lessons. Among the pages I marked: In Genesis, you remind us that leaders should be servants. You provide a prayer in those pages, asking us to set aside any sense of superiority and domination over others. In Deuteronomy, you single out for criticism people “who have an air of arrogance and who use their position to divide.” In James, you criticize anyone who would “speak ill of others” in order to “destroy or damage the reputation of others.” Honestly, now, in the savage style of politics in recent years—you must be quite disappointed!

CARTER: (Laughs, then says …) Well, this just shows us how applicable the teachings in the Old Testament and the New Testament are to everyday life!

When we depart from these basic principles that never change, despite the rapid changes in world politics and technology, we’re in error. I think it’s particularly applicable now to point out those basic facts. As you know, Jesus—the leader of the entire Christian world—always referred to himself as a servant and said that the greatest among you will be servants of all and he emphasized humility. These same principles apply in the Hebrew texts of the Bible. And they apply to everyday life today.

The teachings that readers will find added to the pages of this new Bible came from my many years of Bible teaching. Every Sunday that I teach, we have about 30 members in our little church who come—and we also have several hundred visitors who quite often come to hear me teach. What I try to do is use the first 10 or 15 minutes of my 45-minute lesson for the headlines of the day, or things that have happened to me or I know have happened to someone in the audience. That’s how I bring the biblical teachings to life. It’s not an accident that we continue to see how these basic Bible principles, which I taught about for so many years, still apply today.

A Special Concern for the Millions of Us Who Are Caregivers

CRUMM: I’m pleased to find in your new Bible some real encouragement for caregivers. I have on my shelf your wife Rosalynn’s wonderful book on caregiving, which I think still stands up as one of the best books on the subject. From your new Bible, here’s just one example from Leviticus 19. You highlight the passage, “Stand up in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God.” Then, in one of your reflections for Bible readers, you warn about something that people who’ve served in the trenches of caregiving understand: You say that the people who need our care often are not very friendly and often may seem unattractive to us, at first. Say a word to our readers about this kind of spiritual challenge.

CARTER: You’re right about Rosalynn’s book: It’s one of the best. She is still a national leader on caregiving and has a major program at Georgia Southwestern State University. What she points out is that almost every one of us at some point in our lives is going to be a caregiver—or is going to be the recipient of the blessings of a caregiver. This is a matter of biblical teaching for Christians and Jews. And these principles also are central to the teachings of Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. We are to take whatever we have been given—our own health and longevity—as a blessing from God and we are to invest that in some way for the benefit of those who need our help. In our experience with caregiving, this invariably turns out to be not a sacrifice on our part but a new addition to our life. We are stretching our hearts and minds to encompass other people and we find that adds vibrancy and excitement and unpredictability and adventure to life.

CRUMM: At ReadTheSpirit, we’ve done a lot of work with readers and congregations nationwide to to help the 65 million caregivers out there serving people in this way. I can envision your devotional Bible as a daily inspiration to help people working as caregivers. Sometimes, that work can be draining.

CARTER: As you’ve just pointed out, 1 in 5 Americans are caregivers and quite often their devotion is to someone they love, without pay. This can be a personal sacrifice that quite often is unappreciated. Rosalynn makes this point, too. We not only need to be concerned for all of the people receiving care—but also for the millions who are working in this dedicated way as caregivers. We know that this kind of effort is a basic premise that permeates biblical teaching.

If we are blessed with long life or good health or fortune of some kind, we need to share what we have with others. The golden rule is emphasized repeatedly in both Old and New Testaments: Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you. We can always imagine ourselves being disabled or bedridden or mentally debilitated with a condition like Alzheimer’s and needing care. We can appreciate the benefits from a recipient’s point of view and this realization may help us to be more open to sharing our resources with those who need that kind of care.

And I must say again: Quite often, it may seem to be a sacrifice at first—yet it almost always turns into a gratifying experience.

The Importance of Humility in Leadership

CRUMM: Your new devotional Bible might have been called The Humble Bible. I didn’t actually count the references, but I’ll bet the inspirational materials you’ve added here use the word “humble” more than any other devotional Bible we’ve seen. You’re a famous and influential man. You once were the most powerful man in the world as president.

Why so much emphasis on “humble”?

CARTER: In the broad sketch of things, pride is probably the most insidious and damaging sins that we can have. Elements of arrogance, of superiority, of believing that people who differ from us are inferior implies that we think some people don’t deserve to enjoy the blessings of God as we do. I think that almost every other sinful trait of a human being can be traced directly or indirectly to a lack of humility. When we become proud, arrogant and superior—and then begin to derogate others—this results in the violation of basic human rights. It can result in going to war when war is not necessary.

Now, of course, we have some people in our country who have substituted the mistreatment of African-Americans with the derogation of immigrants. In my boyhood days, even when I was a young adult, the major prejudice not only in the South but in the rest of the country as well was against African Americans. Then, we also developed an animosity in the aftermath of 9/11 toward Muslims or people who are from Arab countries. That has now been transferred to a major degree to people from Latin America who have come to this country. That prejudice applies in various actions we have seen by legislatures that primarily are aimed against people who speak the Spanish language.

So, it seems that human beings, even in societies like our American society, want to have some adversary who we believe is inferior to us in some way. It’s a sin that needs to be avoided and I don’t think it’s an accident that a lot of the biblical analyses I have added to this book refer to that sin.

None of us should feel superior over—or inferior to—others. God provides ways that we all can be successful in the eyes of God, wherever we live, whatever our wealth may be, or whatever education we are able to accumulate. Remember that Jesus didn’t have any advantages like riches or a home and, of course, he didn’t live a long life on earth, and still he was a perfect example for what we ought to be. When we elevate secular things like wealth or self aggrandizement and take pride in our status in society—all of these are counter to the demands of Christ to be humble and to serve others. Christ calls us to love people who are not really loveable, to love people who may not love us back, to love people when we don’t get credit for it. That’s the essence of Christian agape love, I think.

Despite Risks, Peacemaking Is Our Mandate

CRUMM: You’re well aware of the risks of peacemaking. You write about it a number of times in the pages of this new devotional Bible. You’re even willing to risk the world’s scorn for your work, right?

CARTER: That’s a mandate for all Christians, I think. We worship the Prince of Peace. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said those words: Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be considered the children of God. And that’s a part of my current life as well as when I was in the White House. We always try to reach out to others with whom we are estranged, sometimes in unpopular ways. For example, Rosalyn and I regularly go to places like Cuba. We’ve been to North Korea three times. We go to countries where the US government considers leaders to be terrorists. We meet with everyone. I wouldn’t use the word “dangerous” to describe this approach of talking to everyone in pursuit of peace. But it can be an unpopular thing. When I went to Korea, at one point—and I do believe that I helped to prevent a war between North and South Korea as part of our Carter Center work—we were looked upon as appeasers and criticized by some.

So far, I’ve been talking about peacemaking in international affairs but I think that we must look for ways to make peace in our relationships inside America, with our neighbors down the street—or even within our own families. The mandate from Christ is to promote peace, harmony, understanding, forgiveness and grace.

One of my favorite Bible verses is: Be ye kind to one another as God through Christ has been kind to us. That’s such a prevalent all-pervasive instruction throughout the Bible that it’s inescapable.

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Click the cover to visit the book’s Amazon page.

Care to learn more?

From one peacemaker to another

We publish a number of books by the internationally known Baptist peacemaker Daniel Buttry, including his magnum opus: Blessed Are the Peacemakers, which profiles dozens of peacemakers from around the world. There’s an entire chapter devoted to Jimmy Carter’s life and legacy.

Carter also plays a key role in Buttry’s book Healing the World: Gustavo Parajón, Public Health and Peacemaking Pioneer.

Media Expert Quentin Schultze draws 20 life lessons for the New Year from a movie that millions will watch (again) this week

December 23, 2024 by

“There’s a kind of timeless nostalgia that draws us into the movie, but Jean’s story is really about how difficult it is for us to find our way forward in this bewildering world, especially for children who find themselves in the middle of all of these problems.”
Media expert Quentin Schultze writing about A Christmas Story author Jean Shepherd

By DAVID CRUMM
Editor of ReadTheSpirit magazine

Click the cover to visit the book’s Amazon page.

The moment I first saw this book, I was astonished that veteran media expert Quentin Schultze managed to write an entire inspirational book about a single movie, the 1983 classic, A Christmas Story. He’s produced 208 pages of wise and wonderful material, based on a movie that’s only 94 minutes long.

The godfather of this publishing genre, Robert Short, established this concept back in 1965 with The Gospel According to Peanuts. But, Bob Short had a big advantage in writing his book. He was able to drawn on the vast world of Charles Schulz’s Peanuts to distill his handful of spiritual and moral lessons for readers. In the case of Schultze’s new book—You’ll Shoot Your Eyes Out! Life Lessons from the Movie A Christmas Story—Schultze draws 20 lessons from a single film!

As we approach the 60th anniversary of this popular Faith & Film genre in book publishing, Quentin Schultze has pulled off a tour de force demonstrating how powerful this type of book-length reflection on film can be. If you love movies—and you enjoy regular spiritual reflections—you should order a copy of this book.

It’s an instant classic!

That was not the case with this “Hollywood Christmas comedy” that was based on a pre-World War II story by author, humorist and media personality Jean Shepherd (1921-1999). The first big problem the movie faced was a lack of confidence among MGM executives, who dumped A Christmas Story into theaters for a short run before Thanksgiving that year. Film Critic Gene Siskel immediately realized that MGM honchos had no idea of the movie’s true value. Siskel wrote: “A Christmas Story is a delightful motion picture that is doomed to box office failure. It would appear to be a children’s film, but it really is a whimsical piece for adults about childhood.” And, because it is a movie about remembering experiences associated with Christmas, it was simply out of synch for moviegoers in November. “Whoever booked this film this early should be shot,” Siskel concluded.

Siskel was right. A Christmas Story came, went and was forgotten—well, almost forgotten.

Flash forward four decades to 2024 and now we recognize A Christmas Story as arguably The No. 1 Christmas Movie of all time. Signs of that status are the annual “movie marathon” traditions on both the TNT and TBS networks. On TBS in 2024, that 24-hour, back-to-back series of re-broadcasts starts at 8 p.m. on Christmas Eve. On TNT, that day-and-night marathon begins at 9 p.m. Christmas Eve. And if you’re a true fan of this film—only on TNT, the marathon ends at 9 p.m. Christmas Day with a one-time showing of the 2022 sequel, A Christmas Story Christmas.

Recognizing a Phenomenal Storyteller in Our Midst

This remarkable transformation of an almost-forgotten “sleeper” into America’s defining movie about Christmas doesn’t surprise Quentin Schultze—partly because he knew and worked with Jean Shepherd and was one of the first media experts to recognize the shining facets within this gem that Shepherd crafted for us.

“In the 1970s, I was a new communication professor,” Schultze told me in an interview about his new book. “I was teaching but I was also continuing to learn myself about the nature of narrative storytelling—which I believe is the most potent form of human expression. I began looking around for people who were particularly good storytellers, especially in multiple forms of media. That’s why I started to follow the work of Jean Shepherd, who I could tell was a phenomenal storyteller in multiple media. I saw one of Jean’s first made-for-TV movies, Phantom of the Open Hearth, in 1976 and I was so impressed by his use of parallel plots, multiple stories tied together into one narrative. I knew this was someone I needed to watch and to work with, if I could make that happen someday.

“Then, in 1982, I moved from where I had been teaching in Iowa to join the faculty at Calvin in Michigan—and, with that move to Calvin, I decided to contact Jean. By the time we talked, even more of his work was appearing and I was determined to find a way to connect with him. I remember that very first time we talked, I said, ‘I’m a communication professor at a small college in Michigan and I am hoping to work with you on a course about your storytelling.’

“To my surprise, he responded: ‘Let’s do it.’ And that’s how he came to Calvin and co-taught a course with me. We spent time with the students picking apart his stories—exploring how he organized them, how he took us with him to various places, and how he would bring this all together as he concluded his stories.

“So, that already was unfolding when I first saw A Christmas Story in 1983. Because I knew so much about Jean’s storytelling, I could see his influence throughout the movie, which I thought was extremely well done. … I could see immediately that this movie was his home run. When I began to realize that it was bombing at the box office, I was stunned. How could this be? Maybe people just weren’t ready to understand what Jean was doing in this particular story.”

Schultze was determined to encourage for his new friend—and he was not alone. Film critics like Gene Siskel recognized and praised the little movie that all-too-quickly vanished. Through Calvin, Schultze and Shepherd continued to collaborate on conversations and courses over the years. Eventually, Schultze himself began writing books, nonfiction about faith and communication. But it took more than 40 years from their first phone contact for Schultze to dedicate this new book to his friend and the pinnacle of Shepherd’s career, A Christmas Story.

If this condensed version of the story is intriguing to you—about how a sleeper became a classic and how these two creative professionals formed a collaborative friendship—well, order a copy of Quentin’s book. If you’re a true Christmas Story fan, you also will learn in this book about some elements in that 1983 movie that Jean Shepherd did not like, once he saw how his script was reinterpreted by MGM. In other words, if you’re among the countless Americans who have collected Christmas Story memorabilia and watch the marathons each year, you’ll welcome the insider tidbits Quentin Schultze provides.

So, what about these 20 lessons?

The key to unlocking Schultze’s revelations about A Christmas Story is his central argument that the movie was primarily not intended to be “nostalgic,” which may come as a shock to many fans.

If you’re disagreeing with that argument, stop and think about this for a moment: Millions of Americans love the nostalgic feel of the movie even though very few of those viewers actually grew up in the 1930s. There is something about this movie—in fact, 20 “somethings,” Schultze argues—that seem to connect with our lives in bittersweet ways, sometimes funny and sometimes painfully thought-provoking.

Schultze said in our interview. “I remember Jean himself saying this to me: ‘The movie is really anti-nostalgic.’ The story is about looking back and saying: Things were always rotten, just like they’re rotten now. There were always problems.

“Sure, there’s a kind of timeless nostalgia that draws us into the movie, but Jean’s story is really about how difficult it is for us to find our way forward in this bewildering world, especially for children who find themselves in the middle of all of these problems. It is a hopeful film, because Jean survived a rotten childhood—and he knew that it was possible to survive such problems. That’s why Jean wanted to give us all these life lessons—these parables—along the way.”

Perhaps right there you recognize the depth of the connection between Schultze and Shepherd, especially if you are reading this article as one of Schultze’s thousands of students over the years. If so, you already know that Schultze’s own life started as “really rotten”—full of problems just like Jean Shepherd’s early life. Schultze makes no secret of this. In fact, it’s an essential part of his hopeful, pragmatic message to the world: Despite trauma, we can resiliently thrive and become part of healthy families and communities. On the front page of his website, Schultze tells visitors from the start: “I grew up in a kind of living hell.”

“I do think that’s one reason we connected all those years ago,” Schultze said. “Jean’s own father abandoned his family—and I learned a lot more about our connections as we taught together over the years. In the movie, this realization explains a lot about the distance between the kids and ‘The Old Man.’ ”

Childhood trauma is just one example of the themes Schultze explores in his book. One of the 20 “life lessons” Schultze describes in this book involves the kinds of “refuges” that kids learn to cherish. There’s a lot in the course of this book that is more light hearted, but that chapter on childhood refuges is serious stuff and I think it’s a good example of the kind of insight that readers will really appreciate.

I won’t spoil the experience of Schultze’s book by listing all the other life lessons, but I do hope I’ve made the case in this Cover Story sufficiently that you think about ordering your own copy to enjoy.

Back in the 1980s, when Schultze was first getting to know Shepherd—as a journalist I was getting to know Robert Short, the spiritual godfather of this spiritual-lessons-in-pop-culture genre. I interviewed Short multiple times over the years that I was serving as a religion editor for major newspapers. After all, it was quite an achievement to be “the first” in a new literary genre—and Short went on to sell more than 10 million copies of that original book. He remained a wise patriarch of the genre until he passed in 2009.

I know Schultze will be happy if he sells a few thousand copies of his book this winter. Over the decades, I’ve interviewed authors of all kinds of faith-and-pop-culture books from volumes on Superman to the Simpsons, from U2 to Disney. And I really do want to encourage this inspirational impulse.

Plus, I want to honor Schultze’s achievement with this new book. What Schultze accomplished here, along with some wise insights from his own friendship with Shepherd—is to unlock the connection between this particular movie and the wistful imaginations of a lot of Americans these days.

I also suspect that, like the movie itself, the audience for Schultze’s book may grow over the years as each year’s new wave of those movie marathons roll around.

So, we say: Happy New Year Quentin! May your book find a growing audience through 2025 and beyond.

Suddenly battling aggressive cancer again, Howard Brown reminds all of us that the key to survival is a caring community

November 4, 2024 by

Leading Advocate for Families with Cancer Finds Himself Back in a Fight for His Life 

By DAVID CRUMM
Editor of ReadTheSpirit magazine

He’s still shining brightly.

I know because I’ve talked to Howard regularly since his shocking diagnosis just a week ago revealed: The man who is known for surviving two different extremely long-shot stage IV bouts with cancer—and now heads a nationwide network helping to support cancer patients and their families—has just been hit by a third form of very aggressive cancer.

“This was a shock! It took me completely by surprise—my doctors, too,” Howard said from his Detroit-area hospital room where he is receiving daily chemotherapy. This time the cancer is Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), which had been invisibly devastating his body for weeks.

To read the now-famous stories of how Howard overcame two virtual death sentences from oncologists already, in his life, get a copy of his memoir Shining Brightly. Today, among his many advocacy roles in health care and interfaith relationships, Howard serves as chairman of the board of Paltown Development Foundation, a vast network of thousands of patients, caregivers and their families battling colorectal cancer. That was the second of three cancer diagnoses in Howard’s life.

How did Howard not know that cancer had come calling again?

He didn’t—and that’s an important part of this story. He didn’t suspect cancer was back—nor did his longtime oncologist friend who Howard sees for regular checkups. The only reason they discovered the AML, last week, before a catastrophic collapse was that Howard knew the drill: Something had changed unexpectedly in his body—which meant he had to call and get checked.

In fact, Howard is so healthy from a lifetime of attending to his fitness that, when his doctor friend first read his blood tests at Beaumont Hospital—the doctor assumed the lab report was flat-out wrong.

He apologized to Howard: “We’ve got to run this test again, Howard, because somehow the test is screwed up. If your blood levels were this bad, you’d be wheeled in here on your back—not strolling in here after a long walk. Howard, something’s wrong here, but it may just be this test itself. We’ll do it again right now.”

So, an entire second set of blood tests were taken and processed and, the moment Howard’s doctor saw that second lab report, his jaw dropped.

“Howard?” Then, the doctor paused, the news obvious on his face.

“It’s bad—isn’t it? Take your time,” Howard said—his first instinct was to reassure his doctor.

The doctor was shaking his head in disbelief. “There’s no way your condition has gotten this bad and you’re not just on the floor—I’ve never seen blood levels like this on a patient who’s walking around as healthy-looking as you.”

“Well, one thing I can tell you is: I’m sure glad I didn’t overlook that bruise that suddenly appeared on my arm,” Howard told the doctor. “I was just been playing some pretty heavy-duty basketball with friends and I thought the bruise was from a foul. I might have just dismissed it, but then I thought: Oh, well, I know the drill. It’s a sudden bruise. Something changed in my body—so I should check. But you’re right, I feel fine! I just took a five-mile walk.”

The doctor, who has known Howard for years, could not stop shaking his head. “No more ball playing for you, Howard. Your immune system is gone. I think your bone marrow has stopped working. If you catch a cold from someone else—especially flu or COVID—you’re going to die. Your immune system is shot—and that is very serious.”

Howard was sent into isolation in a Beaumont oncology section. He had enough energy to make a few calls—including one to me, his long-time friend and editor—and to post a few items online. Then, almost immediately, friends from around the world jumped in to reassure Howard that they’re providing many forms of support. Because Howard knows about the high costs of battling cancer at this level, one early post he made was a GoFundMe campaign headlined: HBstrong! Support Howard Brown—3rd cancer—AML.

Already, as of this story’s deadline, 160 donors have contributed nearly $46,000—and the fund continues to grow.

Howard’s mantra: Keep the focus on ways we all can help others

Even after such a stunning blow, Howard’s focus has been on encouraging his friends to do good toward other people, as well. That’s a natural expression of Howard’s life.

Yes, his GoFundMe page is an appeal for donations—but here’s the rest of his list for ways people “can do for me in my time of need”:

  • Please send prayers and hugs
  • Consider donating blood and/or platelets where you live. I will need transfusions—but so do many others.
  • Be kind to others.
  • Hug your family and friends for no reason.
  • And, keep shining brightly always!

The response across a half dozen social media platforms, email, text, phone and other media was so overwhelming that, when I was talking to Howard a few days ago, I suggested: “Can we publish a story in ReadTheSpirit?”

“Ohhh, you know that would help a lot,” he said. “I feel bad that I have not been able to keep up with individual responses to all the ways people have reached out to me. You know how—”

I cut him off. “Yes, of course! I know how you can’t rest until you respond to friends. I’m the editor of your memoir and of countless columns you’ve written in recent years. I know that you’re disciplined to respond to each note and act of kindness with a personal ‘thanks’ of some kind. It must be driving you crazy to feel so much incoming love—and you can’t keep up with responding to each person.”

He laughed. “You know me! Yeah, I’m thinking of each and every one who has reached out. I want to tell each one how much it means to me that they took a moment to reach out.”

“Well, for now,” I said. “I’m going to tell this story in ReadTheSpirit and I want you to lay back and let the Beaumont staff take you through the next 30 days of chemo. Don’t worry. We’ll get your word of “Thanks!” out there for everyone.”

Howard’s ‘Ace in the Hole’

“One thing that keeps me going everyday is that my twin sister, CJ, is still my Ace in the Hole,” Howard told me. “If I can make it through these 30 days of chemo, then we meet down at Karmanos in Detroit and we’re praying that a stem cell transplant from CJ to me will save my life again—just like it did in my first battle with cancer years ago.

Readers of Howard’s memoir Shining Brightly know that having a twin does not necessarily mean that a match is possible—but, in what the Brown family considers a miracle, CJ proved to be an exact match years ago. Her cells saved Howard’s life by kick-starting his own bone marrow to produce healthy cells again.

“And, it’s not 100 percent certain, but we hope that will happen again,” Howard told me. “First, then, I’ve got to make it that far.”

No question: Howard’s life could end before CJ can give him that priceless gift. That’s why Howard and his entire family especially value prayers. Two of Howard’s closest clergy friends—rabbis who have become dear friends through the years (and who also appear in his biography)—are spending time with Howard.

As of the deadline for this November 4, 2024, issue of our magazine, Howard said to let people know that he is determined to beat cancer once again—and that prayer and spiritual reassurance is a true lifeline for all cancer patients.

“And, so far, I’m holding up. Yes, I know the chemo will catch up to me soon and will slow me down, but for now—it’s early days and the doses are still low enough that I’m able to get up and walk around. I need to keep as fit as I can. Mainly, I’m overwhelmed with thankfulness for all of the kind wishes—the response to my Go Fund Me campaign and the prayers that I know people are wrapping around me every day! I feel very grateful.

“The one thing I regret is that I simply don’t have the time and energy to respond individually to the thousands—and that’s literally thousands—of notes and best wishes people are sending me from around the world,” he said to me. “The more I think about your invitation, David, I think your plan to write something for the whole ReadTheSpirit audience is one way that I can convey my thankfulness for all the people who are reaching out with support.”

I told Howard: “Well, when I saw the tidal waves of responses you’re getting, that’s why I thought of writing this column with you. No one wants to invade your privacy—but all of us who know your story understand that the key to surviving this truly life-threatening crisis is connecting with other people.”

“I’ve always said that, haven’t I?” Howard chuckled. “You know what I’m going to say next, don’t you?”

“Fighting cancer is a team sport,” I said. “You always say that.”

“Right. The key to surviving this kind of battle is accepting help from a caring community—and I’ve got excellent doctors and lots of dear friends surrounding me right now. And what else do I say?”

“Keep shining brightly.”

“That’s right,” he said. “Whatever happens to me—we all need to pitch in to make this world a better place. That’s what gets me out of bed every morning—and that’s no different right now. We’ve all got to keep shining brightly.”

Howard Brown and his twin sister CJ enjoying a sunny day before his recent diagnosis.

 

Duncan Newcomer’s long-awaited “big book” on the spiritual life of Abraham Lincoln finds a home at Santos Press

October 28, 2024 by

A nationwide community of readers awaits this version of ‘Quiet Fire’

By DAVID CRUMM
Editor of ReadTheSpirit

Long-time followers of Lincoln scholar Duncan Newcomer have been awaiting Duncan’s “magnum opus” on the spiritual values that Abraham Lincoln brought to our deeply divided nation. Now, Conrad Kanagy, a sociologist, religion scholar and the founder of Santos Press, has announced that he will be working with Duncan in 2025 to finally publish what Duncan has been describing to audiences as his “big book.” The working title, we’re told, is Quiet Fire: The Spiritual Life of Abraham Lincoln.

This comes as wonderful news to Duncan’s myriad of friends nationwide—including a long list of journalists (Duncan has appeared many times in ReadTheSpirit magazine and has befriended readers, as well, through The Christian Science Monitor) and noted authors such as Peter Wallace, Greg Garrett, Jon Sweeney and Bob Cornwall (all four of whom are online friends of Kanagy’s publishing efforts).

For writers and editors who specialize in exploring spiritual values—especially those values that might help Americans navigate today’s deeply divided national landscape—this announcement is good news in troubling times.

What is “Quiet Fire”?

That two-word phrase has become the trademark for Duncan’s many public reflections on Lincoln over the years, whether on public radio or via newspapers, magazines, books, podcasts and public appearances. Duncan now is credited among Lincoln scholars for coining that evocative phrase to describe the deep core of Lincoln’s beliefs and personality.

As evidence of his influence with that phrase, Google’s AI summary currently reports:

While there isn’t a directly attributed quote from Abraham Lincoln that explicitly says “quiet fire,” the phrase is often used to describe his character, signifying a deep inner strength and resolve that was not outwardly flamboyant but rather quietly powerful; this association has been popularized by writers and historians who study Lincoln’s life and personality, particularly in works like Duncan Newcomer’s book “Quiet Fire, the Spiritual Life of Abraham Lincoln.”

To hear Duncan describe the origins of the phrase himself, watch this video interview with Conrad Kanagy, which recently was posted as part of Kanagy’s early promotion of the upcoming book.

You’re welcome to prepare for the big book’s release with daily doses of ‘Quiet Fire’

Part of Duncan Newcomer’s success in fostering a national awareness of Lincoln’s deep spiritual foundations rests on Duncan’s persuasive ways of making friends with other scholars and media professionals nationwide. Among his friends, for example, is The Christian Science Monitor’s Mark Sappenfield, who took over the reins of that storied newspaper in 2017. Mark’s own interest in probing spiritual and moral perspectives on American life has led to a long-standing series of connections between Duncan and that newspaper.

Duncan also convinced public radio producers to let him experiment with this theme in a series of short broadcasts that eventually reached a total of about 300 episodes.

“Since its beginning, radio has offered a warm medium for connecting the heart, the head, and the imagination. This delightful collection of Lincoln’s wisdom was seeded in a creative radio show, Quiet Fire,” said Sally Kane, former CEO of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, the network where this series was born on local WERU, a station in mid-coastal Maine. “Now, Quiet Fire has morphed into a daily companion for readers who connect the dots between time and space to map a new understanding of the chaotic times in which we live. Lincoln’s words resonate more urgently than ever, and Duncan has played alchemist in Quiet Fire to one of our country’s greatest souls and distilled an essence that can guide and comfort us.”

Click on the cover to visit the book’s Amazon page.

Meanwhile, Duncan already had become a popular contributing columnist in ReadTheSpirit magazine—and our publishing house produced a 30-day book based on his Quiet Fire broadcasts. That book is part of our ongoing series of “30 Days With” inspirational readers. Duncan’s Lincoln volume is titled: 30 Days with Abraham Lincoln—Quiet Fire.

However, beyond all of those waves of Duncan Newcomer media on the theme of Lincoln’s Quiet Fire—there still was a much longer manuscript sitting in Duncan’s office in Maine. In that magnum opus, Duncan wove together threads from Lincoln’s life into a larger tapestry that Duncan hoped would stand the test of time as an essential scholarly perspective on Lincoln’s spirit, faith and values.

That’s where Conrad Kanagy stepped into this network of relationships. Kanagy is best known nationally as the biographer of theologian Walter Brueggemann. Conrad also has been a popular professor of sociology at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. In the fall of 2024, Conrad announced he would retire after the current academic year—which will give him more time to work with the independent publishing house he founded in Elizabethtown, Santos Books.

When Conrad learned about Duncan’s body of work—and the unpublished “big book”—he began his efforts to grow Duncan’s audience by bringing the archive of those hundreds of original Quiet Fire public radio episodes to Spotify for easy access in coming years.

As a result, right now if you’d care to start on your own relationship with Duncan—and his vision of Abraham Lincoln as a spiritual mentor for our times—simply visit that Spotify link and you’ll find the first group of episodes.

Duncan, Conrad and Abraham: ‘A Perfect Fit’

Conrad says he’s proud to play this crucial role in Duncan’s vast national network of colleagues.

“The goal of our publishing company is to tell the sacred stories of individuals through biography, memoir, or autobiography,” Conrad said this week. “By sacred, I mean those stories that are special, unique, set apart, from the ordinary and everyday way we think of ourselves.”

That’s why his publishing house is such an important vocational step for him, Conrad said. “The goal of Santo Books is to share our stories so that each individual in our books can be seen as God sees them: loved by God, belonging to God, lovable to God—even those who don’t believe in God.”

So, the latest “chapter” in the overall story of Duncan’s and Lincoln’s “Quiet Fire” will come from Conrad’s press in 2025—because, as Conrad puts it, “Duncan’s story of Abraham Lincoln is a perfect fit—both in terms of how he saw others, but also in terms of how clearly he understood the sacredness of the other.”

And amid the deep chasms in American life and culture right now, Conrad says, there’s not a more important message to publish.

Stay tuned to ReadTheSpirit magazine for further news about the availability of this new book in 2025. We have asked Conrad and Duncan to alert us to the book’s availability for pre-sale, when it is listed on Amazon in 2025. As soon as we hear that good news—we’ll share it with all of you.

Ken Kemp introduces the ‘Sanctuary’ story to a national audience via his ‘Beached White Male’ podcast

October 12, 2024 by

Look at these two illustrations—above and on the book cover below:
Where do you want to be?

By DAVID CRUMM
Founding Editor of ReadTheSpirit magazine

Click the cover to visit the book’s Amazon page.

A few years ago, at the height of COVID, Ken Kemp launched his popular podcast The Beached White Male. He thanked the editors of Newsweek magazine for coining that ironic phrase in a now-famous 2011 cover story about the disappointments of underachieving white men. Ken used that banner to try to knock some sense into older guys like himself—urging them to stop moping and start recognizing the beautiful world emerging around them.

From the start, Ken knew that he—for one—didn’t want to surrender to isolation and exclusion either from COVID or from the many barriers thrown up by anxious and often angry white men in recent years. Instead, Ken has explored the ever-growing circle of communities that embrace inclusivity as a part of their expression of God’s love.

A Message of Hope from a Master Storyteller

Ken’s message is one of hope—that we don’t have to react to change, conflict and chaos in our world by feeling left behind, isolated or “beached.” In fact, as Ken puts it, God’s love is broad enough to make room for all of us—if we only recognize that we can be part of that caring community.

As a podcaster, Ken has a welcoming voice, a storyteller’s talents and a masterful way of unfolding interviews with his guests. That’s especially true in this recent podcast-conversation with Dr. Thomas Wassink, co-author of the new book: Sanctuary.

‘I Couldn’t Put it Down’

As he introduces this podcast, Ken tells listeners: “I’ve got a new book for you today. First, the title of this book was intriguing to me. It got my attention! Its full title is Sanctuary—Queering a Church in the Heartland. And by “heartland” we’re talking about the university town of Iowa City, Iowa. Well, I had to get a deeper look. So, I got my hands on a copy, I started reading—and I couldn’t put it down! And today you’re going to hear my conversation with one of the three authors of this book.”

In the course of his conversation with Tom, Ken also reads a brief passage from the book’s Foreword, written by bestelling Christian author Brian McLaren. The words Ken reads from that Foreword are a challenge to readers: “Often, whether it has to do with racial equality, gender equality, economic justice, or equality of sexual orientation—religious institutions are among the very last to change, which means that they are also the last to cease doing harm. So here is this book—a gift. It’s a series of often humorous, often poignant, sometimes heartbreaking, and always well-told stories and reflections—to help us all rethink what is normal or queer, what is sacred or scandalous, what is bad or good. We may just become better people in the process. May it be so!”

Intrigued?

Well, we can tell you: This new book can be a valuable companion for the tens of thousands of congregations nationwide that are currently in the process of trying to become more inclusive. Please, listen to Ken Kemp and Dr. Thomas Wassink talk about this unique journey in Iowa City—and, when you’re done, please share this week’s Cover Story with friends across social media and email.

You can listen to this Beached White Male podcast with Ken Kemp and Dr. Thomas Wassink right here:

Care to learn more?

You can learn more about Ken Kemp and enjoy all of his podcasts at his home online: The Beached White Male.

You can order your own copy of Sanctuary—Queering a Church in the Heartland in hardcover, paperback or Kindle formats from Amazon. This new book also is available from Barnes & Noble, Walmart and wherever quality books are sold.

Dr. David Gushee and Jonathan Grimm discuss via video: When do our faith and conscience compel us to speak out?

September 23, 2024 by

We are streaming this timely Gushee-Grimm video below

Why is this Timely? Because bestselling Christian ethicist Dr. David Gushee is writing about the timeless values of Jesus that call into question a lot of the political claims being made in the 2024 election year. Dr. Gushee began addressing these issues in his late-2023 book, Defending Democracy from its Christian Enemies. Now, he is following up on that book with an overview of what Dr. Gushee describes as Jesus’s “radical” teachings about our moral priorities.

Why is he talking with Jonathan Grimm? Because Jonathan Grimm—as you will learn in the video below—is a former student who credits Dr. Gushee with helping to form his moral conscience many years ago. Now, Grimm is a leading financial expert whose upcoming book, The Future Poor, raises many of the same questions about the fairness of our economic and social systems that are described in Dr. Gushee’s book.

What will I learn if I watch this video? First, you will  hear these two remarkable authors talk about how far Jesus’s original moral message has been distorted in our current era.

In Grimm’s own work nationally—trying to help Americans prepare for their retirement years by helping to form compassionate communities—he has found this same confusion about Jesus’s original teachings that Dr. Gushee identifies in his new book.

In the video, below, Grimm says at one point, “I feel like many Christians have very little familiarity with the actual teachings of Jesus about the moral life.”

Then, as the two discuss these issues, you will find useful—and very “quotable”—insights.

For example, at one point, Jonathan argues that one reason millions of self-identified “Christians” seem to be ignoring some of Jesus’s core teachings.

Dr. Gushee agrees and says that’s because: “We don’t want Jesus to set the agenda for our lives. … He is radical. My book’s subtitle is Radical Instruction in the Will of God—and Jesus is very radical and very challenging—which is the reason that we’d rather focus on the story that Jesus came as a baby and he died on the cross for our sins and he rose from the dead so we can go to heaven when we die.”

Dr. Gushee continues: “Jesus came preaching a Kingdom that has never been fulfilled in human life and cannot be reduced to anybody’s political or ideological agenda, left or right.”

In other words, the video below is something that you’ll likely want to share with friends (just use the social-media sharing buttons with this column) and that you may want to “quote from” in coming weeks.

Here’s one more example of a key exchange:

In Grimm’s research on the looming American retirement crisis, which forms the core of his upcoming book The Future Poor, he found that one reason so many American families are likely to wind up below the poverty level in the future is that our priorities have become so aggressively competitive, focused on individual success.

Dr. Gushee agrees. In the middle of this video, he says:

Ours is a culture that’s about branding oneself—making a name, building a following—all the things one must do to be competitive in the marketplace. But Jesus was remarkably uninterested in any status games whatsoever—and that challenges everybody. We like wealth and ostentatious displays of wealth all across our culture—and Jesus warns against wealth in a way that should make either liberal or conservative wealthy enclaves uncomfortable.

So, please, sit down for a bit with your favorite beverage and listen to these two prophetic authors explore the moral values that Jesus taught as an alternative to the troubled world in which we find ourselves in 2024 …

Care to learn more?

If you have read this far, then you’ll definitely be interested in two of Dr. Gushee’s classics:

Plus, you’ll want to sign up for Jonathan Grimm’s free, newsy updates, which he describes in this week’s Front Edge Publishing column, headlined: Care about your financial future and that of your loved ones?