Author: Michelle Van Loon
-
Translating the past
When author Dani Shapiro took a DNA test at age 54, she discovered that the man who’d raised her wasn’t her father. Her 2019 book Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love, details her search for answers surrounding her conception and her painful and miraculous journey toward gaining a truer expression of her identity.…
-
The end of “friend”?
The morning after the 2016 election, I expressed shock and sorrow about the results of the voting on Facebook. I did not vote for Donald Trump. Someone I’d thought of as a friend for more than 15 years responded in anger by telling me, using these exact words, to “put on your big girl pants…
-
To Tell The Truth
Shalom, friend! As a result of one too many nights of 3 a.m. channel-surfing, I happened upon a network that showed reruns of 1950’s vintage game shows. Despite its cheesy sets, To Tell The Truth captured my modern imagination. Three people would in turn use the same name to introduce themselves to the audience, then…
-
Social distancing with Jesus
He was weary of watching the world from afar. He’d never made peace with the fact that he had no choice but to be an observer, not since that first snow-white patch appeared on his foot. He obediently presented himself to a priest for examination, never really imagining the verdict that would be pronounced over…
-
What remains after the whirlwind of revival?
Twenty years ago, a friend invited me to attend a worship event at a church that had been experiencing revival. The church was once a standard-issue Bible church that held the position that the sign gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as healing, prophecy, deliverances, and tongues, had ceased with the death of the final…
-
Not OK Boomer
Boomers grew up hearing we shouldn’t trust anyone over 30. We were the generational revolutionaries living in the Age of Aquarius. We were gonna speak truth to power, fight The Man, and change the world. That revolution ushered in change both positive (an end to the Vietnam War, incremental progress in the area of civil…