God Is Still Spanking. . . . Lou Dobbs? Sergeant Crowley?

Donna Schaper, a UCC minister and one of our Living Spiritual Teachers, uses the much publicized encounter between Harvard African-American professor Henry Louis Gates and Cambridge Police Officer Crowley as a launching pad for a thought-provoking meditation on racism, the blame game, immigration, and hate speech. She goes on to make a plea for a new story of toleration, empathy, and reconciliation. President Obama has called the Gates incident "a teaching moment," and we agree. Here's a quotation from Kahil Gibran that sums it all up nicely: "I have learned toleration from the intolerant and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers."