Imitate Him

By Charlie Johnston I am repeating my traditional story of Good Friday today, “Epitaph.” But first I want to recall one of the two most odd Easter Masses I have ever participated in. It was 20 years ago at a parish in the far north suburbs of Chicago, a different one than I would usually […]

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Midterm Madness

By Charlie Johnston A lot of people and commentators are deeply concerned the Republicans are going to blow the midterm elections. It is not an irrational concern. Wobbly Republicans have blown a lot of elections over the years. With too many Republicans in the Senate taking the “20” side of the 80-20 issue of voter […]

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Do Whatever He Tells You

By Charlie Johnston I think I gave the wrong impression when I wrote passionately about Pope Leo’s formulaic statement opposing American action on Iran, where he said that negotiation is the only answer and that violence never solved anything. Both were trite, nice-sounding platitudes that are easily and quickly disproven. But it did not signal […]

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The Emerging New World Order

By Charlie Johnston The candidate whose campaign I was managing, Kat Wall, was defeated in her bid to oust a liberal Republican incumbent on Tuesday, March 3.  In the process, though, she helped spark and add to a vitally important reform movement in Texas. Two very bright spots happened on that Tuesday night.  My old […]

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Transitions

By Charlie Johnston Our community lost one of its charter supporters and friends to begin Lent. Anne Baker passed away at 101 in the assisted living facility where she had been in Florida for the past couple of years on the morning of Ash Wednesday. Anne was the mother of our dear friend and chief […]

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Thoughts From the Texas Tundra

By Charlie Johnston I spent most of my life in various parts of the often-frozen northern states of Illinois and Colorado. Right now, I am housebound in Texas…not out of any infirmity, but because we had a decent ice and snowstorm outside. I chuckle because, objectively, what we got (about an inch and a half […]

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Training for Trust

By Charlie Johnston Years ago, when I was visiting Alabama, I went to visit my sister at a Farmer’s Co-Op where she worked as assistant manager. When I got there, they were frantically busy; four registers open and at least three deep waiting at each. My sister had come out to run a register during […]

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A Year of Reckoning for Islam

By Charlie Johnston I first posted the following article on November 20, 2015. I wrote the first version of this particular introduction to it in late 2023, right after the Hamas massacre of Israeli concert-goers. I caught a lot of flack for it, despite a certain delicacy in my candor. We were long governed by […]

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