The first few minutes for a visitor at a Trappist monastery are pretty special. The member monks and priests subscribe fully to the line of teaching that when Christ returns, He will present Himself as a stranger in need. You ...

On July 27, Knoxville joined a short roster of cities synonymous with sudden, inexplicable violence: Columbine, Blacksburg, Omaha. The shooting of congregants at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church went beyond a nightmarish crime; it’s become another sign of the ...

The first blast was so loud it made no sense. No sound that concussive fit the experience of being in a church watching children perform. I looked at the opposite bank of pews, and people there blinked back, also confused. ...

As a philosopher, I’m supposed to have reflections on things like this. But in this case I thought it better simply to let the facts speak for themselves.

The play had begun. The children were adorable, doing an amazing job of putting on Annie Jr. They had worked so hard and now was their moment. With an incredibly loud sound everything changed. The people two rows in font ...

A poem by Rob Spirko

The past three months I have gone to church infrequently, as for much of the summer I have been traveling. The week before July 27th I stopped by TVUUC at least two times, and noticed the building was a beehive ...

I’m a lucky man. The first seat I took in the sanctuary of the Unitarian church on July 27 would have put me in the direct line of fire of Jim Adkisson’s sawed-off shotgun. By a stroke of fate, I ...