Human Trustees

In my writing in the last few years, I’ve been preoccupied with the idea of global governance—that is, wondering how effective the mammoth institution of the United Nations is at promoting peace, reducing worldwide poverty, providing better healthcare and corralling nations to tamp down climate change. But it is far from working alone on these challenges. The so-called “plurilateral summit…

In my writing in the last few years, I’ve been preoccupied with the idea of global governance—that is, wondering how effective the mammoth institution of the United Nations is at promoting peace, reducing worldwide poverty, providing better healthcare and corralling nations to tamp down climate change. But it is far from working alone on these challenges. The so-called “plurilateral summit…

Besides numerous children’s books, over a dozen biographies have been penned about Harriet Tubman, the intrepid slave fugitive who went back numerous times to Maryland’s eastern shore to free at least 70 fellow slaves. She is the American hero who will grace our US $20 bill with her image in 2030. My interest here is to probe Tubman’s spiritual life…

I would not have written this post had I not been part of a foursome virtual book club. One of these friends from my 1970s seminary days in the Boston area had been reading a book by award-winning author specialized in early American history (four awards, including being a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize): Nathaniel Philbrick’s In the Eye of…

On September 16, 2022, the Iranian morality police arrested a 22-year-old Kurdish woman visiting relatives in Teheran likely because her hijab had slipped a bit over her head, showing some hair. Three days later, Mahsa Amini died in police custody, presumably from the beatings she received. Within days, dozens of Iranian cities in all parts of the country exploded in…

  I rarely get so absorbed by a book I’m reading. But I could hardly put down Ronald F. Inglehart’s 2021 book (Religion’s Sudden Decline: What’s Causing it, and What Comes Next?). An emeritus professor of political science at the University of Michigan, Inglehart is the “Founding President of the World Values Survey Association, which since 1981 has repeatedly surveyed…