Biblical Greatness vs. ‘MAGA’: What the Old Testament Says

January 29, 2025 By Christine Schmertz Navarro

Exploring Greatness: The Old Testament In this essay, I explore greatness in the Old Testament. I find the Old Testament’s idea of greatness conflicts with the current administration’s interpretation of “making America great again.” During the Trump administration’s first week in office, I had trouble recognizing how the executive orders made America great again. The Old Testament reveals insights into God and God’s interpretation of greatness. The Book of Genesis Three relevant insights about greatness come from the Book of... Read more

Exploring Greatness: Nobel Peace Prize Awardees

January 24, 2025 By Christine Schmertz Navarro

On the third day of the new administration, I questioned how the president’s orders make America great. I decided to do some research into greatness itself. My first step is studying Nobel Peace Prize recipients to see what their selection reveals about greatness. Since many Americans have won the prize, I decided to focus in on them. Alfred Nobel left instructions for the creation of these awards in his will. He wanted to award “those who, during the preceding year,... Read more

Dull Dread: Inauguration Day 2025

January 21, 2025 By Christine Schmertz Navarro

I celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. today rather than the new president. Unfortunately, my dull dread is that during this administration, vulnerable people will lose housing, food, healthcare, and other benefits that they desperately need to live. His presidency is a threat to social justice. President Donald Trump I think of the voters who elected Donald Trump. I hope that they benefit from this presidency as promised. Will non-voters realize that each vote matters? My dull dread comes from fears... Read more

I Feel Between a Rock and a Hard Place, Post-Election

November 25, 2024 By Christine Schmertz Navarro

I have been stuck since the 2024 election. The phrase “between a rock and a hard place” describes my inability to see a way out. The outcome for president, primarily, stunned me. American voters chose a convicted felon guilty of fraud and sexual assault rather than a highly qualified vice president who is a former senator, state attorney general, and prosecutor. I have since learned the outcome was due to some voters’ misunderstandings about the election’s ramifications. Some immigrants thought... Read more

Husbands Should Not Influence Wives’ Voting

November 2, 2024 By Christine Schmertz Navarro

The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gave women the right to vote in 1920. After decades of advocacy, civil disobedience, incarceration, marches, and other activities, many women began to exercise this right. Discriminatory voting practices in some states wrongly made it difficult for minority women to vote until years later. Unfortunately, we have witnessed efforts to restrict voting in the twenty-first century. Some believe that wives who vote differently than their husbands violate the sanctity of marriage. Jesse Watters’... Read more

No Matter the Election Outcomes, God Remains

October 19, 2024 By Christine Schmertz Navarro

God has been in Christian Nationalism conversations and Project 2025. If you could read my mind, you might conclude that God is on the ballot this November. As the election approaches, my anxiety has grown. I have been vigorously writing letters to voters in swing states, with the help of an organization called Vote Forward. I stop myself and realize that I cannot do anything else but pray, write my letters, and use my one vote. God will not abandon... Read more

Project 2025 Erases Members of American Society

October 11, 2024 By Christine Schmertz Navarro

The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise proposes to erase American citizens. They wish to eliminate language about them in government documents. As a predominately white and male organization, the Heritage Foundation wants to make decisions about the LGBTQ+ community, people of color, women who think equal pay for equal work is reasonable, and women who want to make decisions about their bodies. This is an excerpt from Project 2025. The next conservative President must make... Read more

Talented Liturgical Musicians Bless Us

September 14, 2024 By Christine Schmertz Navarro

Two musicians named Bob have blessed us, the local Catholic community, for decades. The first Bob is partly retired after years of leading congregants in song. The second Bob recently passed away. I do not think I encountered musicians as talented as the Bobs until I moved to the West Coast. An exception might be St. Augustine’s Gospel Choir in Washington, DC, but comparing a musician who cantors to a choir is unfair. Both Bobs were refreshingly open to different... Read more

I Question the Reality of Some Republicans

September 6, 2024 By Christine Schmertz Navarro

Part of my concern about the upcoming presidential elections is that some, not all, Republicans seem stuck in a world that I do not think exists. I Have Higher Expectations for Elected Officials My first sense of the unreal world occurred during the Obama administration. Congressional leaders such as Mitch McConnell did not want to cooperate with Barrack Obama and thus tried to block many initiatives he had. I remember thinking, “Are these adults still in middle school?” When McConnell... Read more

Would God Agree with J.D. Vance about Women?

September 3, 2024 By Christine Schmertz Navarro

J.D. Vance has suggested that all women should be mothers. Once these women reach menopause, their role is to help raise their grandchildren. First, there are multiple reasons why women are not mothers. Second, childbearing is a sensitive issue. Does Vance believe God has revealed to him the vocation of half the world’s people? God Calls Women in Varied Ways J.D. Vance may have had an epiphany when he had children, and his wife became a mother. For some reason,... Read more