Jim Mulholland-My daughter, Victoria, was offended by my sermon two weeks ago.  I said something in that sermon that wasn't fair or true.  In talking about how we pass our theological baggage onto our children, I said, "That’s the way it is with abuse.  The abused child grows up to abuse their own children."  Victoria, who was abused by her birth parents, was upset by that assertion.  As she pointed out, it doesn't have to be that way.

Philip Gulley-Isn't the concept of time interesting?  I was trying to find out who invented the concept of time, but no one seems able to say definitively.  Some scientists believe the moon was used to calculate time as early as the Palaeothilic Era, perhaps 30,000 years ago.   We know the Sumerians, about 4,000 years ago, introduced the sexagesimal system based on the number 60. That’s why we have 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour.  This past February, researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder demonstrated a new clock based on the vibrations of strontium atoms trapped in a laser grid.  This new clock loses less than one second of time every 200 million years.  That's a lot more accurate than the clock in my office with wooden gears which loses three minutes a day, whose time I adjust by taping paper clips to the pendulum.

Jim Mulholland-My brother, Matt, called me for advice last week.  He was upset and confused.  His five year old daughter, Madeline, had been the victim of child abuse and he didn't know what to do or who to tell.  Normally, you'd go to the police, but the situation was complicated.  The perpetrator was one of Madeline's uncles and confronting him might split the family.  Especially since what he'd done was neither sexually nor physically abusive.  Though Madeline was clearly traumatized, many would think what happened was harmless or even cute.

Philip Gulley-It's good to be back at meeting.  I was in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania last Sunday to spend time with Presbyterians.  And while there, met Phil, the weather-predicting groundhog, who came to my speech, took one good look at me, and went back into his cage for six weeks.