Confession of Sin

Firefighters from three departments responded to a report of a house on fire in the Cherry Grove area of Vancouver, Washington. When an engine from Clark-Cowlitz Fire Rescue (CCFR) arrived, fire personnel announced there would be “access issues” to the single-story residence because of clutter.

Fire and smoke were visible from the windows in the kitchen and living room area of the home, but the yard around the house was cluttered with appliances, vehicles, and storage bins. That made it difficult for firefighters to quickly stretch hose lines to the structure.

A news release stated: “Once firefighters were able to clear out some of the clutter and make access to the house, the fire had grown too large to safely make an offensive interior attack. In addition, the interior spaces of the house were also very cluttered with high piles of clothing, storage bins, appliances, furniture, and other items.”

Fire Chief John Nohr said, “Normally in these types of fires, we bring in a track hoe to tear apart the piles. Due to the clutter in the yard, we weren’t able to get heavy equipment in there to help with extinguishment.”

Extreme clutter is dangerous for firefighters, especially when mixed with a smoky environment, because responders can get lost in the clutter. The piles of items can also tip over, crush, or entrap firefighters.

Nohr said, “In 37 years in the fire service, this is one of the most extremely cluttered homes I’ve ever seen. I feel for the family that has lost all of their possessions, but I also feel for the firefighters who put themselves at significant risk trying to fight a fire in a house this full.”

Possible Preaching Angle:
Like houses, a clean life is more than just convenient. It could also be the difference between a close call and destruction. Honest confession of sin provides the opportunity to clean out your stuff now. You don't want to try to desperately clean up in an emergency. New Years is an excellent time to reevaluate your life.

Do you have a deep, dark secret?

Edgar Allan Poe’s 1843 short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” describes a man slowly going mad because of a dark secret. The narrator recounts a murder he has committed, of an old man with a filmy blue “vulture eye,” whose regard the murderer simply could not endure.

The narrator-killer hides the old man’s body under the floorboards of his house, but then he begins to hear the beating of the dead man’s heart beneath his feet. The sound—clearly a metaphor for the murderer’s tormenting shame and guilt—grows louder and louder. In the end, the narrator can stand the thumping no longer; seeking relief, he confesses his crime to the police.

Most, if not all, of us have guilty secrets, secrets we have never told anyone. Psychologists call the secrets we keep about ourselves “self-concealment.” Although what you self-conceal might feel uniquely shameful, the experience of carrying a guilty secret really doesn’t vary that much across the population. Michael Slepian, a professor of leadership and ethics at Columbia University, maintains a website called KeepingSecrets, which organizes into various categories the things that people are hiding from others. The most common secrets anonymously cataloged involve infidelity or indiscretion. In short: Your own tell-tale heart probably involves love and sex.

Every year, Christians of various denominations observe Lent, a six-week period ahead of Easter, where participants "give something up" while pursuing a closer relationship with God. Usually, when someone decides what they will be giving up, they will pick a habit, food, or hobby that they enjoy enough that it will be significantly missed throughout the period of Lent. That way, its absence is extremely noticeable (and even a little uncomfortable) as they make such a substantial shift in their typical day-to-day. Then, the yearning for what has been given up works as a reminder to turn to God and recognize how He truly meets all needs.

For those who observe Lent annually, it can be challenging to think of new ideas of what they will give up each winter. Trying to figure out what you'll be giving up for Lent this year? Here are 10 meaningful things to give up for Lent:

1. Complaining – Take the opportunity to choose gratitude over grumbling.

2. Sweet treats – It will help your health and be a reminder that only God truly sustains us.

3, Television – Stop the small screen binge and grow in your spiritual life instead.

4. Screen Time – Spend less time checking friends’ updates and check in with Christ.

5. Gossiping – It’s easy to insult or judge others. Instead, tame your tongue biblically.

6. Video games – Instead of fantasy worlds of adventure, read the real-life stories of the Bible.

7. Shopping – Decide not to store up treasures in your closet, but store them up in heaven.

8. Coffee – Instead of facing the world with caffeine, learn to rely on God.

9. Soda – Every time you think about grabbing that fizzy drink, use it as a reminder to pray.

10. Worrying – You can’t stop worry completely, but choose to go to God with it instead.

Possible Preaching Angles:

This a good way to set up a sermon on Lent or spiritual disciplines.

More than a century ago, 110 Black soldiers were convicted of murder, mutiny, and other crimes at three military trials held at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. Nineteen were hanged, including 13 on a single day, December 11, 1917, in the largest mass execution of American soldiers by the Army.

The soldiers’ families spent decades fighting to show that the men had been betrayed by the military. In November of 2023, they won a measure of justice when the Army secretary, Christine E. Wormuth, overturned the convictions and acknowledged that the soldiers “were wrongly treated because of their race and were not given fair trials.”

In January 2024, several descendants of the soldiers gathered at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery as the Department of Veterans Affairs dedicated new headstones for 17 of the executed servicemen.

The new headstones acknowledge each soldier’s rank, unit, and home state—a simple honor accorded to every other veteran buried in the cemetery. They replaced the previous headstones that noted only their name and date of death.

Jason Holt, whose uncle, Pfc. Thomas C. Hawkins, was among the first 13 soldiers hanged in 1917, said at the ceremony, “Can you balance the scales by what we’re doing? I don’t know. But it’s an attempt. It’s an attempt to make things right.”

Possible Preaching Angles:

We all long for justice, for the day when things will finally be made right. In this life, justice happens slowly, haphazardly, and sometimes not at all. But when Jesus returns, all things will be made right.

U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon asked an unusual question to attorney Janet Hoffman during the sentencing phase of a recent case. “Do you want me to refer to your client as Mr. Pearce, Mr. Doe or Mr. Casper?”

Normally a defendant’s name is one of the first established facts in a criminal proceeding, but in this case, it was a mystery behind the whole thing. Hoffman’s client was a well-known attorney who went professionally by the name Roger A. Pearce Jr. He had spent more than three decades practicing law in Oregon and Washington. Now, at age 77, he was living a comfortable life, having retired with his wife to a million-dollar condo on Lake Washington in Seattle. But recently authorities discovered that he’d been living a lie. Roger A. Pearce Jr. was not his legal name.

The ruse was discovered in 2022 when the State Department flagged his passport application because he applied for a new social security number as an adult. So, prosecutors indicted him as “John Doe,” after he was arrested on a warrant. After pleading guilty to misdemeanor identity fraud, the judge asked his courtroom deputy to have the defendant state his name for the record.

He said, “My birth name was Willie Ragan Casper Jr.” Casper, a.k.a. Pearce, explained that he went to college at Rice University in Texas, but made a series of poor choices, dropping out of school, then quickly marrying and splitting apart. In desperation, he engaged in petty theft and check-kiting schemes.

He said, “I was a young person, confused, depressed. I felt the failure. I was ashamed that I had wasted a lot of my parents’ money supporting me in a distant city they couldn’t really afford. My marriage had fallen apart. I had no real career prospects.”

So, he illegally changed his name as a way of finding a fresh start. He purchased the birth certificate of a baby who’d died, then used that certificate to apply for a social security number.

Assistant U.S. attorney Ethan Knight said, “Every person is responsible for and owns their own history and really the shadow that that casts and the consequences that ultimately may bear out. The defendant’s choice in this case really is an abdication of that basic principle.”

The defendant intends to legally change his name to Roger A. Pearce Jr. and resume the remainder of his years under that name. He also has a chance to mend old fences with the family he left behind so many years ago. He said, “Perhaps paradoxically, this prosecution may give me the chance to recover some of what I’ve lost.”

Possible Preaching Angles:

1) Identity in Christ - While the defendant sought to create a new identity for himself through deception, the Bible teaches that true identity and renewal come through faith in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17); 2) Forgiveness; Second Chance - The story suggests the possibility of forgiveness and a second chance (Lam. 3:23;1 John 1:9); 3) Accountability - The prosecutor's statement about owning one's history and facing consequences illustrates personal accountability (Rom.14:12).

The way Brett Hollins looks at things, the worst thing that happened to him was also the best thing that could’ve happened for him. Back in 2016, Hollins was a 21-year-old reservist with the Marine Corps visiting with some friends at a party on the Southern Oregon University campus when a fight spiraled out of control.

Hollins said, “I really did try to de-escalate it.” At the bottom of the dogpile, Hollins was being kicked in the head and was afraid he would pass out. He grabbed the only thing he thought could help him – a knife in his pocket from an afternoon unboxing furniture—and used it to stab two of the men. Both men recovered from the stabbing, though one was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries.

The U.S. Marine Corps investigated the incident and concluded that the stabbing had been self-defense. Nevertheless, Hollins was eventually convicted of third-degree assault and served six years in prison.

During his incarceration, he turned to the only activity that regularly provided a sense of joy and focus—basketball. Brett played a season of college ball before his conviction, and he was determined to play it again after his release. When he wasn’t playing the game in the yard, he spent time writing letters to college coaches, trying to pave his own way toward an opportunity on the outside.

Wayne Tinkle was one of those coaches, and he recalled being impressed with the content of Hollins’ letters—the contrition and humility, but also the determination to find a way forward. “I know you’re a man of character,” Tinkle wrote back to Hollins, “and that’s going to take you really far in life. So, don’t let this setback change the way you view yourself.” Tinkle eventually told him that per NCAA regulations, he was too old to play Division I basketball, but he still wanted to help Hollins pursue his dream.

Through Hollins’ steadfast letter-writing campaign and Tinkle’s advocacy, he began getting responses from various college basketball programs. As it turned out, the dream manifested in the very place where his life took such a drastic detour. Hollins is now a 29-year-old senior captain for the Southern Oregon University basketball team, living out a dream that he’s been chasing for close to a decade.

As his senior season winds down, Hollins is filled with gratitude for where he’s been and the possibilities for where he might go next. He said, “If you can find a way to use it to develop your own character, you can see some amazing things come out of terrible situations.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

God will use our places of deepest pain to bring healing and wholeness to ourselves and others. It’s only in sharing honestly about our struggles and mistakes that we can find God’s redemptive power.

When police in North Yorkshire, UK arrested a man for drunk driving, their social media post announcing the arrest revealed a surprising source of intel – the man himself. The post said, “Well, it’s not every day that this happens. A suspected drunk-driver (willingly turned) themselves in to the police.”

According to authorities, the man dialed 999 on a Monday morning, gave the call handler his location, explained that he’d had a heavy weekend, and that he was drunk behind the wheel and doesn’t know what he’s doing.

Police quickly located his vehicle, a black transit van, and after administering a breathalyzer test found that his blood alcohol level was over three times the legal limit. He was swiftly arrested.

A similar situation arose in the United States in March 2023, where a motorist in Lancaster, Nebraska dialed emergency responders to report that a car almost collided into him driving the wrong way on the freeway, unaware that he himself was the wrong-way driver.

In both cases, officers were fortunate enough to arrest the offenders before any significant injuries occurred.

Possible Preaching Angles:

No matter how bad a situation someone may have gotten into, it’s never too late for them to admit they have done wrong and seek restoration and healing.

Author Brené Brown was at a book signing where a woman and her husband approached her with books to get autographed. After Brown signed the books, the wife turned to leave and said, “Come on, hon” to her husband. “No,” he replied, “I want to talk with her for a second.”

Uncomfortable, Brown just waited. The man then looked at her and said, “I really love all this stuff you're talking about, this shame, and being perfect, and having to be someone we're not, and having to reach out. It is really powerful. But I never heard you mention anything about men.”

She felt relieved and said: “I don't study men.” He immediately responded, “That's convenient.” Nervously, she asked, “Why convenient?”

“It's convenient you don't talk about men,” he said, “Because when we reach out, when we tell our stories, when we share our shame experiences, we get the emotional s____ beat out of us.”

Brown was about to reply when he added, “Before you say anything about those dads, and those coaches, or about those bosses and mean bully friends, let me explain this to you. My wife and my three daughters, you just signed books for, they would rather see me die on top of my White Horse than see me fall off.” And then he just left.

Possible Preaching Angle:

This story reveals the stresses men face today—the pressure to stay on your “white horse,” to maintain your image of strength and invulnerability, rather than to trust in God’s grace and be vulnerable in Christian community.

Unless you’re Chuck Norris, Googling yourself is rarely a pleasant experience. Finding information that is confidential, intimately personal, or personally identifying on a Google search results page is truly horrifying.

Besides the social media accounts that you may have left on “Public settings” or the shopping records that were leaked when a retailer got hacked, there are even more nefarious methods that could land your data on the most popular search engine on Earth. And in a world where the Internet records everything and forgets nothing—every online photo, status update, social media post, and blog entry by and about us can be stored forever.

Now, Google has introduced a new privacy feature that enables users to scrub their personal information from web searches. The new “remove result button” enables users to request that pages containing their phone numbers, home addresses, or email addresses be removed from appearing in searches.

Users may also request the removal of results containing their social security numbers, bank account and credit-card numbers, and medical records. Users also may remove information that is “outdated” or “illegal.”

Google said in a statement, “It is a way to help you easily control whether your personally identifiable information can be found in Search results.” Google stressed that the tool is designed only to allow users to better control the accessibility of their most personal information, and not to censor more general web content.

Although Google cannot remove content from websites it does not control, it accounts for over 80% of all web searches, so having Google remove the offending page from their results greatly lowers the page’s search visibility.

Possible Preaching Angle:

The web is a place where information lives forever and nothing ever is forgotten. This should be a reminder to everyone that God’s books record everything: words, thoughts, deeds (Rev. 20:11-12). The only way to “remove result” is through confession (1 John 1:9) and the grace of God which applies the expunging effect of the blood of Christ (Col. 2:11-15). New Years is a good time to remember that God can give us a fresh start every morning (Lam. 3:22-23).

Nadia Bolz Weber, shared some thoughts on grace, failures, and the soul feeling its worth in her Christmas newsletter:

When Mary sings of God in the Magnificat, she didn’t say that God looked with favor on her virtue. She didn’t say that God looked with favor upon her activism. She didn’t say that God looked with favor on the fact that she had tried so hard that she finally had become the ideal version of herself.

No. God looked with favor on her lowliness.

And yet then what do I do but constantly curse my own lowliness. Obsess about my flaws and shortcomings. Berate myself for my failings and defects of character; for not trying hard enough to become my ideal self.

But our failings and weakness and mistakes are God’s perfect entry points. It is our lowliness and our humility, not our strength and our so-called virtues where God does God’s very best work. Which makes me wonder if perhaps our obsession with self-improvement is really just a form of atheism disguised as spirituality.

Editor’s Note: Warning: The original article by Nadia Bolz Weber contains some R-rated language.

In an episode of NBC’s sitcom, The Office, Michael Scott offers a humorously self-serving accounting of his weaknesses as a boss: “I work too hard, I care too much, and sometimes I can be too invested in my job.” Asked to list his strengths, he replies, “Well, my weaknesses are actually strengths.”

Call it the Michael Scott paradox. In telling stories about our lives, we have a habit of casting ourselves as the hero. Every day is a new chapter confirming that we alone are truly empathetic, courageous, and reasonable. Our strengths are obvious (or at least they should be). And our weaknesses are really strengths.

This penchant for valorizing our choices and motivations speaks to the fundamental fallenness of our nature. It tempts us to misremember, misconstrue, and misunderstand not only ourselves but those around us.

Possible Preaching Angles:

There are at least two possible ways to approach this illustration. 1) Ego; Pride; Self-Deception - The obvious lesson is that ego, pride, and a fallen nature can lead a person to overlook their weaknesses and fail to humble themselves and grow; 2) Humility; Identity in Christ; Power, spiritual - We might actually agree with Michael Scott if we realize that in Christ, our weaknesses are really our strengths “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses” when his “power is perfected in weakness” (1 Cor. 1:26-31; 2 Cor. 12:5-10).

Tom Hallman, Jr., a reporter for The Oregonian, recently chronicled a young man’s turnaround in the daily newspaper, highlighting the pivotal nature of a judge’s leniency.

For De'Onn Wooden, a series of unpaid traffic infractions led to a warrant for his arrest as a young man in the early 90s. According to Wooden, the judge was ready to sentence him to prison, but his pastor advocated for his behalf. He testified before the judge that Wooden had turned his life around since the initial infractions. Because of the pastor’s passionate advocacy, the judge relented, suspending the warrant, reducing his fine, and putting him on a payment plan.

Growing up in the violence-plagued streets of Compton, California, Wooden's prospects were grim. Gang shootings were a nightly threat, and survival was a daily struggle. However, a move to Perris, California, provided a glimmer of hope, leading to an education in drafting. Venturing to the Pacific Northwest at 20, he faced racial discrimination but persevered, eventually settling in Northeast Portland.

Now, 30 years later, Wooden is on the verge of realizing his dream: launching an electrical-services company, with a vision to extend opportunities to women and minorities who have faced life's challenges and seek a fresh start. As he prepares to start his own business, he plans to pay it forward by offering apprenticeships to underrepresented individuals, showing that hard work and determination can conquer life's obstacles.

Possible Preaching Angle:

When God’s people show mercy to those who don't deserve it, we reflect God's heart for all people.

Author Pete Greig shares the following story in How to Pray: A Simple Guide for Normal People:

I was walking the darkened streets near our house one night, reviewing the day before bed, remembering how I'd driven Sammy [my wife] and the boys to the cinema and how someone had cut us off. I'd yelled at him. Sammy had yelled at me. I'd yelled at Sammy. Hadn’t she seen how dangerously the other guy was driving? Had she forgotten that we had vulnerable children in the car? Didn't she know there was such a thing as righteous anger? She'd gone silent.

We arrived at the cinema. The film had been great. Life had moved on. No big deal. But now in the stillness of these darkened streets, as I returned to that moment, it seemed that God was siding with my wife. I sighed. "Okay, I'm sorry. I admit it: I lost my temper. I shouldn't have yelled at that driver. Lord, help me to be more patient tomorrow."

There was a pause before I sensed him telling me to apologize to our sons. This thought annoyed me, and I found myself protesting. "That's ridiculous. You're making this bigger than it is. My kids don't need me to apologize. They won't even remember such a trivial incident. Do you have any idea what the traffic is like around here?"

Ten minutes later, I was sitting on Hudson's bed. "Son, I just want to say sorry to you for something. Do you remember me yelling at that man on the way to the cinema?" Immediately, he nodded. "I shouldn't have done that. Mum was right. Christians are supposed to be patient and kind. I set you a bad example. That's not how I want you to grow up and treat people. I'm sorry." Right away, he put his arms around my neck and squeezed me tight. "That's okay, Dad.”

A minute later, I was in the room next door, making the same speech to Danny, and the same thing happened. He immediately knew exactly what I was talking about. He hadn't forgotten either. He listened to my apology and didn't think it was crazy. He hugged me and told me it was okay. It's a silly, mundane story, and that's the whole point. We are changed--conformed into the likeness of Christ--through a thousand small choices like these.

It’s ironic that Grace Community Church, pastored by John MacArthur, is located in Sun Valley, California, because its leadership seems committed to keeping certain details hidden from light.

Christianity Today published a story in February about the struggles Hohn Cho had with getting people in his church to admit fault and correct an injustice. Cho is an attorney, and had been an elder at GCC. A year ago, he and several other elders were tasked with investigating claims of spousal abuse from a woman in the church’s care. What he discovered was that she’d been rebuked by elders for failing to reconcile with her husband, but later the husband was imprisoned for child molestation and abuse, vindicating her claims.

Cho says he repeatedly asked church officials to privately apologize and make things right, but they refused. He says Pastor John MacArthur himself told him to “forget it,” and Cho was eventually pressured into resigning from the board. Even after his resignation, Cho was contacted by numerous other women from GCC who’d been given similar counsel to endure abuse from their husbands. Ultimately, he concluded that he just could not forget it.

Cho wrote in a report to the elder board, “I genuinely believe it would be wrong to do nothing. At the end of the day, I know what I know. I cannot ‘un-know’ it, and I am in fact accountable before God for this knowledge.”

Cho told reporters at CT:

They sided with a child abuser, who turned out to be a child molester, over a mother desperately trying to protect her three innocent young children. And that was and is flatly wrong, and needs to be made right. Numerous elders have admitted in various private conversations that “mistakes were made” and that they would make a different decision today knowing what they know now. But those admissions mean you need to make it right with the person you wronged; that is utterly basic Christianity.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Abuse; Church Discipline; Failure, Spiritual - We can't claim to stand for the truth if we won't tell the truth when it's inconvenient to do so.

Each morning Alexander Chu awakened to the smell of incense burning offered in front of Buddha statues. His home was like a temple. On each wall hung a Buddha portrait, totaling more than 30 deities throughout the house.

You might think the family lived on a street in Thailand or China yet his home was in Lawrence, Kansas. His father was a science professor with a Guggenheim Award, and his mother was a so-called “tiger mom” who kept the pressure on Andrew and his two sisters for straight A’s.

My Taiwanese family lineage includes generations of Buddhists, so religion was destined to be integral to my identity formation. Yet outside our home, our neighbors pursued an entirely different faith. Somehow, I managed to go through 18 years of life without ever hearing the Good News of Jesus.

In the mid-1990s, Andrew arrived at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. His dorm was full of fervent Christians. These InterVarsity Christian Fellowship students were the first Asian American Christians he had ever met. Andrew said, “Living with them, I began to realize that the Buddhism of my upbringing was not in my heart.”

Growing curious about Christianity during his sophomore year, Andrew asked a friend if he could join him at an IVCF gathering. There for the first time he heard God’s promises declared in worship songs and saw men and women praising him. He joined GIG (Groups Investigating God) and began studying the Gospel of John. Andrew said, “The authority with which Jesus spoke amazed me; it’s as if his words jumped off the pages, addressing me directly.”

Before I could place faith in Jesus, I needed to know there was a rational basis for Christianity’s foundational truths. I attended a retreat sponsored by InterVarsity, where I took an apologetics track. I heard well-founded explanations of the inspiration of Scripture, the problem of evil, and the uniqueness of the gospel. I found that Christianity was the most intellectually stimulating worldview I had ever encountered.

During my junior year I started reading John Stott’s pamphlet “Becoming a Christian.” While reading, I grew convinced of my sin and need to be forgiven. I knelt down committed my life to Christ. I had grown up in a sea of deities, yet never had a relationship with any of them. On that day, I experienced the living God, Emmanuel: “God is with us.” A peace overtook me. That night I became the first Christian in our family’s lineage.

For months he prayed about how to tell his parents what had happened. When he was at home for winter break, he sat in the living room to read Following Jesus Without Dishonoring Your Parents. His father was stunned by his reading choice, but also pleased by the dutiful title of the book. When he asked why Andrew was reading it, he told him that he had become a Christian. His parents insisted that the family religion was Buddhism. Both parents held out hope that he would come to his senses and return to the Buddhist faith.

As the years passed, I started to discern a call to vocational ministry. My parents said that if I followed through with this plan, they would cut me off. Sensing disunity in our home, I decided to stay and care for my father, who was battling heart disease. My presence and devotion built mutual respect and helped preserve our relationship. In God’s timing, my family softened to my hopes of becoming a pastor. My parents continue to share their Buddhist experiences with me, and I continue to share my faith with them. My mom regularly prays to Jesus to bless and protect me.

Editor’s note: Andrew now serves on staff as pastor of outreach at a multisite church in the Chicago suburbs.

The final straw in Pitt’s 11-year relationship with Angelina Jolie came in September 2016, when they fought about his drinking while aboard a private plane. Now, Pitt is committed to his sobriety. Pitt told a reporter, “I had taken things as far as I could take it, so I removed my drinking privileges.” After she filed for divorce, Pitt spent a year and a half in Alcoholics Anonymous.

His recovery group was composed entirely of men, and Pitt was moved by their vulnerability. Pitt said, “You had all these men sitting around being open and honest in a way I have never heard. It was this safe space where there was little judgment, and therefore little judgment of yourself.”

Astonishingly, no one from the group sold Pitt’s stories to the tabloids. The men trusted one another, and in that trust, he found catharsis. “It was actually really freeing just to expose the ugly sides of yourself,” he said. “There’s great value in that.”

The Oregonian, Oregon’s most prestigious and longest-running newspaper, recently launched a special project entitled “Publishing Prejudice,” examining its historic complicity in reinforcing white supremacy in the state of Oregon. According to editor Therese Bottomly, the project was launched in the wake of the 2020 public demonstrations against racism after the murder of George Floyd.

Bottomly said, “Some institutions, including a handful of newspapers, responded to the moment with sustained examinations of their histories in pursuit of strengthening the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion, The Oregonian looked inward as well.”

Part of the problem is that many residents aren’t aware of Oregon’s history. Bottomly continues, “Oregon was founded as an exclusionary state openly hostile to people of color, and Portland today remains the whitest major city in America.” Investigative reporters were dispatched to review the archives and document the various ways that the paper has reinforced the ugly stain of racism as part of its legacy. The series of articles reviews the paper’s coverage of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, the Japanese internment camps of the 1940s, and many other contentious issues in its more than 170 years of existence.

Bottomly said, “I thought we would find the newspaper had missed stories, ignored major cultural movements, and been behind the times. And, yes, we found sins of omission, to be sure. But the gravest mistakes were sins of commission.”

It was surely a difficult decision for Bottomly and her staff to delve this deeply into such sordid chapters of their history. But she has no regrets. “This has been a painful and necessary exercise of self-examination. This history is hard to read but you must. And you must hold us to our pledge to always do better.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Each of us bear a responsibility to tell the truth about our history and the roles we play, not just as individuals but as members of families, organizations, and nations. In situations where we've inherited a godly legacy, we should rejoice. Where there is a legacy of sin, we should repent.

A series of political, cultural, and social events in the early 1980s led to many Germans to deal honestly with the Nazi horrors of the past. Before 1980 most Germans regarded themselves as victims of the Second World War. Vast numbers had lost family members, friends, colleagues. As the post-war generation was coming of age, "more and more Germans came to grasp the enormity of Nazi crimes against others, especially Jews." The actions of the nationally repentant were numerous and mostly local.

In schools and communities, research soared, as ordinary people … got to work. Teachers, housewives, retirees, and students researched what happened in their neighborhoods. They affixed plaques to destroyed and desecrated synagogues, and restored local cemeteries (often with the help of Jews who could read the Hebrew inscriptions). They figured out the places where Jewish people were deported from and where the barracks of nearby concentration subcamps were located. They also established an enormous network of contacts.

In many communities, Germans wrote letters to Jews who were forced to emigrate or had lost kin in the Holocaust. They wrote to get their stories. They wrote to help identify other Jews from the city, town, or neighborhood. And they wrote to invite them back. In large and small cities communities invited Jewish people to return for a “visitor week,” with the communities typically paying for travel and lodging. People gave speeches, wrote articles, and even books. Some local historians wrote about nefarious hometown Nazis. Other historians worked out the fate that befell local Jews, “members of our community,” as many Germans began to call them.

This German-version of the civil rights movement, if it may be called that, dramatically changed how people in the Federal Republic thought about their history and who belonged to it.