Rev. Don Erickson

Stevie Wonder's classic "Sir Duke" is not only a great song (that horn section!), it also includes the makings of a great playlist. This episode creates such a playlist.

Music for some reaches the level of spiritual experience and practice. Rev DJ Don discusses this beautiful phenomenon. Featuring music by Stevie Wonder, 10,000 Maniacs, and Elgar.

Dr. Paul Dixon, the president of Cedarville University, the Christian college Holly and I attended in the early 1990’s, regularly preached during our mandatory, weekday chapels. He spoke with a Midwestern drawl that gave the effect of a folksy, down-home preacher.   He was once an Evangelist, and you certainly heard that urgency in his chapel messages. By the way, he was a white dude, in his 50’s... like me. During his chapel messages, he’d often lead the students in an acapella singing of a Black Spiritual. Amazingly, I was able to find online an example of a Cedarville College chapel service led by Paul Dixon where we sang that spiritual. This is from March 30, 1992: Holly and I were there! It’s kind of neat to think that among those voices singing that Spiritual some 30 years ago were Holly and my voices. Hers was much better, of course. That chapel rendition is good, I’d say. But it lacks a certain spirit that comes with Spiritual tradition. Here’s what I mean… There’...

I heard it tear as I shoveled. I am not sure how or what movement caused it to tear. And as it turned out, what tore wasn’t essential, ruinous, or irreparable. But it did scare me initially out there in the cold, huffing and puffing as I threw snow into piles on either side of our driveway. The torn flap of my beloved coat’s front pocket, it fortunately came right off, without ruining the foundation of the coat. For symmetry’s sake, I took off the other pocket flap. Maybe you got stuck on "beloved coat." No, unlike Dolly’s coat of many colors, my mother did not make it for me. But there is a memorable if not unexciting origin story behind the coat. Maybe the better term is ownership story and not origin story. The story is not about the coat's creation. I'd love to know that origin story, but never will. The story I share is one involving how I first came to own the coat. I was in Seoul in the early Spring of 2001 with Holly and a mutual Korean friend. It was the Hon...