Welcome to The Light, where we pause to consider what the day is asking of us.
In Ohio, a state lawmaker and former Baptist pastor is advancing legislation that would require public schools to teach the positive contributions of Judeo-Christian values to American history. Named in honor of the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the bill raises old and enduring questions about how a pluralistic society decides whose story becomes the shared story, and who gets to name the light by which we read it.
History, of course, is never finished being written. This week marks the anniversary of the dedication of the Billy Graham Library, and the ancient martyrdom of Saint Boniface, who fell alongside fifty-three others in the year seven hundred fifty-four. These are lives that believed meaning was worth dying for, a conviction that still unsettles us, still asks something of us across the centuries.
And on Broadway, a new production rooted in Roald Dahl's Matilda reminds us of something the author believed deeply, that cruelty leaves its mark on the face, that ugly thoughts worn long enough become a kind of permanent weather. It is a children's story, yes, but its moral is ancient, that what we harbor inside us does not stay inside.
That is this hour's reflection. Carry the light gently.
