Author: Dan Bryant

“It’s OK son, you can tell me.” Those words have haunted and comforted me for 22 years. Pastors are often the spiritual “first responders” called upon in times of tragedy. The victim of the car crash was just 16. Her only family was her 18 year-old brother who was now being asked to make the decision of whether to remove life support for his brain-dead sister. I was called because the...

Van Jones was exhausted, as were we all. After four days of nearly non-stop reporting on the election, he could not hold back the tears as he said on CNN, “It is easier to be a parent this morning. It is easier to tell your kids that character matters. It matters. Telling the truth matters. Being a good person matters.” At that point the venerable commentator had to stop to wipe his eyes and...

I am not a big baseball fan, though I have always enjoyed a trip to the stadium to watch “America’s favorite pastime” with family or a friend. Among the family folklore is seeing the four Bryants on the stadium screen at Candlestick Park where we got to see Barry Bonds hit one of his now discredited homers. Another was watching the Padres in the World Series on TV waiting to see if my...

On the eve of the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, I had the opportunity to interview John Dominic Crossan, renown biblical scholar and best selling author of a number of books on the historical Jesus, the Apostle Paul, the birth of Christianity, and more. No one has had more impact on my understanding of scripture, Jesus and the history of Christianity than Crossan. We...

I am worried. VERY Worried. As frightening this ongoing pandemic is, I am confident we will survive it. It would help tremendously, of course, if our government would follow science and medical experts rather than political fantasy, but even with leadership incapable of speaking the truth, we will adapt and survive. And the devastation of the fires here in Oregon, leaving thousands of people...

Like most in the Willamette Valley, I awoke on Tuesday morning to a new reality: a world filled with ash. Somehow it seems sadly fitting for this burnt up year. So much lost to the pandemic -- nearly 200,000 lives in this country alone, plus countless events, weddings, funerals, graduations, sport events, most political rallies (do we really miss those?) retirement parties (I did miss that) and...

I wrote this piece for the Register Guard but since I have not heard back from them, I'll publish it here. (The previous editors didn't publish everything I wrote either, but at least they always responded to me. <Sigh>) I greatly appreciated the Aug 23rd op ed by Tillena Trebon, “Racism is not art” on the embedded racism within the pioneer statues at the University of...

I sit here on an early Saturday morning with tears streaming down my face for a second time. Like John Lewis' "good trouble," these are good tears. The first time was just two nights ago, watching an incredibly courageous young man, just 13 years old, speak before the nation about his disability. I am speaking of course about Brayden Harrington, and if you somehow have not yet seen his most...

Elections are about much more than tax policies, health care, national budgets, who gets on the Supreme Court and fighting this pandemic, as critically important as each of those issues is. At the deepest level, elections are about our aspirations -- who or what we aspire to be as a nation. For that reason, President Trump's campaign slogan in 2016 was brilliant. "Make America Great Again"...

Of the questions I have been asked most often during my career as a minister, near if not at the top of the list, is some form of the question, “Where is God?”  Or, when they are being more honest, they ask, “Does God really exist?”  The evidence to the contrary often seems persuasive.  War, crime, cancer, political events, natural disasters and now this seemingly...