Michael's Blog

L. Michael Spath, DMin, PhD ICAHD Webinar, April 14, 2026 The following is my extended presentation, from which I excerpted parts for my remarks for the April 14, 2026 ICAHD webinar with my friend, Stephen Sizer. Thank you, Linda [Ramsden, head of ICAHD-UK], and thank you especially to Jeff Halper, for his continuing strong voice for justice. Our friend, Stephen Sizer, is one of the world’s leading experts on the history, theology, and politics of Christian Zionism. My assignment

Sermon, Emmaus Road Mennonite Fellowship, 2nd Sunday in Lent, March 1, 2026 I’ve known Sahar Vardi for 15 years now, and ever since the first time she spoke to one of my groups, I’ve asked her to re-tell the same story, and she shared it here this past Thursday. She described how not only Israel’s economy but its culture, its everyday life, its religion, too, is militarized, it’s shaped by a “narrative of fear.”  Linda Steury asked her for

ONE.  Everyone is talking about the US President’s Board of Peace to accompany his “Gaza peace plan,” announced in Davos this week, and since we’re in the peace business here, I wanted to say a few things about it. And while European allies have declined his offer, authoritarian regimes, monarchies, and others who want to curry his favor have climbed on board – Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Hungary, and yes, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu. The President suggests it’s his alternative

    On Saturday, January 3, the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette published a Letter to the Editor from Pam Etheridge, ICMEP Board Chair, on behalf of the entire board, responding to a previous op-ed by Steven Greenberg, who describes himself as “a Fort Wayne native and a Tel Aviv-based novelist and writer.”        Greenberg criticized a picture he saw on Facebook of ICMEP members creating a sign that said, “Globalize the Intifada.”  In his op-ed, Greenberg stated, “… when you call out

A Sermon preached at Emmaus Road Mennonite Fellowship, Berne, IN, December 28, 2025 The Lion King … Scar. Little Red Riding Hood … the Big, Bad Wolf. Sleeping Beauty … Maleficent. Harry Potter … Voldemort. Dorothy … the Wicked Witch of the West, but in Wicked, it’s the Wizard. Mary and Joseph … Herod. Every parent struggles with balancing the innocence of their children with things that are unfair, dark, and scary in their lives. I used to read, “There’s

     This week the Indiana Center for Middle East Peace hosted four Tibetan Buddhist monks from the Tashi Kyil Monastery, exiled to Dehra Dun, India, from Tibet. This is the fourth time ICMEP has hosted the monks in the last 17 years in partnership with the Tibetan Mongolian Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center in Bloomington, IN.  They created a World Peace Sand Mandala at the Allen County Public Library downtown, gave talks at the Insight Meditation Group in Fort Wayne