I have a strange practice for following the news. I dodge right and then left, and bounce back and forth between differing opinions. Lately I feel like I am playing dodgeball while reading the daily news. Dodge right, dodge left, duck and dive: Like playing dodgeball, there’s no place to run for cover without stepping … More I See Two Americas, and I Don’t Like Either One
This was my tweet on Friday April 10th. If the world order was benevolent and intelligent this would be a Sabbath year for the earth, and a jubilee year for the people. Unfortunately, the world order is seldom benevolent and only intelligent on short-term gains. The world just might be taking a Sabbath without our … More Are We in a Nature Imposed Sabbath?
On occasion, I spend an inordinate amount of time on something political. This is because I feel passionately that Christians should be a model of God’s love in all aspects of life, and there a seasons when the political landscape appears to have serious spiritual ramifications. This impeachment season of President Trump has been one … More Has the Evangelical Church Sold It’s Soul for a Trump Presidency?
Today, I was reading an article from the BBC about the recent letter from Burning Man CEO Marian Goodell. There is nothing new in this BBC article (except the letter from Marian), and in fact, the information is a number of years old. We were already talking about this stuff at my first Burning Man … More Burning Man, Growth Struggles, Cultural Course Correction…
In a recent TED talk techno-sociologist Zeynep Tufekci talked about a developing dystopian culture being fed to us by the advertising on Facebook, YouTube, and other social media sites. She described following a series of YouTube videos about Donald Trump, and how they quickly led to a series of white supremacist videos, which grew in … More Avoiding the Distopian Future
When Christians talk about a Christocentric worldview, we typically mean that we have Jesus in the center of our little world, and that we are always focused upon the Person of Jesus. But could it be that thinking of Christocentrism in this manner holds inherent weaknesses that diminish our effectiveness as voices of hope to … More A Million Damning Acts – Navigating the Impossible #3
Words, words, words…we are inundated with words. They come as promises. They come as protests. They come as expressions of frustration. Most of us have fallen to one side or another of the debates and word-wars of politics and social issues. And I say “fallen” purposely. We are all either falling for something, or falling … More A Voice from the Dark – Prophets of Exile
“To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.” (Titus 1:15) Every liberation is followed by a new oppression, or so it would seem in the light of history and human relationships. From Egypt to Babylon … More Our Experience and Our Interpretation of the World Around Us
By Phil Wyman The following is not meant to persuade anyone’s choice in the upcoming Presidential election. Rather, these are personal observations and feelings about this year’s Presidential election cycle. They represent my own thoughts, and a growing number of people I have been meeting along the way. There are some of us, who truly … More The Case for Not Voting
“The attachment to pornography creates the threat of slavery in two directions. The objectification of women through the obscene narratives of them as sex toys, objects of abuse and slaves is one tormenting and twisted half of the story. Yet the paper and pixel ladies stare back, and traumatize the viewer in return. They call … More The Dual Enslavement of Pornography
The Christian life is a great inversion. Everything is upside down. The first shall be last. The last shall be first. The proud are humbled. The humble are exalted. The greatest illustration of this is evident in this season between Good Friday and Easter Day. Even the fact that we would call the day of … More Death and Life, Darkness and Hope: the strange inversion of Good Friday to Easter
“Humanity is objectified by the objects it objectifies. We are abused by the systems and the people we abuse. They become ghosts haunting us. They become the demons of our tortured nights.” – Burning Religion pg. 70 In Man’s Search for Meaning,[i] neurologist and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl begins his story of imprisonment in the Nazi … More Our Vote Betrays Us (Part 3)
We are enamored with strength, fame, and money. We have given these things nearly messianic attributes. It appears we think that they will save us, or so, that is how it looks this voting season. But, I believe our votes have the potential to betray us. The Strengths Movement looks back to Peter Drucker’s books … More Our Vote Betrays Us (Part 2)
There is a movement today not unlike the “Death of God” theology of the late 50’s early 60’s. One theologian would suggest that what needed to die was our perspectives on God, and another would suggest that we simply came to a place where the idea of God was no longer needed in a modern/post-modern … More Burn Religion this coming year!
The Million Student March is happening today. It feels like an extension of the Occupy movement. In fact, at UMass Amherst some students were occupying the student union building – probably because it has been raining. Websites have been running updates from the marches around the country, but it seems well under the hoped for … More Million Student March: are the mixed messages saying nothing?
Burning Religion 