I am afraid of beauty. In fact, it terrifies me. Lest you begin to feel sorry for me, this is the way I think it should be. At some raw and primeval level, I believe we are all terrified of beauty. I know some of you will completely disagree with me. You will be … More The Terror of Beauty
I wasn’t raised in the evangelical church or the Catholic Church, and nobody did anything nasty to me in those settings when I was young. Nobody did anything nasty to my childhood friends in those settings either. Of course, most of them, like me, had their church in the pool, the beach and the sun, … More I do not have your hang-ups
Some years ago, long enough to evade a Twitter search, I posted a series of tweets called #shortstorieschangetheworld. Problematically the long hash tag shortened the 140-character Twitter limitation by another twenty-seven letters. I’ve been listening to the Bible in Welsh this week. I listen in Welsh even more haltingly that I speak, so my gray … More Short Stories Change the World
The English word “weird” comes down to us from an Anglo-Saxon and Germanic etymology. The Anglo-Saxon word “wyrd” was defined as destiny, and in the 15th century the English word “weird” was still defined as “destiny”, or “having the power to control fate.”[1] Today the word “wyrd” is used among the Nordic heathenry. They consider … More I am Looking for Wyrdos
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
Centrifugal force does not exist. The force we call centrifugal force – the force working on an object orbiting a center point, which pushes it away from the center – does not actually exist. The actual force that causes an orbiting object to want to pull away and fly out of orbit is the inertia … More The Christocentric Worldview – Centrifugal and Centripetal Force: Navigating the Impossible #2
“God never asks you to do anything you are capable of doing.” I first heard these words a long time ago. It was at a Pastor’s Conference in Portland, Oregon. Roy Hicks Jr. was speaking. These words were the main focus of his message, but before he could describe the paradoxical nature of their meaning, … More Called to the Impossible: Navigating the Impossible #1
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
Today, there was a meeting at Salem State University. The meeting was called, because students wanted to talk about the problem of racism. On the other hand, the Art Department wanted to discuss the issue of the First Amendment and censorship. At stake was an art piece in an exhibit entitled “The State of the … More KKK Art, Salem State, the Problem with America in Microcosm
The country vs. city, white vs. black, millennials vs. the rest of the voting population, those who believed we were better off vs. those who felt things have gotten worse, struggling middle class vs. the rest…these are a few of the battle lines drawn between the two parties in the system vying for our attention. … More Why the Nation is Divided 50/50: National Identities and Political Factions
In full disclosure, I am white Christian, and therefore would appear to be part of the power structure of conservatism, but I did not vote for Trump, and my own history shows me to be somewhat of a rebel to the system. If you don’t understand how Evangelical Christianity fell into what appears to be … More How Could the White Christians Do This to Us?
For me, one of the largest lessons of this election has to do with the ears of America. In a general sense, they are closed. This is not something I did not know, but I have been mildly surprised by the severity of this self-imposed deafness. Before the election of Donald Trump, the left spent … More A President Born from the Sewage of Reality TV: no one was listening
I am catching up on things I did not have time to do this October, even as I close up the last little loose ends of a busy, busy month. The things that happen in October embody some of the dreams I have for the rest of the world. A growing group of my friends and … More A Jew and a Gentile walk into a Cigar Shop…
Four days until the world ends. There is no hope. We are left with the options of a trigger happy, power hungry woman who wants to fill our nation with murderous emigrants, or an orange-haired baboon attempting to mimic The Joker with his finger on the nuke button. Make up your sandwich boards now, and … More Politics has Become an Apocalyptic Cult: The End is Nigh!
