I think our overarching message in all the songs is ‘Wow! Everything is really screwed up, but it’s gonna be OK’.” —Johnny Rzeznik (Goo Goo Dolls) on PBS News Hour
A wasting, wretched, dehumanized shell
I saw a man this evening, obviously a bottomed-out addict, his head scarred from beatings and sutures, sores on his face and back from disease, his frame wasting, the skin of his face and neck dark from flagging health, barely cognizant of his place in line, receiving his insulin and pills, and my heart broke for the shell of humanity that I saw. My initial disdain at his willful wretchedness and the bother of his presence melted into heartache for the sadness of his condition and the dehumanizing acts which he most certainly performed to maintain his chemical fugue state. I hung my head in sorrow and I wondered if a tear might fall. That’s probably how Jesus dug so deeply within himself to invest in such profound prayer and fasting so as to acquire the heart of God and the curative, restorative power that flowed therefrom.
I Still Don’t Understand Religious “Modesty”
Perhaps it is just something peculiar to my neurodiverse brain (probably), but religious “modesty” practices are nonsensical. Why is an ankle-length skirt “modest”? Is an exposed calf that alluring? And why is such skirt a “modesty” when the presence of the ass is still known and the form of the breasts is still evident? The reality is that there is no universal anatomic feature that captivates every man. As is best known, there are “ass men” and “tits men” and yet this is absolutely too reductionist. Men are likewise captivated by Show more ›
On Targeted Purpose
You don’t need to boil the ocean to make a cup of coffee. —Unk
On Understanding God’s Working
God is often doing the most when you understand it the least. […] There’s a lot of things that are unexplainable, but there’s also a lot of things that are undeniable. —Chris Lindberg
Heavy Are The Shoulders That Wear the Mantle
Various congregations practice all sorts of titles beyond the recognized pastor, deacon, and elder. They commonly embellish with Minister Doe, Evangelist Jones, Psalmist Lee, and Prophet Smith. The thing is, calling oneself “Prophet Smith” is pretty much an automatic indicator that Brother Smith is no prophet at all.Show more ›
Lorie Smith, What Would Jesus Do?
Does anyone remember the WWJD wristbands from the 1990s? Jesus opposed all that the pharisees stood for, yet he welcomed them into his gatherings. If they were not among the attendees, how were they have been there to pose questions to him? They tried to compel his speech about paying taxes to Caesar (Mt 22:17, Mk 12:14, Lk 20:22). But what did Jesus do? He got creative and avoided the very words that the Pharisees expected put in his mouth. Whether it is baking a cake or designing a wedding website, can we not love these neighbors as ourselves? Should a Christian refuse to love her neighbors by withholding alms from homeless lesbians? Should the Christian who pulls off the road to assist stranded motorists drive away when he adduces them to be homosexually-wedded men? Not every Christian is sufficiently spiritually mature to implement what I propose here, but why can’t Christians design a wedding website or cake while engaging in genuine loving prayer for the customer-celebrants? And shouldn’t a Christian do that for every such customer, even the heterosexual ones? Indeed, can the designer not imprint a resonant verse like “God Is Love”? (1 John 4:8,16) Does that not avoid the issue, love our neighbor, and plant a highly memorable seed that the Holy Spirit can cultivate over time? Tragically, high profile battles like Creative, LLC, and Masterpiece Cake Shop only injure Christianity’s message. I’m relieved that SCOTUS preserved free speech protections, but I wish this case had never been brought.
On Achieving
To do what no one did before, you must think like no one thought before. —Vox
ALMOST….
Vox has nearly returned to civilization, with more than a few hand-written posts to push out, but there are also thousands and thousands of email to be parsed first.
Science, the New Polytheism
Throughout the coronavirus hysteria of 2020, policymakers and their designees spoke incessantly of “following the science.” The word science comes from Latin, scire, meaning knowledge. When academics speak of science they usually intend it to mean “scientific method” which is the use of empirical (i.e. “observable”) evidence to confirm or refute a hypothesis. However, being that COVID-19 was the first-ever global epidemic, there was nothing upon which or by which to assess the efficacy of countermeasures. As invoked, “follow the science” meant “trust the experts” which, in turn, conveyed an expectation to have faith in the speculative opinions of credentialed humans.Show more ›
“Receive the Holy Spirit”
On the evening after his resurrection, Jesus “breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.'” (Jn 20:22). How, then, is it possible to become “filled with the Holy Spirit” seven weeks later on Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4) if the disciples had already received the Holy Spirit?Show more ›
On Introspection
People do not deeply examine that which they deeply disdain. —Kellyanne Conway on The Daily