When I was a young man the world was going to end in some apocalyptic fashion – the most discussed being a nuclear war with the USSR.  Nowadays we make climate change feel just as apocalyptic mostly to distract ourselves from the fact that the world is ending around us in little bits and pieces, one drop at a time. My headlines this morning were about closed churches in Sri Lanka and a bloody synagogue in Poway.  I encountered a memory about Vanderbilt University uncredentialing a Christian organization for “discriminatory” beliefs.  I have seen literally dozens of stories of small, but deeply bitter and ugly

…I ranted in a conversation with a neighbor yesterday.  What, you may ask, is the hot topic of conversation in my neighborhood?  Why measles!  Yes measles.  An illness we have long had under control begins again to spread its ugliness.  One of the carefully identified Southern California hot spots is just blocks from my home.  And do not speak to me of immigrants.  Immigrants of all types and legalities have been bringing illness into this nation for a long time, but we have always been smart enough to make sure we were vaccinated against it so it never went anywhere.  But no more, now we have anti-vaxxers and social

Right now is one of those times I want to hide and pretend not to be a Christian.  There is a lot of stuff floating around that is not showing us in a good light.  We seem to be using our faith as a cudgel. Let’s start with Pete Buttigieg who is desperately trying to present himself as a gay Christian.  While shifts are occurring inside some Christian expressions regarding the sinfulness of homosexual conduct, the claim that Buttigieg is making, that homosexual practice is compatible with Christianity, is far from universally accepted in Christianity.  Therefore, such a claim means Buttigieg often finds himself having to

Lots of people have wacky ideas about God.  They are entitled to them.  I first gained whatever meager blogging spotlight I may enjoy covering a presidential candidate’s quite heterodox religious beliefs.  But what is going on in the pre-emergent Democratic primary is something of another order. Rising star Pete Buttigieg is in the religious spotlight.  As The Hill put it: Buttigieg’s faith has become a national issue in recent days as the 2020 candidate has publicly feuded with Vice President Pence over differing views on homosexuality and Pence’s past support for so-called conversion therapy programs. What

Here’s the link. ‘Nuff

I think that in this modern age Easter is hard to understand.  It is a Holy Day (the holiest actually) that has resisted to a reasonable extent the gross over-commercialization/secularization of Christmas, but remains on the public radar.  The miracle of resurrection does not seem all that miraculous in a world where we routinely “kill” people, replace their heart with someone else’s, then start them up again.  I have spent a lifetime studying Christianity and reading Christian theology and I have barely scratched the surface of what Easter means.  Easter is a big deal, I mean a really big deal, but it is also

Yesterday I wrote about younger generations coddled and in search of a challenge. I wonder why previous generations have worked so hard to take such swaddled care of these younger generations?  Of course there are countless answers, because there are a lot of people with multiple reasons.  But may I suggest one important one? The hardest challenge any individual can face is themselves – taming their impulses to greed, envy, sloth, gluttony, lust….  The less we have to struggle with the necessities of life – food, shelter, warmth –  the more we should be able to focus on overcoming those base impulses. 

Most have presumed that anti-Trump crazy is just politics – attempts by his political opponents to capitalize on the man’s obvious flaws and ignore his equally obvious strengths.  Pretty standard political stuff, even if he is a pretty unconventional guy.  I certainly have presumed that AOC and those few other nutty, ignorant Congresspersons are exceptions, not the rule.  But after watching just a small portion of the Barr presser this morning (this is written prior to the release of the report) I am beginning to wonder if we are not sitting on several generations of the massively ignorant, coupled with, and perhaps