Sometimes you get the sense that someone else is simply trying to pin you down. They ask what news agency you follow, what authors you read, who you voted for in the last election. Their intent is to label you, jam you in a box, usually with the intent of writing you off. Conversations around … Continue reading Navigating the Divide: Part 8–What We Must Pin Down When Everyone Else Is Trying To Pin Us Down
So. This is new. It is hard for me to compare this Coronavirus to anything else in my lifetime. Schools being closed. Professional sports leagues being shuttered. People fighting over toilet paper. My word. What is truly astounding to me is the global nature of the thing. It is involving countries and systems and economies … Continue reading Coronavirus Isn’t the Only Thing that’s Viral
You can learn a lot when talking with your friends about beer. A number of years back now, my wife and I were having dinner with a couple from our faith community. The subject of beer came up, and our friends suddenly went on and on about the evils of alcohol, beer, wine, etc. And … Continue reading Navigating the Divide: Part 5–What I Learned from Talking with My Friends about Beer
One of the most remarkable things people believed about Jesus very early on was that he was the purest reflection of what God is really like. Believe it or not, thousands of years ago, people had divergent and conflicting ideas of what God was like. Even among the Jewish people, from whom Jesus came. For … Continue reading Navigating the Divide: Part 4–The Ancient Art of Truthing
Sometimes I catch myself fantasizing about who I would like to cut out of my life. I don't fantasize about their death, just their disappearance. I mean, not in a kidnapped-and-taken-to-Siberia kind of way, but in a, “Oh, you’re moving? That’s too bad” kind of way. Gone from my air space. Gone from my face vision. … Continue reading Navigating the Divide: Part 3–Good People with Good Intentions
We all have our prejudices. To think that we don’t is to be willfully blind, prone to believe that the way we perceive the world actually is the world. To deny our prejudices leads to an unwillingness to listen to others. It leads to an unwillingness to open up to the possibility that we might … Continue reading I Pledge Allegiance: Part 8–And Now…The Apocalypse
In the early 1970s, in an effort to quell the unrest in Argentina, General and President Rafael Videla took matters into his own hands. First, he labeled his enemies in this way, “A terrorist isn’t just someone with a gun or a bomb. (A subversive is) anyone who opposes the Argentine way of life.” And … Continue reading I Pledge Allegiance: Part 7–They Wore Diapers On Their Heads
For most of civilization, no one pretended that their political and spiritual lives could be compartmentalized. There was no pretension over thinking you could pledge to this or that over here, and then turn around and pledge to this or that over there. For most of history, there was no sacred here, secular there, divinity … Continue reading I Pledge Allegiance: Part 6–The Spirituality of Pledging
Whoever claimed that the Hebrew Scriptures were without internal conflicts never truly read the Hebrew Scriptures. For thousands of years, the Hebrew people knew quite well that their Scriptures were full of competing narratives. It wasn’t just that Ruth seemed to be challenging the narrative of Joshua. It was that Jonah and Isaiah did, too. … Continue reading I Pledge Allegiance: Part 5–Jesus and Genocide
On occasion, I am given the honor of participating in the marriage ceremony of a couple. And as part of the officiating, I am asked to give a short meditation on the importance of a union between two people in a world that seems more bent on division. Or…I am usually asked. For a recent … Continue reading Marriage Isn’t For Everybody, But Here’s Fourteen Things If It’s For You