Hello, blorb readers o’ mine. How are you all? Well, that’s enough about you. Let’s talk about me now. Not for long, though, since Cat and I are now getting ready to leave our hotel in South Bend, IN to drive in our rented Nissan GasHogger SUV to Chicago, where we’re going to spend the day doing Cultural Stuff, which will culminate this evening in our going to see the play “Wicked.” I think it’s about an English team of has-been... Read more
I get a lot of the same argument against my idea that we’re working against the Great Commandment by persisting in our efforts to fulfill the (already fulfilled, in America) Great Commission. That argument goes … well, here, from two recent comments on my postings on that matter: “. . . a parent can love a disobedient child but that doesn’t mean any behaviour is accepted,” and, “For example, good parents LITERALLY tell their child that they must change certain behavior becuase... Read more
To people leaving some of the less loving comments on my Great Commandment vs. Great Commission pieces: It’s not, as I’ve said, that I don’t want nonbelievers to be saved by God. Of course I do; what Christian doesn’t? My point is that until someone asks me to share my faith with them, I should only love them, and trust the Holy Spirit to take care of the rest. You can’t talk anyone into being Christian; conversion is an emotional... Read more
It’s been so great to see how thoughtful and kind everyone’s been about this post. When my book on the same question (I’m OK–You’re Not) came out a few months ago, I expected it to generate a fair amount of hostility–and, actually, it did. But that, “How dare you suggest we stop evangelizing, pagan!” sort of knee-jerk vitriol petered out soon enough. (And virtually all of it, as far as I know, came from people who hadn’t actually read the book.)... Read more
I have a question I’d like you to consider. I raise it because yesterday I was interviewed about this very question by Jim Burns for his nationally syndicated radio program, HomeWord with Jim Burns, who was talking with me about my book, I’m Okay-You’re Not. The question I explore in I’m OK—and the one I’d like to ask you now—is whether or not you think that The Great Commandment and The Great Commission are (at this point in our culture)... Read more
(If you’re just joining us, my choice, at my new job as editor of a music magazine, was to either put on the cover of the magazine the singer/songwriter Marilyn “There’s Something About Corpses and Blood I Find Really Attractive” Manson, or … get fired for not putting him on the cover. And, except for the part where I sometimes had to be Satan’s Cheerleader, I really loved my job.) Yeah, so I decided to lie to my boss, if that’s what... Read more
About three weeks after my sudden conversion to Christianity (for the core gist of that story, see The Happiest Ending EVER), I got a job offer to be the editor of a much loved music magazine/tabloid here in San Diego. At that point SLAMM (“San Diego Lifestyle and Music Magazine”) had been in business for five years. They did 40,000 copies every two weeks; it was distributed everywhere throughout San Diego. They ran album reviews, show previews, show reviews, band and artist... Read more
So that’s when I sprayed all the squirrels with a can of mace.Kidding! What really happened is that I took off my shoe, and all the squirrels instantly keeled over. Then, shamelessly taking advantage of the squirrels’ temporary lack of consciousness, Cat and I tied all the squirrels’ tails together. Oh, what fun ensued as they awakened! Well. For awhile, anyway. Then it just got gruesome. Turns out squirrels really value their independence. No, here’s what really happened. I started... Read more
So the thing is, we were surrounded. You know how when something suddenly happens that’s so completely new that your brain tries to do with it the only thing it can, which is to try to turn it into whatever it has in its Data Bank of Previous Experiences that’s closest to the thing it’s now trying to comprehend? You know? Like, one time I saw this wildly colored, three-feet high pheasant walking around the sloping cement walls of an... Read more
(We left off with me cutting down on my hate mail by finally getting to the part where the squirrels actually attack us.) Right. The squirrels barreling down on us barged right past that happy, interspecies Buffer Zone. That was the first sign that something was terribly wrong. I don’t know how wildlife does it in the rest of the world—I could see where maybe in, say, France, the squirrels can be expected to run right up your pants leg—but... Read more
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