The bully-boy often goes too far. When I was a boy, there was a bully in school who with his jackals made all our lives a misery. They kept pushing until finally anyone not “cool” or who played in the band or who read books was getting slammed into the hallway lockers. It got more frequent. Finally, many of us, the losers and nerds, grouped together (in the Pirates Club. . . I told you we were nerds) and made... Read more
The Lord is a warrior, the Lord is His name. He breaks unrighteousness and injustice on the wheel of His Mighty Power. We cannot cease from mental fight, nor can the sword rest in our hand, until we have built greater liberty in this green and pleasant land. So it must be when there is injustice, unrighteousness, in the cosmos. God calls us to cry out when the poor are oppressed, when there is systematic injustice. The tyrants, those in a... Read more
Hard times require something to help us survive. Friends have tried streaming all of a comfort show. Others go for the old standbys booze, food, overwork, never sleeping. Sometimes, after a very hard day, I try listening to the best audiobook reader, Charlton Griffin. He is very good, but not good enough for these times. Some of these things are comforting, even very comforting, but they are not deep, real, solid enough for chaotic situations. We need better comfort. Naturally... Read more
Dehumanize a human if you wish Hell. Some people may seem difficult, less worthy, but who do we think we are? The Creator made them persons, while we can only label, name them, often badly. We cannot create what “is” on the level of being, but mislabel what is with bigotry and bile. If we name badly, they do not change, but we are warped and ruined, damning ourselves with our damnable nomenclature. We must name as we wish to... Read more
The tyrants are afraid. They know that they have no right to the power they claim without consent of the governed. The tyrant knows that his loathsome actions are justly hated. He is afraid, even of mercy, because to beg for mercy will be to put himself in the power of those from whom he can demand nothing. The tyrant then attempts to define his subjects by slanders, put downs, or by the sins that he attempts to provoke in... Read more
This month I am sharing my reading of Black American poets in the nineteenth century. This reading is helping me prepare for class at The College. I received the following comment from someone on social media: Conservatives sure do love to quote dead black people. Living ones not so much. See, for example, what they had to say about MLK before and after 1968. There is some truth in this response. “Conservatives” of a sort did oppose MLK. There is... Read more
I meet people who cannot love their motherland. These are usually those who were told lies in school about the nation, then disillusioned when they heard the truth. Some few are the pharisaical souls that can only love what is perfect. They judge harshly. For example, ancient Athens was a city built on slavery where only men could vote. This is bad: no excuses. Still, the republic of ancient Athens spread as far as any place up to that time... Read more
Here is a post I wrote in 2017 after two years taking on a growing Christian pagan/nationalist problem. Read more
The truth is often knowable, if we only listen.** If any American meets someone who wants to talk about slavery in the United States, ask if they have (at least) listened to the voices of those enslaved. If they have not, they have nothing to say. If one even forgets, for a moment, the horrors described by the enslaved and considers only the loss of home in being brutally kidnapped and taken from home. I do not have to say... Read more
I once called the eminent scientist Alfred Wallace, “Lord Alfred Wallace.” He was not a lord, despite the fact that I had read this in a book. The book was wrong and I was wrong. This was not a very serious mistake in the context of my argument, though noting that Wallace was from a lower class background than Darwin might be interesting in another context. Getting the fact wrong was not good, so I corrected the error, apologized, and... Read more
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