In this episode, we examine Ernesto Cardenal. Cardenal is a liberation theologian who refuses to be contained by a lectern. A priest who refused to be restrained by the pulpit. He is a poet that refuses to let words be his only medium. For him, revolution isn’t a metaphor, it is a painful act that brought death to friends and enemies. But, to Cardenal, such death was the price for the promise of liberation. Poems by Ernesto Cardenal. Music is Manuel Maria... Read more
In this episode we remember Simone Weil. She was a philosopher, mystic, political theorist, and revolutionary. She wasn’t well known in her lifetime and is scarcely known today. Her life was short—she died at the age of 34 from tuberculosis, which was brought on by weakness from severe fasting. Most of her writings were published after her death. And her writings, though never exactly popular, were celebrated by towering figures. T.S. Elliot called her “a woman of genius, of a... Read more
Today is Martin Luther King Jr Day in the United States. It is not only a day where we honor the man, but also the movement of which he was a part. King has become such a dominant symbol of the Civil Rights Movements that we forget other important figures in the movement. Today we remember one of these forgotten prophets. One who was a thorn in the side of American imperialism for decades…whose influence in the Civil Rights movement... Read more
Within Christianity there is a strange subset of the prophet called the “Holy Fool.” Holy Fools defy social convention in both word and action–sometimes in bizarre ways–out of their religious devotion. One such fool is the 13th century Italian, Brother Juniper, listen in for his absurd and provocative tale. The background music is “When Pigs Rule the World” by Don S. Read more
My Dear Nephew, I hope this letter finds you well. I’m enjoying my retirement. Gardening has become very therapeutic. Congratulations on your recent success! Being elected into such a noble office is a great accomplishment. Now that you are entering into the halls of power, I have a few reflections to offer. I believe they will assist you in the noble task of subjugating the population. I hope you find them useful. I offer them to you with my deepest... Read more
It stung when my eyelids slid off carried away in a flow of tears and blood welling in my mind and spilling from my eyes. Moonlight glimmers into my pained gaze to dance on my soul’s dark pool. Down, deep through forgotten caverns– there a pale fish swims with white scales and its own lidless eyes that see strange things lurking in that murky place. Read more
Vote or don’t vote, everyone has a right to complain about how they are governed. I get the nice feeling of shaming folks for not being politically active. But why does this old nugget—if you didn’t vote, you don’t get to complain—get limited to voting as the decisive vehicle for speaking into political realities? Why not: If you don’t protest the war, you can’t feel sad when people die in war? If you didn’t vote in your local school board... Read more
Every time a Muslim refugee or Muslim citizen commit a violent crime in this country, it gets fed through the right wing media machine. Then hundreds of people, most of them professing Christians, leave hateful comments filled with revenge fantasies and violent rhetoric. Read the comments section of any major media article that even mentions Islam and you’ll see what I mean. I have three things to say about this phenomenon. 1) This is called confirmation bias. One tends to find what... Read more
I love to read and I read a lot. But I don’t much time for personal reading these days; no, most of my reading time is devoted to my son. Since before he could speak, Amy and I have read at least a half hour every day to Jonas. It is one of my favorite things to do. Over the past decade, we’ve read hundreds of books. Most of them have been a bit complex for Jonas. However, we’ve been... Read more
Mark Van Steenwyk
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American Jesus
Matthew 5:38-45 American Exceptional Version 38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I say to you, do not merely resist an evildoer. If anyone strikes you on the right cheek (or is even thinking about striking you on the right cheek), strike them down. Strike down their families. Strike down their villages. Strike down their nation, so that even their descendants live in fear. 40 If... Read more