Well, this is so brilliant. Everybody is reading the Bible now! My own governor, of all people, managed to locate a copy, and look up the word “peace” in the concordance at the back, and read four whole verses out of context. “Here in New York,” he explained, “we actually read the Bible,” going on to quote Matthew 5:9, Mark 3:25, Psalm 34:14, and James 3:18 without wondering to himself even for a moment if any of those verses would... Read more
Actual Picture of me Writing This Post Goodness, after feeling like there was nothing to write about for so long, now it is hard to choose, even when trying to stay away from the internet as much as possible. Hmmm, I guess the thing that bemuses me most this morning is Mr. Trump with his Bible. I mean, I’ve just turned in over 900,000 words about the Bible. The whole point of the effort was not so that people would... Read more
I’m typing on my tiny iPad mini keyboard because God appears to be judging me. I turned in my book yesterday and then went happily to bed (my computer at a full charge) and when I woke up this morning it refused to turn on. My immediate thought was that God must be trying to tell me something, but whatever it is I probably don’t want to hear it. I and the rest of the world, I suppose. A world... Read more
The picture I took of the park yesterday evening. I woke up in the small hours feeling anxious and looked at the local news and saw that the beautiful playground in the park just around the corner had been torched. It’s a new playground, built especially with accommodations for disabled children. It’s between two neighborhoods–lower-income and middle–so that children of all kinds played together. My kids have met all kinds of interesting kids there, and played happily. In a world... Read more
I’m in the very final push of editing Nailed It. I feel like I say that every day but today it is really true. Sorry I haven’t texted or emailed you back. I wasn’t going to blog this morning, because I really need to just keep my eyes glued to that very tiresome document, but the world is aflame, and today is also Pentecost, and so I thought I would just make an observation that Christians should know about anyway.... Read more
I’m still book editing, but I took a ten-minute break to comment on yesterday’s news. Also, I’ll be on the Ride Home with John and Kathy at 4:40 tonight, if you want to search for their Livestream on Facebook. Have a great day! Read more
It’s starting to be humid already, here in the north, which saps the strength and hope of animals covered in fur. I like it, but I feel alone in my preference. Anyway, we’ve done up a podcast all about the New Normal (as if we could even know), about Memorial Day, about whether or not the economy will collapse, and why people who should deny all the particulars of Christian Doctrine and Practice should stop calling themselves Christian. It’s great,... Read more
I’m not too far in to Untamed by Glennon Doyle Melton. I’m going slow because I have to stop every few minutes and roll my eyes. Pretty much I’m reading it so that you don’t have to, which I feel like is super nice of me. Also, today is fake Ascension, if you’re a liturgically minded person. Maybe you celebrated on Thursday (as I did) but maybe you forgot and are transferring the feast to today. It’s ok, not everyone... Read more
Another week gone. Are there any takes? One Here’s the podcast I recorded with Melanie over at the CRJ about Brené Brown. Glad to hear the article was pretty helpful. It was the most propitious time to be doing it, honestly, as the world was beginning to shut down. And as I’ve now said a hundred times, if you’re thinking of reading more about shame, bypass Brown and go straight to Curt Thompson. He has lots of stuff on youtube... Read more
I’m over at the Christian Research Journal Today. Check it out! “Public Shame to the Rescue,” blazed the headline of a prominent website barely a week into the American version of the worldwide coronavirus shutdown. “What could be more effective than a little public shaming?” the author asked in the first paragraph, going on to try to document the rise of shame on social media as a tool for curbing undesirable behavior.1 If there was an ever a moment to pause... Read more
Preventing Grace
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