Here it is, another gray snowy Binghamton Monday. We rousted ourselves on Saturday to wonder about pragmatism and how the gospel works and doesn’t work. Also, you’ll be happy to know, I renewed my library books in time so that’s a relief. I did manage to read one or two things, though not many. All my energies have been devoted to trying to make it to my 60 book year end goal. I’m at 55 so basically the next three... Read more
This is what Anglican Failure looks like. It is basically Christmas, if you’re not in the way of observing Advent, which I barely am this year, having managed not even to lay my hand on Advent candles or anything.* Of course, I know this makes me a bad person. What with the internet to keep me amused, Amazon to deliver my presents, and children to clean my house, I barely have anything to do with myself. I might as well... Read more
My desk doesn’t look this this anymore. It’s piled with books and paper and empty cups and guilt. Today is St. Nicholas day and I trust you are appropriately celebrating. My children are all wandering around with shiny new pocket knives and buckets full of chocolate because I–I mean St. Nicholas–am insane. I need to go rustle up some protein so I must make this brief. Fortunately, I’ve done a lot of writing elsewhere, and so have a lot of... Read more
I’m over at Stand Firm today. Enjoy! ************************************************************************** Providence has been kind this week and brought into my way several ridiculous creeds and prayers written probably by committees of people who can’t remember why they’ve been lugging themselves into those old, crumbling…what are they called? Ah, “church” buildings all these years. Let’s begin with the most recent, shall we? Here is some sort of statement of, well, I dunno, is it belief? Or what? “We believe that God is present... Read more
This is so brilliant. Someone over at the Atlantic has finally had enough of the Cult of the Morning Routine. This one was my favorite, by her description: One notable adherent to this philosophy is Mark Wahlberg, the actor and father of four, whose morning routine went minorly viral last year. In an Instagram post, he claimed that he rises at 2:30 a.m., eats breakfast at 3:15 a.m., then works out for a couple of hours, including a golf outing... Read more
Santa, also known as Father Christmas, not to be confused with Satan, nor St. Nicholas either. It’s not that hard guys. Now that it is finally advent, I am prepared to devote myself to all the weird things that many Christians think about Christmas—that it’s actually a pagan holiday, etc. etc. And, given that St. Nicholas Day is coming swiftly upon us (Friday, if you’d forgotten), here is something ridiculous. It’s a sort of a poem…you have to read the... Read more
Good Moaning. Snow is careening out of the sky in the most appalling way and everything in the world is closed. Nevertheless, we’ve done up a podcast picking up the subject of yesterday, which is how to parent your child and be a good Christian. We work through an article that illustrated what most irritates me about American Christianity. Not going to link the article because no one is trying to be bad. But I do have a few other... Read more
I finally clicked on my free November audible listen this last week, The Burnout Generation by Anne Helen Peterson. It’s only an hour and forty-seven minutes—basically a longer form of viral BuzzFeed article she wrote at the beginning of the year. Millennial Burnout, she says, is “a chronic state of stress and exhaustion that’s become the base temperature for young people today.” She briefly interviews five different people in different kinds of jobs in different parts of the country... Read more
I’m over at Stand Firm today, as I’m going to try to be a couple of days a week. Here is what I said about Thanksgiving. ***************************************************** It’s not just me, I have confirmed my impression by complaining about it personally to everyone I know. It’s true, some members of the American family—lots actually—this year put up their Christmas decorations the day after Halloween. And, though I judged them heartily, even my dear friends whom I love and will eventually forgive... Read more
This is actually a brilliant invention. One of the best. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, which is tomorrow in case you forgot to take your turkey out of the freezer, here is something a little bit crazy that I didn’t know about. Turns out, if you are trying to be an Instagram “Influencer” and it’s taking too long because you don’t know that many people and your mom already pushed like, you can get online and buy yourself some followers... Read more
Preventing Grace
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