At the start of this new year, this last year of our current decade, President Trump ordered a drone airstrike to assassinate a high ranking military official of Iran, General Qassem Soleimani – the person largely responsible for the (near) end of ISIS. The assassination took place on Jan. 2, 2020. This action was the equivalent of a head of foreign nation ordering the killing of the Secretary of Defense of the USA. By any measure, an act of war -… Read more
December 19, 2019
Donald Trump is The Highlander?
December 19, 2019 By Roger Wolsey
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Donald Trump has a name. So do you. I’ve been participating in the “Photo-a-Day Challenge” where people are invited to post photos they’ve taken to social media that relate to the theme assigned for each day. Today is the 19th day of Advent and the word assigned is “Name.” We all have names and many of our names have meanings. Some contend that our names are actually part of our identity – that consciously or not – we often end… Read more
December 9, 2019
Can We Cancel Cancel Culture? Ways to Engage.
December 9, 2019 By Roger Wolsey
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“They’re so wrong.” “They’re impossible.” “They’re never going to change their minds.” That’s a lot of they-ing and overstatement. And yet, I think that’s what we do – we write others off as beyond hope. All too frequently, I think we dismiss people who think differently than we do – patently, wholesale, and out of hand. We de-friend people on social media and reduce or avoid contact with co-workers, friends from our past, people at the gym, and even members… Read more
November 18, 2019
Do you Gollumize? Making Idols of our Suffering.
November 18, 2019 By Roger Wolsey
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I’ve done it. There have been times when I’ve allowed my identity to become wrapped up in some trauma that happened to me or grief that I’ve experienced. I’ve allowed myself to view myself primarily as a victim. I’ve poo-pooed other people’s journeys of healing because I hadn’t experienced “sufficient” healing in my own life. In times of such felt personal brokenness, to use terms popularized by Fr. Richard Rohr, I “transmitted my un-transformed wounding” onto others. He says that:… Read more
October 10, 2019
Dark Creature – a poem.
October 10, 2019 By Roger Wolsey
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Dark Creature. i don’t know why i fell for you, perhaps one of those opposites attract sorts of things. you revel in gloom, lurk among shadows and thrive amidst snark, sarcasm and disdain you loathe things that nurture life you’re allergic to care and resistant to grace you fancy yourself a healing “uniter” but only dish-out hurt a textbook case of the cycle of abuse – you got hurt and now seek to knock others down to your bleak plane… Read more
October 1, 2019
Oh My-g-od!
October 1, 2019 By Roger Wolsey
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Oh My G-g-od! ? Someone recently asked me: “Can you please address the difference between God with a capital G and god with a lowercase g – and what the differences are and might mean?” As part of my major in Philosophy in college, I took a course in Aesthetics – the philosophy of art. I recall writing a paper in that class about how people experience pieces of art differently depending if the artwork has been given a title… Read more
September 30, 2019
Tough Guys need Friends – The Power of Presence.
September 30, 2019 By Roger Wolsey
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Tough guys need help. They need the help of other guys. Dudes, this is guy-talk, man to men. In particular, I’m reaching out to my fellow white, liberal, cis-gender, progressive Christian, straight men who’ve “done our work.” Guys who aren’t intimidated about dating a woman who makes more money than we do; guys who are willing to surrender some of our privilege so that historically oppressed peoples might do better; guys who believe that black lives matter as much as… Read more
September 30, 2019
Feather – a poem.
September 30, 2019 By Roger Wolsey
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Like a feather hovering, suspended in the small pocket of breath above the angel-kissed cleft of your upper lip, a soft insight floats across the dream-screen of your waking mind: You don’t need to do anything. You don’t need to prove anything. You don’t need to try to impress anyone. You don’t need to try to win anyone’s approval or validation. You don’t need to even to try to validate yourself. You don’t need to try. You don’t need anything…. Read more
September 27, 2019
Funny Fundamentalism. Laugh at bad Bad Theology.
September 27, 2019 By Roger Wolsey
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Bad theology should be called out and rejected. Laughter can be a helpful part of this. If nothing else, as catharsis from the hurt and harm caused by wretched notions about God and their effect on God’s people. In the spirit of “laughing at the Devil,” and the “Laughing Buddha”, and the “green shirt guy.” [CNN clip for reminder] Here are words from the person who posted the following hilarious VIDEO CLIP, from what I gather is from a TV… Read more
September 9, 2019
Lions, and Tigers, and Progressives – Oh My.
September 9, 2019 By Roger Wolsey
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I recently experienced some things that are the stuff of many people’s worst nightmares – an unexpected, surprise speaking engagement without notice, and being charged with heresy. ProgressiveChristianity.org was a sponsoring partner of the annual Wild Goose Festival in North Carolina this year and, as a member of the Board of Directors, I was sent to represent the organization at a booth to distribute our literature, and solicit inquiries about our “A Joyful Path” children’s Sunday School curriculum. Little did… Read more
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