The Theology of the Smirk

If you find yourself recognizing JD Vance’s smirk, or even agreeing with it, right now you are doing great harm to our world. I know you’ve been taught otherwise. I know you’ve been taught the toxic lessons that White men are supposed to “lead,” and everyone else supposed to follow.

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The Candle of Peace

“In meditation we catch ourselves waging violence on parts of ourselves. This is the seedbed of War. All violence is the act of acting out our own violence toward our own heart.”— Jim Finley I’m doubling-up this week, to catch up with some Advent meditations for you. This one is about PEACE, typically our second […]

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Reminders On Thanksgiving and Worry

The angels were holding a washcloth over my mouth, and I was struggling against them.My arms and legs were thrashing.I was suddenly afraid that I could not breathe. I had awakened to find them basically on top of me, and I didn’t know what was happening. The angels were using a spray bottle to pour […]

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Christian Nationalism: Disregarding Bodily Autonomy

The MAGA-GOP really IS saying “my choice” to the autonomy of actual women.
But theologically they also say “my choice” to “the Body of Christ.”
The two are, horrifically, interconnected.

One is the actions of actual human men toward human women, demanding an ownership of actual women’s bodily autonomy.
The other is a prior “theological ownership” over Jesus….demanding the control of the Body of Christ.

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A Moral Stain On Us All

“The exectution of Robert Roberson is a murder being committed in the name of every Texan.
It is a moral stain that —should what we expect to happen, happen tonight— covers every single living Texan.”

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The Meditation of Simeon

Section Seven of WH Auden’s “For The Time Being.” (FTTB)(For the previous section: Click Here) I should say from the outset that in my many readings of FTTB, I often skip over this entire section. It’s always felt like a weird little interruption to the narrative, and a section of incredibly deep philosophy/theology that even […]

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Jesse Jackson Had It Right

I voted for Ronald Reagan twice to be president.The next time I could vote, I voted for Jesse Jackson. If I was to write the story of my spiritual, social, and political transformation in two short sentences, those two would be it. Those two sentences are the metaphor for a social transformation that continues inside […]

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Thoughts on Breath, And Dad

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about breath. Those of you who know what’s been going on with my Dad will know why. For those of you who haven’t heard, my Father has pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable disease that slowly robs you of the ability to breathe. I posted on FB about it a few […]

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Tears on the Way Home

I burst into tears on the way home from my bike ride tonight. They were unexpected tears, to be sure. And they had nothing at all to do with the ride. In fact, the ride had been great. For the fifth time this December, I took a ride in some seriously cold weather. Twenty seven […]

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Friends of Alexamenos (An Easter Blog)

To be a Christ-follower is to look foolish to the rest of the world. We tend to believe that this is a relatively modern thing. It is not. The earliest use of the name “Christian” was to derisively mock those who followed Jesus. And then, there’s this. This drawing is from a building in ancient […]

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