SNL’s Dana Carvey as The Church Lady The Pharisees were a Jewish faction during the time of Christ. These guys were famous for reducing spirituality to a system of rules. The law of Moses contains roughly 600 laws. The Pharisees, in an ever-nuanced attempt to be right, doubled that number. Whoever didn’t comply with their…
Category: Social Issues
Rebel without a Cause
I’ve never been a fan of causes. Even as a non-Christian I was suspicious of the amount of devotion causes command. No matter how worthy the cause, I’ve never considered one worth my life. As a non-Christian, I didn’t know why I felt suspicious of causes. I thought it was because my mind was not…
Prayers to Santa
Our local paper publishes letters to Santa written by children in the community. Here is one of the more hilarious examples: To Santu, Mii krismislist I wont usiinsset end a ulabkot u snacset. I wont to sekrokuoil huntr u skoodr bag. (No, your font isn’t scrambled. I typed it exactly as written). The letters cover…
Keeping Thanksgiving–Dennis Patrick
The following is a piece by my father-in-law, Dennis Patrick. Dennis writes a weekly column called “The Passing Scene,” which appears in the Mountrail County Promoter. “Keeping Thanksgiving” appeared in the November 23 edition of The Promoter. *** Halloween 2015 is history and it’s time again when kids dress up like Pilgrims, adults over indulge and everyone…
Our Favorite Whipping Boy
But when I saw that they were deviating from the truth of the gospel, I told Cephas in front of everyone, “If you, who are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel Gentiles to live like Jews?” (Gal. 2:14). Peter (AKA Cephas)…. It’s always Peter, right? All…
Hypocrite!!
Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face It’s not unusual to hear people level the charge of “hypocrite” at Christians. Usually, this happens during debates about moral issues or the existence of God or any other time it seems convenient. Almost no one cares about logical fallacies in this day and age. At the risk of irrelevance,…
Hospice, not a Hospital
As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been reading Pope Francis’s Papal Encyclical, “Care for Our Common Home.” The Pope focuses a lot of attention on curbing human problems–especially climate change and poverty–through public policy shifts. He is certainly not alone in this. It is not unusual to hear Christians calling for systemic shifts…
The Cut Flower of Creation
Photo by Carrie McKamey Recently, a friend asked me to read Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si: On Care of Our Common Home. In it, the Pope lays out his views “on the environment and human ecology.” A great deal of the discussion centers on human-caused climate change. Pope Francis intricately explores the environmental and social ramifications…
Don’t Tread on Me (Part 2)
Please read Part One before continuing… Societal unforgiveness is further tightening its coils through microagression theory. Dr. Derald Wing Sue says, “Microaggressions are the everyday verbal, non-verbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership.” Sue…
“Don’t Tread on Me” (Part One)
“To err is human; to forgive, divine.” This old saying nails a core human issue (as old sayings often do!) Amidst more fashionable issues like global warming, social justice, and gay marriage, I fear plain ol’ forgiveness is an afterthought. Yet our old saying captures two things about forgiveness: 1) It is fundamentally important; 2)…
The Voice of One 