I’ve found that the above title has a knee-jerk response from most in Christian circles, and quite a different one from those who merely have a spectator view of the faith or none at all. I for one have always found that interesting to say the least. Grace Has Still Fallen on Hard Times Inside of …
I chose the title of my blog today for two specific reasons. One of those is clearly unimpressive, in that as I grabbed my clothes out of my drawer this morning, enroute to work this “old man” out, my favorite shirt entitled “Bad Theology Hurts People” was the shirt that said “Please, pick me”! And …
You know I never really have had a problem with the doctrine of “total depravity”, a doctrine heralded as one of the main and first talking points of Calvinism’s TULIP. And though I won’t spend any time unpacking the acronym in the least bit, this one doctrine alone for me has not only been believable based …
From as long as I can remember I have been a devoted student of the holy scriptures and have been at least a half-hearted enthusiast of the church once formed from its vast body of work. In fact, even as a child I knew instinctively that there was something about this book that was both unique …
Read more “What Got You Here Won’t Keep You, But It Also Will”
In Mark 9: 14-29, we are confronted with the story of the disciples seeming inability to exorcise a demon that had wrecked a poor young man’s life, and that had equally sucked all the belief a poor Father had of his son ever being free from it. Evidently Jesus had an object lesson he wanted to …
I guess you could say that the book of Ecclesiastes is probably my favorite book of the Bible in many respects. Perhaps it’s because I’m a contemplative soul as was Solomon. And though I cannot relate to the King’s exorbitant wealth and relative ease, I unreservedly get on board with the conclusions he came to about …
Rip Van Winkle is the short story written by Washington Irving in 1819. It chronicles the story of a Dutch American who meets some other guys, drinks far too much of their liquor and falls asleep in the Catskill mountains. Of course, falling asleep in the mountains doesn’t sound half bad, except for the fact that my …
Stealing Barbara’s line I woke up around 2:00 this morning for my first trip to the bathroom which has now become part of the old man’s unenthusiastic routine. As I tucked myself back into bed, the book by Barbara Brown Taylor entitled Leaving Church kept flashing like a neon sign on dream street beckoning me …
A Disclaimer To say the last two-years or more of all our lives has been a whirlwind of “shit-storm” proportions is to state the obvious to anyone whose existence is at least partially still defined by the fact that they think, therefore they are. And by that, I mean still thinking even as the excrement …
Read more “Rene Descartes, A Conspiracy Theorist and a Democrat Walk Into A Bar”
Boys Outside of the Cocoon Hood It was probably about 6 years ago now that I met Eugene. It was just after my wife and I embarked on a new journey of refuge living by the sea hoping we’d finally find the answer to “God knows what”. Eugene is now in his late eighties as …