Blog
So Now What?
So that happened, and my side lost. (Well technically, my side lost when the DNC conspired against Bernie in order to coronate an establishment moderate hawk, but I digress.) So what now? On the one hand I could stomp my feet, wring my hands on social media, or join one of the very secessionist movements like #Calexit that I mock when they originate in places like Mississippi. (But then, California is the sixth largest economy in the world while Mississippi’s entire cash reserve can fit in one of the state’s ubiquitous double-wides. And...
read moreAnarchist Theology
This is adapted from Misfit Faith, ch. 6: “Too Good to be False (Or, Religion is a Fairy Tale)” Politically and economically speaking, I am pretty much an anarchist. Now before you start flipping out about how society needs organization and oversight, I would urge you to relax, unclench, and understand that as a theory, anarchism concedes these things for the most part. It just suggests that the organization we need should come from the bottom up rather than from the top down. In a word, it’s not so much about oversight from on high as about...
read moreBourbon, Sex, and Magic
This is an excerpt from Misfit Faith, chapter 6: “Too Good to be False (Or, Religion is a Fairy Tale)” We all know the story of Cinderella: Oppressed and despised stepchild wants to join her stepsisters at the royal ball, but she can’t because she has nothing to wear (Hashtag, WhitePeopleProblems). So what happens? A fairy godmother magically appears and solves her issue, clothing her in an exquisite gown and furnishing her with a coach and driver. But then, the condition: She must leave the party no later than midnight, or else her dress...
read moreGod is Weak
Excerpt from Misfit Faith, chapter 5: “Shit Happens (Or, The Excruciating Disruption of Power”) “How could a loving God give people cancer?” It’s a really good question, and before we address it we would do well to remind ourselves that a healthy dose of agnosticism and humility at the prospect of defending God or speaking on his behalf is required. Who the hell do we think we are, anyway? I’m reminded of a comic strip that shows a man lying in a hospital bed while his doctor tells him that although he has cancer it is all a part of God’s...
read moreCommon Ground, Catholicity, and Misfit Faith
This is an excerpt from Misfit Faith, Chapter 4: “Unity in Diversity (Or, We’re One But We’re Not the Same)” Like it or not, we are all connected. Not long after the tragic shooting of unarmed Florida teenager Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman, a slogan began to spread across various social media platforms: “I Am Trayvon Martin.” What this slogan was attempting to express is that we are all potential victims of xenophobia, fear, and the violence they incite. We’re all a minority somewhere (and you may be one right where you live someday),...
read moreJesus Can’t Fulfill You. Sorry (and You’re Welcome).
Excerpt from Misfit Faith, chapter 5: “Shit Happens (Or, The Excruciating Disruption of Power)” Christianity as a kind of panacea and cure-all for every single problem we face is a complete farce. In fact, it’s precisely the idea that we are supposed to feel whole and complete that creates most of our problems and confusion in the first place. Going all the way back to the creation narrative we find man longing for wholeness and fulfillment—in Adam’s case it was the fruit of the forbidden tree that represented the “sacred object” that would...
read moreYou Have the Right Duty to Remain Silent
There once was a time in this country when “political correctness” was something that only people on the Right complained about: “Why do the Redskins have to change their team’s name?”; “Wait, ‘colored’ is all of a sudden off limits?”; ”So now we can’t say ‘midget’ anymore?” No, you can’t. And you’d better not opt for “People McNuggets” either. . . . (That, by the way, is a case in point: I seriously debated whether or not to include...
read moreNihilism, Grace, and the Religion of the Rose
I just returned from a Caribbean cruise (my life is hard), and I brought two books with me: Chuck Klosterman’s The Visible Man, and John D. Caputo’s Hoping against Hope: Confessions of a Postmodern Pilgrim. The former is a novel and is the one I was planning on reading (to be honest I wasn’t expecting to crack the latter at all). But as it turned out, I read almost all of Hoping while Visible remained untouched. Caputo is one of the leading figures in the world of so-called “Radical Theology,” and this book...
read moreSexual Puritans in an R-Rated Culture
As you probably know, Christian and I interviewed Dan Savage on our most recent episode of Drunk Ex-Pastors. For those not familiar, Dan is a gay-rights activist as well as the nation’s most well-known sex-advice columnist. Going in, we pretty much knew that the episode would make some people uncomfortable. We were right. I won’t spoil it for you, but suffice it to say that our conversation focused on sex in general and homosexuality in particular, and it featured just about everything you can imagine a discussion like that...
read moreCareful What You’re Thankful For
Like many of you, I will be spending the day with friends, family, and people I love. I’ll be eating turkey, having some good slash awkward conversations with plenty of eye-rolling, and watching a guy run the ball up the middle for a loss of yardage instead of just going around the defenders like he should’ve done. Like many of you, I have a lot for which to be thankful. And like almost all of you, my giving-of-thanks should be mingled with a touch of grief, especially insofar as what I am thankful for falls under the rubric of...
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