Even for someone like me whose theological background is old school Calvinism, 2020 managed to leave me with a bleaker and more cynical take on human nature than I had going in. And that’s quite a feat. There are no two ways about it, Americans are cruel. Like the rest of the world, we were […]
Category: Rebellion
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 […]
Fake Plastic Selves
One of the most unfortunate phrases in the English language is “He’s only human.” The assumption lurking behind it is that humanity is akin to weakness, like a crutch, and is therefore something to be ashamed of. I touch on this in the book I am currently writing: A proper Christology reminds us that receiving heavenly […]
Nobody Puts Brody in a Corner
As some of you know, I have been working on a novel called That’s Me in the Corner for a few years now, off and on (once this Random House book is finished I will dedicate myself to this more seriously, with the hope of finishing it this year). The protagonist, based loosely on me, is […]
Extremism, Flowers, and the Powers that Be
If you take a strong position on some issue, or on cultural/political matters in general, it is easy to label those on the other side as “extremists” or “reactionaries” (while failing to see that they might be passing the exact same judgment on you). For example, I remember when the O.J. Simpson verdict was about […]
Police and Wannabe Soldiers
Piggybacking on our latest podcast, I thought I’d post this clip from John Oliver’s HBO show, Last Week Tonight. In it he addresses the shooting of Michael Brown and chides the Ferguson Police Department and mayor’s office both for their deplorable handling of the situation, but also for ridiculous weapon-envy: “The police are troublingly dressed like […]