Drew Downs
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Love Songs Ain’t Cool
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2 min read
LOVE SONGS AIN’T COOL We staged an Anti-Valentine’s Day poetry reading twenty years ago, with all the seriousness of the jilted and the cool of a grunge beatnik, flannel-draped and too intense for snaps. It was all so black and white, our lives, our words the only true responses: laugh or cry. “I refuse to…
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My Visual Manifesto
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4 min read
My first manifesto was a simple declaration of faith. My second manifesto came as a way of changing the church. My third manifesto is this website. Today. I rediscovered minimalism a couple of years ago (I even made a Lenten devotional around it). But it was a particular minimalist manifesto which had the most profound impact on…
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On History, Racism, and Sitting Down For Equality
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5 min read
The critical moment in Iron Jawed Angels comes with war. Alice Paul and a league of women stand in front of the White House daily, compelling President Woodrow Wilson to recognize that it is long past time for women’s suffrage. They stand, protesting with the president’s own words, extolling eloquently on human dignity. So that he’ll hear them anew and not…
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Jesus is a terrible dinner guest. One would think that by now the Pharisees would know better than to invite Jesus for dinner. He’s always complaining about how we treat the help and how exclusive the guest list is. He calls us out in front of our friends and all but calls us greedy and…
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A Country of Four-Year-Olds
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1 min read
A COUNTRY OF FOUR-YEAR-OLDS I sometimes feelthat the only wayto understand my countryis to be a parent. I live in a landfor which the response“because I can”is a valid argumentand “because I said so”works just as wellto dissuade; where freedom is moreimportant than community,until we get hurt. Today my son is crankybecause his MeeMee and…
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I’m supposed to want to baptize people. As a Christian and as a priest, I’m supposed to want people to come to the waters. Usually I do. I’m learning to loose my grip on the sacraments and serve the calling of GOD in respect for all the other people called by GOD. It just seems…