Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

Drew Downs

  • At least they are counting

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    2 min read

    On June 1, The Guardian launched a new site: The Counted. The US government has no comprehensive record of the number of people killed by law enforcement. This lack of basic data has been glaring amid the protests, riots and worldwide debate set in motion by the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old, in Ferguson,…

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  • Shouldn’t sacraments be alike?

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    6 min read

    A Should’ve Asked Question When we bring new people into the faith, we often ask them to memorize a short phrase from the back of the Book of Common Prayer. A phrase that many of us can rattle off with little trouble. At least the first half of it, anyway. We sit, Prayer Books in hand…

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  • Encountering the Love of GOD

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    8 min read

    in the lifting up and in the groundwork Trinity B  |  John 3:1-17 Focus There’s a joke clergy like to make this week every year. We send each other videos and post memes on Facebook about the challenge of preaching on Trinity Sunday. It is known by many as the one day each year in…

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  • Saying sorry

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    2 min read

    “Australia’s policy was to assimilate the indigenous population by “breeding out their color.” An estimated 100,000 Aborigines were kidnapped and are now known as the Stolen Generations. The practice continued until 1970, although the government didn’t apologize until 2008.”

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  • The nuisance of divine planting

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    1 min read

    I fight the grass, forcing its way up through cracks in the sidewalk and driveway like an OCD sentry, defending the palace from natural invasion – grass our persistent interloper. My right thumb, the out side of the pointer, just below the tip, begin to ache, like I’ve been writing with a flat pencil. The outer…

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  • Mercy Is What We Love

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    3 min read

    It strikes me that our society is more interested in public shaming than actually changing the behavior of its people. We are more interested in taking pictures of people watering their lawns during a drought than we are in more effectively curbing the practice, or better, than transforming how Californians landscape. Of course, I’m not…

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