Category: Culture

What’s going on, who we are, and what the big deal is.

  • Teaching Mixed Messages: love, violence, and more Walking Dead

    The Michigan Militia It was the late 90’s and several militia groups, most famously the “Michigan Militia” had bloomed in the thumb-area of Michigan, just down the road from my college. The populist rage that would a decade later birth the Birthers and the Tea Party was a post-Waco response to a perceived lack of…

  • It doesn’t count as the right thing

    If you stop doing it for other reasons. Our recycling center has stopped taking glass. A sign posted on the locked dumpster said: Due to a drop in demand, we will not be taking glass for the foreseeable future. Now the dumpsters are gone entirely. I understand that “free” recycling is paid for by the…

  • Creationism Isn’t Christian

    No, I didn’t watch Bill Nye debate Ken Ham. I’m not interested. Besides, it wasn’t for me. It was for two kinds of people: crazy confused people and people who think they have to listen to crazy confused people to be a good Christian. That may sound pretty crass, but this wasn’t a mainstream debate. This…

  • How the 2014 Super Bowl should effect the draft

    If this Super Bowl has taught us anything, it is that the cult of the quarterback needs to end. Like John Elway and Tom Brady can attest: your team may have the best quarterback, but that doesn’t mean you’ll win. In fact, history doesn’t side with the better quarterback, but with the better team. Here’s…

  • An Assize Sermon Reflection: What Needs to be Re-Imagined?

    As one who so often sees the how our institutional priorities limit our effectiveness, and more over, the very substance of our ministry, I am encouraged and hopeful by new movement in The Episcopal Church. The Re-Imagining we are undertaking must hold the spirit of our sacramental relationships and expressions as most important. As Robert…

  • Fake Christmas

      You too can celebrate the authenticity of Christmas with this fake tree, on clearance amid a bunch of other junk, replicating the only real tree amid a lot of fake trees. To fakely celebrate the way a cartoon character celebrated in a beloved Christmas special. Unlike, say, real life.

  • A generic response to prejudice

    It has come to my attention that someone has recently acted in a prejudicial way. They said or did something that showed prejudice toward one or more minorities. I found these actions deplorable. However, as a Christian, I am confused about how I am to respond. I promise in my baptismal covenant to seek Christ…

  • Living all 12 days

    The project I’ve been stewing on for awhile is a new blog called  Break Sabbath. It is a passion project of mine, dealing with the very root of my faith–the notion that we are challenged to find the source of our faith in spite of its trappings. In my third post, I explore what it means…