Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

politics

  • “We have a new bishop!” I proudly declared on Sunday morning, announcing the weekend’s big event: when nearly 1,500 people gathered to ordain the 11th Bishop of Indianapolis, the Rt. Rev. Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows. “And right now she’s claiming her seat.” And because I refuse to pass up such perfect opportunities to preach, I took the…

  • Don’t you feel like we’re misunderstanding each other? Not just about political correctness, but about everything? Like every word we say is fundamentally misconstrued? Maybe it’s political correctness itself: the pathological boogeyman of the late ’80s. Back then, we mocked it with books like Politically Correct Fairy Tales. Now we just have outrage and even violence. But blaming…

  • I recognize the impulse. Sometimes I feel it too. The burden of other people’s junk and the siren song of liberty. The idea that the human cost is too hard to measure against the bottom line. And it’s argument has real merit. Too many rules do cut into our ability to innovate, create, and thrive.…

  • A culture war? You and I have our political-church landscape wrong. And we’re making it worse. Here’s how we fix it: we speak the truth.

  • I hate lies. But for me, it doesn’t end there. I hate when we encourage lies over honesty. How easy it is to conveniently forget. To ignore the truth. To misremember on purpose. Or just happen to not remember at a critical moment. “I don’t recall,” we say. Our brains are funny things, really. While…

  • I have not been as affected by a movie in years as I was by Moonlight. How it performs at the Oscars won’t change the truth that it is not only a great film, it’s transcendent. Zach Hoag’s review is top shelf and far more thoughtful than the review I never wrote. Except this one simple…