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Dangerous Expectations
When we tell stories, we take shortcuts. We generalize, connect, and get the audience to fill in the gaps. However, this can distort the truth.
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The Amazon is on fire
A rainforest which took 55 million years to create is on fire. And those who set the fires are just trying to avoid the blame. The Amazon is on fire. That’s the story. A rainforest which took 55 million years to create is on fire. A rainforest which absorbs a huge portion of the world’s…
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Don’t Just Fact-Check Those Racist Tweets
The bigger argument doesn’t rely on facts. Fact-checking racist tweets is only so useful. But it is really, really enticing. When the president suggested four U.S. Representatives “go back” to other countries he offered the kind of red meat few can resist. Not that resisting that impulse is actually better. It is not. But many…
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The In-Between – Luke 10:21-24
A look at the gaps in the lectionary. This week: the gap between Proper 9C and Proper 10C. As a preacher, the lectionary is a godsend. And like a movie studio demanding the director cut essential material to shorten a film’s running time, many of the lectionary’s jumps feel like an unfortunate necessity. But I’ve…
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Essential Reading 2018
2018 may be remembered for the political things we focused on. But I think it’ll be remembered as the year we came to understand the limits of truth. Raw, emotional, conflicted. I used these words to describe 2016 and 2017. Now I’m starting to think it’s the language of the generation. But they aren’t our…
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Welcome to Bizarro World
There’s a certain kind of bizarro argument we put up with. An intentional deception which claims we’re all responsible for our demise. They’re wrong. I honestly couldn’t believe what I was reading. It was like buying a copy of Superman and finding the issue is really about Bizarro. Women should leave the dirty world of…
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We are abdicating our responsibility for maintaining a culture of truth
Our problem isn’t that we can’t tell when someone’s lying. It’s that we refuse to punish those who lie or protect those who tell the truth. Truth is a weighty topic. And yet it all feels so subjective. The elephant parable comes to mind. The one in which many people touch the different parts of…
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God is active with us
8. When we feed the multitudes, welcome the stranger, and heal the sick, we are also with Jesus. There are essentially two ways Christians speak about the material of their faith. We can speak literally or metaphorically. And for those outside the faith, it can be really hard to tell the difference between the two. Just…