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Superman and Violence
Big title, short post. All this Superman talk reminds me of the Doomsday storyline from way back in which Superman is killed. As a strange attempt at selling books (which it certainly did), it revealed the problem of violence in comics, particularly for Superman. In Doomsday, Superman met an evil he could not prevent and…
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Scapegoats, Villains, and American Fear
Terror In the wake of the bombings in Boston and the pursuit of the suspects, I’ve been trying to find a way to respond. Something that wasn’t part of the noise. Something that was honest to my experience of needing to watch, but knowing that the coverage would be far too speculative. Studies of the…
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The excuse of fear: “nonlethal” force and the powerful
In the week between when the world discovered Sgt. Shamar Thomas, some dudes went crazy. The viral video of an Iraqi veteran chastising the New York police department for arming up against their own civilians as if it were a war zone was a wake-up call to the sleeping public. These public protesters aren’t impudent…
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No Limits
a Sermon for Proper 19A Text: Matthew 18:21-35 Where we’ve been Ten years ago today, about this time, 4 hijacked airplanes were used as projectile missiles to cause dramatic and traumatic devastation. Three of them reached their targets and one was sent into the countryside. Many, including those aiding the victims of violence, died. Nearly…
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No Retaliation
My sermon for Proper 7A (yesterday) is up here. It deals with our culture of retaliation and Jesus’s encouragement to see another alternative; an alternative that we have trouble seeing because we are so committed to violence and retaliation. I thought it was a little spicy. What do you think?