Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

violence

  • When David was creeping on the roof, looking in windows like a perv, he saw this woman, naked, bathing. And in true Biblical form we’ll say that “lust was in his heart”. Which just sounds like the euphemistic excusing “boys will be boys” of Biblical interpretation. It makes David seem so innocent to his urges:…

  • Scholars speak of the book, Song of Songs as love poetry to GOD. That it takes its form from the romantic poetry genre and applies it to love of GOD. It possesses a certain sensuality that is scandalous, if for no other reason than it talks about breasts and sex in ways that would make…

  • Why the lion?

    The reason we can condemn an asshole who goes halfway around the world to kill a lion is because it’s a safe thing to condemn. It is safe to say animal cruelty is bad. It is safe to say what he did doesn’t really count as hunting. It is safe to say rich people can get…

  • To love as Jesus says and does Easter 6B  |  John 15:9-17   All You Need is Love? We are once again in John 15, which is part of this book’s accounting for Jesus’s final teaching at the last supper. Whereas Mark, Matthew, and Luke have Jesus get right down to the point, giving them…

  • After listening to Tony Jones speak about his new book, Did God Kill Jesus on Homebrewed Christianity, I found myself being pushed into new territory in my faith. Partly because I probably am one of those progressive Christians who wants to sanitize the faith and take the blood out of it. I think there’s more…

  • The body of Michael Brown lay in the street for over four hours. Nearly every conversation I have had or story I’ve consumed about Michael Brown has focused on the circumstances or the politics surrounding his death. We have focused on what led up to the shooting, about the character, the police, the press, the…