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And this week’s subject is humility. I had some fun with this one, if you define “fun” as working through labyrinthine connotations of a word most people recognize but few have given a lot of thought to. As with “faith” a couple weeks back, I took some time to look up […] I have been accused of saying nothing new. It happened awhile back with one of my essays, where someone commented that it was old news and was rather disappointed by it. It was a valid accusation: I wasn’t saying anything new, and I knew it. And I kinda felt like I […] Recently I was reading a book, a memoir, written by a woman who had been raised conservative Christian and who is now (I think it’s fair to guess) a theist without being set on the particulars. She is highly educated, with a Ph.D, and like many people with higher education, she puts a […] It occured to me that when Christians talk about sin and forgiveness and atonement and so on, that we immediately get hammered for spreading fear and false guilt. But when Christians start talking about forgiveness and salvation and new life and spotless souls, we immediately get nailed for eliminating personal responsibility. We can’t […] A lot of you are not going to agree with this. I’m not asking you to. I just had to get some thoughts out. They’re about government, and Christianity, and the origins of my beloved nation. Is the United States really all that special to God? More special than other nations? […] So here’s a question for y’all: why do we have rules? This is an especially fun question for Christians, seeing as we go on quite eloquently about how our salvation makes us free, and how we are no longer Under The Law. If I were the kind of person who liked […] So I’m going to talk politics. (Oh, boy, if that isn’t comments-bait, I don’t know what is.) I’m going to talk politics in a way that’s been smoldering along in the back of my head for years. This is not borne out of the current political climate. I was thinking this […] One of my favorite things on television right now is Doctor Who, a very old, very weird, very British sci fi about an alien who goes traveling through time and space and saves the day through sheer ingenuity. Just recently, there was an episode that gave me pause about the nature of belief. […] We like justice. We like rules. We like to draw lines between things. One place on TVTropes.org that I like to tool around in is the Morality section, especially those parts pertaining to heroes and villains. It’s got all kinds of classifications. Hero, antihero, villain, antivillain, chaotic good, lawful evil, true […] You know, of all the Christian holidays, Palm Sunday strikes me as being a bit weird. I mean, yes, I know it’s the start of Holy Week, and the beginning of the end of Jesus’ pre-death ministry, but I don’t quite get why churches celebrate it with such enthusiasm. Yes, Jesus was riding […] |
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