At many points in its colored history, the church’s unity and its holiness have appeared to come into conflict. On one side, people argue, “The only way we can call ourselves holy, is by staying united. Unity is holiness.”
Joy. Sadness. Anger. Disgust. Fear. These emotions are the key figures in Disney’s film, Inside Out. Last week, I watched the movie and enjoyed the interplay between the different emotions as characters inside Riley’s head. The movie shows how the different emotions operate and communicate inside of her, and how each of her memories are categorized by a particular emotion. As the simplicity and happiness of childhood gets overpowered by pain and hardship as Riley...
I became what some might call a Calvinist my junior year in High school. Going to a Dutch Reformed private school where I took a “Reformed Perspectives” class certainly aided this process. I had resisted of course. Coming from a Non-denominational Bible church, I had a gut reaction against such notions of predestination and all that depravity and sovereignty talk. However, the day came when my heart was changed and I suddenly found myself agreeing...
Have you ever thought twice about posting something on social media? Maybe it was a not-so-flattering picture of yourself, or maybe it was a random thought that would be best to keep to yourself. It’s interesting how much we try to shape and manage our image on social media. Recently, I’ve been reading, So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson. In this book, Ronson follows different stories of people who have been shamed through...
There are so many weddings in June. The arrival of the long-expected day and the celebration of unity contains, in part, a kind of poetic enchantment that lingers like the small flames of tea lights on the banquet tables. I taste, if just for an evening, a sip of greater beauty. Then I drive home, change laundry, and decide to wait on the dishes sitting in the sink shabbily dressed with the grotesque remains of dried...
Living in the UK for the last few years has given me a lot of time and space to observe the relationship between the church and politics in the Unites States with a bit of breathing room. I don’t have any profound thoughts to share just now, but I have been greatly encouraged reading the blogs of Russell Moore. Moore is the president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, which might...
Fullerton, CA The downtown area of this small Los Angeles suburb is home to over a dozen bars ranging from Mexican cantinas, Irish pubs and average American bars. Every Friday and Saturday evening, the streets swell with college students, business executives, the poor, the rich, and everyone in between. These bars are filled with these people who are much more interested in just crazy cocktails, boozy beverages, or getting hammered drunk. No, these people in these...
Growing up my hometown was, and still is, very conservative. Most everyone identifies as a Christian and a Republican, and to me those two terms were nearly synonymous. I was taught that America was the greatest nation on the planet and that we were in fact a Christian nation, to suggest anything different would be tantamount to suggesting that bacon was not delicious, and only crazy people and liberals would suggest something like that. The...
Have you seen this recent report about Natalie Portman and her Oscar trophy? Apparently, she thinks of it as something of an idol. Here are her thoughts: “I don’t know where it is,” Portman told The Hollywood Reporter when asked about where she keeps the Best Actress Oscar she won in 2010 for her role in “Black Swan.” “I think it’s in the safe or something. I don’t know. I haven’t seen it in a...
I’m realizing how narrow my vision is. I get so busy in seeing the urgent problems in front of me, that I forget to step back and see the bigger picture in what is actually happening. For example, since I work in Purchasing, and it’s currently nearing the fiscal-year end, we’ve had a high volume of orders come in the last couple of weeks. In the hecticness, it’s easy to get easily stressed and overwhelmed,...
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