I was sitting here thinking of my father a few minutes ago when the thoughts made me smile. Dad is a hard man, fiercely to the right of almost everybody in the church (I remember him taking Ira Rice Jr. to task for being too loose on a couple of points!), but he lives what [...]
[NOTE: this is a very abbreviated version of a one hour talk I give; most often to teens or young adults. Use, abuse, edit, or toss as you like. As with everything I do, this isn't copyrighted and you don't have to credit me. Or blame me. Sorry there isn't room to do all the [...]
Continuing from the last post… The Tale of the Tub was a broadside against those who did what they wanted to do and then went to the Scripture to find justification for it. Such twisting of scripture is done equally by the religious right and the religious left. This is a form of scholasticism — [...]
Jonathan Swift is best known for Gulliver’s Travels but the old English satirist had another masterpiece which is all but unknown today (outside of English departments where dead European white guys are still studied) entitled “A Tale of a Tub.” It is a difficult work with many layers addressing many of Swift’s concerns about religion [...]
Two of the best books I read last year were “Intellectual Morons: how ideology makes smart people fall for stupid ideas” by Daniel J. Flynn and “Hoodwinked: how intellectual hucksters have hijacked American culture” by Jack Cashill. The books detail how people like Ward Churchill can get away with stealing, lying, teaching fantasy as truth, [...]
I’m sitting in my office, looking out on yet another dark and rainy day in the metro Detroit area. It reminds me of so many days back in Scotland, twenty years ago. Yes, it has been twenty years now since I returned from Scotland to live in the US. I left a lot of friends [...]
We are back from the cruise. Ninety of us worshipped together, prayed and laughed with each other. It was good. And then I met Eva. Eva was one of the two young women who were our guides on Jamaica. As the day wore on I saw her rubbing her temples and muttering about having a [...]
[Due to my being out of email range from this Friday, the 6th, through the 12th I am taking a break from the current discussion. I will not be able to add your comments during that time, either. I am sure you will live well, dance, and enjoy your life even without frequent updates!] I [...]
I don’t care much for long posts so I must direct those who want a lot more details on this to our church website (www.rochestercoc.org). You can click on the streaming audio link on the left side of the website and hear the sermon I delivered yesterday that sketched out our direction and the reason [...]