“Jesus is Lord” is going to make my life quite dysfunctional in relationship to a good deal of American practice.

from Stanley hauerwas in sunday asylum

Though my parents raised me on a steady diet of nature and science shows, music and artistic events, camping and enjoyment of the outdoors and sports, I lacked any significant training in the deeper things of humanity: theology, philosophy, and psychology. I wasn’t trained in how to think well or made aware that I should think well.

from why i still believe by mary jo sharp

Just read the quotation above this morning and it got me to thinking (about thinking) and then to wondering:

Hopped online to look for artwork featuring the “Blessed are the peacemakers …” verse from Matthew 5:9 in the Bible. Given all that I’ve been reading and listening to over the past few years, I really thought I’d heard and seen everything in terms of Empire America co-opting Jesus and his gospel, but I honestly could only stare with blank eyes at the images that came up on my computer screen.

Wisdom for living from Isaiah, Jesus, and John Denver

The wolf shall live with the lamb,
    the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
    and a little child shall lead them.

Isaiah 11:6 (NRSV)

Is God a football fan?

Said, “Hey little boy you can’t go where the others go
‘Cause you don’t look like they do.”

Said, “Hey old man how can you stand
To think that way?
Did you really think about it
Before you made the rules?”

He said, “Son
That’s just the way it is
Some things will never change
That’s just the way it is.”

Ah, but don’t you believe them.

from “the way it is” by bruce hornsby and the range

“Just Because” by Maggie Kudrick

A poem for the 2020 MLK Day Writing Awards

Just because I am a girl

Tried several times to think of something to say about this bumper sticker I saw on Sunday morning, but just couldn’t come up with anything, so I’ll leave you to your own musings:

Short Fiction Based in Reality

Dominique knew she would always remember the uncanny timing of a trio of little “signposts” during her first Christmas season in the United States as a foreign exchange student.

First, after attending a Sunday worship service a few days before Christmas, Dominique followed the Jensens—her host family—to the church parking lot, where she saw an automobile sporting a colorful bumper sticker that read: