Sometime during the night of July 18-19, in what we now know as the Year of Our Lord 64, probably in one of the shops that lined the road between the Caelian and Palentine Hills, a fire broke out. The Circus Maximus, the Great Roman sports stadium, dominated the neighborhood of little wooden shops and large wooden apartment … Continue reading How Populism Ends: The Fire of Rome, Nero and Conspiracy Theories
Christianity
This Meddlesome Priest: The Archbishop Goes to Congress
In a fit of royal rage, Henry uttered the words that would change the history of both Church and Crown in England. We are not sure exactly what they were, but the traditional version is: “Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?”
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The Good Friday Feeling
It’s the Good Friday feeling. When your marriage comes undone. When your beloved partner lies rotting with cancer. When your company implodes. When your brave son or daughter is blown apart in a senseless war or splattered on a windshield by a drunken driver. It’s what the abandoning and abandoned disciples felt that day, back there in Jerusalem, looking up at a broken, tortured and dead body, hanging on a tree trunk, the dirt below reddened with blood.
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Apostates and Heretics-A Meditation for Lent, Day 28
Without apostasy, Christianity would never have had a St. Paul, who was an apostate Jew. Without heresy, Christianity never would have had a Martin Luther, a John Calvin or a Michael Servetus.
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Doubt Everything. A Meditation for Lent, Day 3.
Doubt is good, even if some well-meaning priest doesn’t think so, for it is only doubt which allows us to see the truth. Doubt is the seed of faith and brings us, kicking and screaming, to the foundations of reality.
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Lent, Day 2: The Deliciousness of Sin
We love sin, we love how it tastes, how it shines, how it smells, how it makes us feel.. But we hate it when somebody sins against us. So, unless we want this whole offend-offense business to find the secret of eternal life and screw up the entire future of our hearts and minds—our very souls—we have to forgive those miserable offenders.
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Dust and the Forty Days of Feeling Bad
The deconstructive liturgy of Ash Wednesday is an anti-Palm Sunday rite: there is no triumph here, just a one sentence reminder that the people who want Jesus to free them don’t really want it badly enough not to betray him, literally or figuratively. That would be us.
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Why I am giving up Donald Trump for Lent
I’m tuning out, dropping out, and focusing back in on those things that matter: mindfulness, spiritual awareness, balance, hopefulness, peace and joy and especially, justice. This blog began as a personal account of my own struggle to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly (Micah 6:8) in the public square. I have been doing a terrible job at that of late. And I’m counting on Lent to help me get my own spiritual journey back on track.
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The Constantine Moment
Whether or not Trump wins in next week’s election, they have irreparably compromised Christianity itself and the contempt with which my friend and millions of other people feel for the Church will grow.
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The Supreme Court and the Westboro Baptists: The Right to Be Wrong
Today's United States Supreme Court 8-1 ruling that members of the Westboro Kansas Church have a constitutional right to their repugnant protests of military funerals is offensive to most people who have any sense of decency--but that does not mean that the Supreme Court is wrong. In fact, in its defense of the cult's right … Continue reading The Supreme Court and the Westboro Baptists: The Right to Be Wrong
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