Our lives are filled with unconscious lasts -- the last time we do this, the last time we do that. It’s rare that we encounter a last knowingly,...
Distinctives
Growing up, there were a lot of Bibles in our house. All were corrupt translations in one way or another, my father (on the teaching and authority...
Villain
Who is the villain in the story of Adam and Eve? Christianity and Judaism will have you believe it's the serpent, but I think a close reading...
Barron’s Response
On Bishop Robert Barron's minstry's YouTube channel -- Word on Fire -- he had a conversation with staff member Brandon Vogt after Barron's...
Miracles and Belief
A priest in a local parish recently included in his homily a quote that appears to be a variant of something Thomas Aquinas said. The priest phrased...
Old Friend
M and I were the most unlikely of friends. In many ways, we were as opposite as anyone could imagine. He was raised by his grandparents in the...
God of the Gaps, Again
The pastor of K's parish tweeted a link to "Has quantum physics smashed the Enlightenment deception?" by John Moran with the comment, "Reality is...
Moments
Papa's existence when the meds that keep him calm and sedated changes from moment to moment: There are lucid moments when he is just like the Papa...
The Week Ends
We go from week to week without much thought most of the time. Monday comes, and we drag ourselves out of the bed and into work. Sometimes we're...
The Inevitable Move
A few days ago, Fr. Mike, on day 50 of his Bible in a Year podcast read Exodus 37 and 38 as well as Leviticus 26. The passages in Exodus all had to...
Day 47: Quartets and Cars
Quartets This afternoon, while cleaning up the kitchen, putting away groceries, and just generally puttering around the house, I discovered a BBC...
Sifting Through the Layers
I spent the better part of today going through pictures, digital and print, looking for images of Nana to use during Saturday's memorial. I scanned...
Strands
I swore I hated that old cat. Looking back on it, I really don't know what she did to prompt such a response, but I think I was just being ornery....
Larry
The smoke from my Saturday-evening cigar blurs the view of his picture that hangs over the fireplace in our basement, and I look down at the wad of...
Slouching Towards Bethlehem
I was recently asked to view this TED talk and provide some feedback.
Goodbye, Nelia
“Mr. Scott, today is my last day.” Nelia looked at me matter-of-factly when she said it one Friday morning, but the news was anything but...
The Visit
“J, are you here?†She somehow knocks at the door, opens the door and enters the house, and says this all at the same time. It took me a long time to grow accustomed to this style of entering a friend’s house, but she’s lived in Orawa all her life, and it comes naturally to her.
Rest in Peace, Dziadek
When I first met him, I was still learning Polish, and the intricacies of the cultural formal/informal divide largely escaped me. I knew kids...
From Bricks to Books: A Literacy Memoir
In some sense, my love of reading and writing was inevitable. Given my parents' background and dreams for my future, given the religious environment...
Putting the “Scat” back into “Eschatology”
There are movies out there that are so awful that you just have to recommend them to your friends. Like the old Saturday Night Live sketch in which Chris Farley has everyone trying the rancid milk and rubbing his clammy belly, there are some evils that we simply must share to appreciate.
Three Days Old
Covered in cheese, she came into the world in a mix of blood, water, and mystery. That is to say, she is elemental, and sublime.
Hell
Kinga and I went to Auschwitz-Birkenau today. It’s only now that I can appreciate the scale of the Holocaust. Reading Hitler’s Willing Executioners,...
The Churches of God–A Sociological Examination
Herbert W. Armstrong Since the doctrinal changes in the Worldwide Church of God (WCG hereafter) in the 1980s and 1990s and its subsequent division...
The Sound and the Flurry
The Cultic Revelations of Malachi's Message Gerald Flurry When the Worldwide Church of God began reevaluating doctrines, many people within the...