30 November 2014

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

The last 5 months have flown by as we anticipate the birth of our daughter in February. Never before has it seemed like a semester has gone by so quickly (not that I'm counting down the 15 days till Christmas break), or that work-week cycles ended & re-started so abruptly. It seems like having a long-range goal that's got a due date I cannot control or change has really put a lot of things in my life into perspective, or perhaps thrown them into sharper relief. As today marks the first Sunday of Advent, the season of year when Christians look back to Christ's birth and anticipate His return, I find myself pondering long-expected arrivals.

16 November 2014

Let's go to the movies...

Growing up, I loved to emulate my heroes from the movies. I'd imagine I was Davy Crockett, the Lone Ranger, or Luke Skywalker, fighting the bad guys and saving the day. And while that common experience probably says a lot of superficial things about my personality, I've noticed over the last few years that there are some very subtle ways in which I continue to emulate the movies I like. I'm not talking about things like waving my hand like Ben Kenobi when I want to persuade someone, or asking "Do you wanna build a snowman?" in a particular rhythm. No, these are far-more subtle, geeky ticks.

02 November 2014

Culture "Wars"

I've been bugged for a while now by the claims of evangelical Christians that America is a godless country that needs to return to its Christian origins. The dead horse of how awful culture has become - homosexual marriage, sex & violence in the entertainment industry, and of course the shame of substance abuse - is trotted out to be beaten to death on right-wing media outlets. And as a Christian, I agree, these are terrible depredations. But what of it? How are we as Christians to interact with the culture? A recently popular article on Facebook made the claim that the WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) slogan should have us passing another beer to a friend who was already drunk, but is that Biblical?