Archives for October 2020

When I was a teenager growing up in the south, adults often warned us about the satanic dangers lurking around us. Everything was suspect. Heavy metal music. Role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons. Dolls and action figures. Even Saturday morning cartoons like Thundercats, He-man, and The Smurfs were considered demonic. A satanic panic took over the culture. People we...

A couple nights ago I told my littlest daughter that no spider in a nightmare can ever physically hurt her. I told her so as she was climbing into bed because at that moment she was not fearful of any real and present spider but of one that might again make its shadowy way into her unconscious dream perception. She grinned and was ready to sleep, newly emboldened. She unde...

Recently, I tried for a moment to imagine whom 2020 would be if it were a person. I couldn’t settle on one, though. Consciously avoiding being too political, I figured 2020 might be a mix of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tom Buchanan, Shakespeare’s Iago, the Thomas brothers’ Predator, and probably the Zodiac Killer. You know, insecurity and power, cruel deception, and viol...

When asked what is the greatest commandment the Lord answered that it is to love God with everything you are and to love your neighbor as you love yourself (cf., Mark 12:28-31). The infinite Creator and Sustainer of the universe provides for us one word to define how we ought to act, feel, and think toward God and man. Love. ...