Video killed the radio star, don’t let it victimize your relationships
In September of 1979 the British new wave/synth-pop group The Buggles released the single Video Killed the Radio Star; nearly two years later, the song would become a self-fulfilling prophecy when the single became the first-ever video to be shown on MTV airing one minute after midnight on August 1, 1981. The musical landscape was […]
A Journey to Eastern Christianity
The following is a talk which my departed grandmother invited me to give for her Sunday School class at First United Methodist Shreveport and which, due to some confusion, was given in its entirety to the wrong class. Because of that, I have never shared it until now. The talk zones in on Fr. Seraphim […]
Faith in Times of Pandemic
Pandemics have stressed the fabric of human social structures throughout the course of history. Times of rampant sickness with their associated physical, mental, social, and spiritual tolls strip away the veneer of human societies to show us at our most vulnerable and most visceral. Sometimes people like what they see in those moments of stark […]
Meeting God with anger during our long Lent
I stand in front of the priest, waiting. Grinding a thumb into a container full of black dust, she reaches up and makes two marks on my head, one down, the other over. “Remember you are dust,” she says, “and to dust you shall return.” She squats slightly, reaching her hand out to my young […]
Republicans can’t be Christian
Republicans can’t be Christians I am going to say something controversial, “Republicans can’t be Christians.” To the vast majority of Christians, I just said something unthinkable, especially if one is of the evangelical stripe of Christianity. I can feel the anger swelling up in some readers as they instantly find this notion absolutely ridiculous. […]
From Confusion to Communion
“When the Most High came down and confused the tongues, He divided the nations. But when He distributed the tongues of fire He called all to unity. Therefore with one voice we glorify the All Holy Spirit.” Tribalism is deeply embedded in human DNA. I have read before of studies showing that when people are […]
Never too Old to be too Young
I grew up in a small country Southern Baptist Church in rural California. When my family moved there our family of six doubled the size of the church. But, the church did grow over the years. As a Teenager When I was in high school, our youth group was “thriving”- there were probably 8-12 of […]
The Teacher is a true master who can use even the strangest of tools
My faith is Orthodox Christianity. The life that led me to it was hardly orthodox (small o), nor was it anything special. Perhaps even less so is the world I have lived through since I came onto the Path. The Teacher is a true master who can use even the strangest of tools. Therefore I […]
In praise of a naked Christ
In a recent online exchange, I posted a photo of an icon that showed the Virgin Mary with a breast partially uncovered. While some of the discussion centered around the ever-weary topic of modesty, another side discussion was specifically about portraying nudity in devotional art. “I do not believe that we should see Christ, the […]
This is my Creed: Christ with me
On the Louisiana College campus, there’s a carillon at the top of one of the buildings that plays awful bell arrangements of popular traditional hymns at certain times during the day. When I was a student there, I would go back and forth between loving and hating it, but one day as it played “All […]