Freedom AND Safety
I believe we should choose freedom and safety and not be willing to sacrifice one for the other.
Category: The Church State Guy
I started “The Church State Guy” because I wanted a forum to talk about ways in which I see religion basically doing bad PR for itself. The relationship between religious institutions and society are complex and have long, thorny roots. Because of that, it takes a special skill to navigate the line between things like religious public advocacy and proselytism (for example). How can people of faith voice their concerns regarding issues of life and death without seeking to legislate morality, or suggesting that only those of faith are moral. These are issues that are regularly covered in the news. Some of the most prominent religion blogs out there now discuss these issues at length. HuffPo’s Religion Blog, Religion News Service, and Patheos each have a certain perspective and discuss these kinds of issues as well. The unique perspective I attempt to bring is in discussing the historic roots of these issues, being a person of faith with a theological education, and interacting with my very diverse family and friends who provoke a lot of discussion all by themselves.
Worshipping the god of Redemptive Violence
The belief that violence ”saves” is so successful because it doesn’t seem to be mythic in the least. Violence simply appears to be the nature of things. It’s what works. It seems inevitable, the last and, often, the first resort in conflicts. If a god is what you turn to when all else fails, violence certainly functions as a god. ~ Walter Wink, Professor of Biblical Interpretation at Auburn University
Fear Not for Your Tax Exempt Status is With You!
What does it take to get me and my Church-State Guy pen to come out and play again? Well… making gay-marriage legal in all 50 states with one ruling pretty much does it. There’s a lot that has been said everywhere about the ruling itself. But the thing that lingers over a lot of religious… Read more Fear Not for Your Tax Exempt Status is With You!
I Fear for Nuance
Don’t call Ferguson useless vandalism and violence and then argue that the Boston Tea Party was a revolutionary act of bravery — sean tee (@seantrcy) November 25, 2014 We live in an age of knee-jerk defensiveness. Our words on screen or in person automatically get parceled and packaged into some imaginary camp called far left… Read more I Fear for Nuance
No Women Were Objectified While Making this Plugin
I have way too many things to fit inside of this little post, so here’s a quick summary of what I want to say: I “adopted” some plugins from the WordPress Repo One is called ImageLens and I really like the approach I took with it But in researching tools for it, I came across… Read more No Women Were Objectified While Making this Plugin
Old Testament Economics and U.S. Student Debt
Some really smart and compassionate people organized a huge non-profit endeavor, raised millions of dollars, then recently got an appointment with the Vice President of Sallie Mae’s Portfolio Management; THE guy who does the buying and selling of student loans for Sallie Mae. Based on a recent article, the conversation probably went about like this:… Read more Old Testament Economics and U.S. Student Debt
Why Church is Hard
I wrote this today as an exercise. I’ve had a lot of mixed feelings about “church” for quite a while and I needed to see if I could express the central issues quickly without overthinking it. So I used this great tool called 750words.com. Click the link at the bottom to go to a report… Read more Why Church is Hard
I Could Easily Be George Zimmerman
… and I should never, never forget that. Earlier today, I saw my Facebook feed light up with all kinds of news stories about George Zimmerman. He’s been caught in a situation with a gun again. I put up a news article about George Zimmerman, and I bemoaned the fact that he’s in trouble with… Read more I Could Easily Be George Zimmerman
It’s Vandalism, not blasphemy
LINK: After vandalism at Lincoln Memorial, cleaning and questions Much remains unanswered as cleaners work to return the statue to its untarnished splendor. It really is horrible that someone felt it was important, or funny, or significant at all to just splash paint on the Lincoln memorial. I believe graffiti can be a legitimate form… Read more It’s Vandalism, not blasphemy
Safe Working Conditions are a Pro-Life Issue
Religious groups throughout the U.S. are signing the “Investor Statement on Bangledesh,” a statement intended for the likes of Wal-Mart and GAP to sign — but they won’t. In the wake of the Bangladesh factory fire, people of faith do not want their consciences tainted by the clothes they wear. They do not want clothing… Read more Safe Working Conditions are a Pro-Life Issue