“You’re all sinners! You are an abomination to God!!” These words were angrily spit at the thousands of people peacefully passing through the entrance to the Hill Cumorah Pageant’s last showing for 2013—an event which was attended by this writer and his wife. Friends of ours participated in the Pageant this year. They played various…
“You’re a human being, not a human doing!” Perhaps you’ve heard, or read that somewhere? I have. It’s clever, and correct—albeit somewhat cliche. A quick search of the web will confirm its ubiquitous usage.1 The reason for such widespread repeating? We tend to focus on the things we do, more than the things we are….
This was originally posted April 19th, 2010. It could easily have been posted in 2013, so I am re-posting it today. It continues the theme of how we interact, how we relate. Speaking of which … off to the next visit! :) I just need to get something off my chest. I’ve been thinking about…
Our recent visit to Ohio for some big family events has given us the opportunity for some great visiting time with relatives and friends we haven’t seen for a long while—some a very long while! Those visits often include shared meals, certainly include sharing stories, and have also included some great conversations about the things…
It’s hard to appreciate independence as an American in the 21st century. We are still benefitting today—July 4th, 2013—from the courage and bravery of a people whose chosen leaders pledged their “lives, [their] fortunes, and [their] sacred honor” two hundred and thirty-seven years ago. Well over two centuries of time has passed since that particular…
Not that I have any real force behind this open letter to every person on the planet, but it’s what’s on my heart today. For so long, those who claim to know and live for God have been such a harmful representation of him (myself included) that many people wrongly dismiss their rightful place as…
Just about a week ago, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) was in the news for two rulings in regards to same-sex marriages. One was specific to California (Proposition 8), and I won’t address that here, but the first was regarding a case challenging the constitutionality of section three (§3) of the Defense…
Imagine with me, please, that we are all free. There’s nothing to prove—ever. I don’t have to defend my spoken thoughts to you, nor those I neglected to speak, though you wished I had. You don’t have to explain yourself to me, either. And both of us are able to freely express what we think…
Though most people nowadays can conceive of no better poster child for agnosticism (or, at the very least, deism), Jefferson himself may have had a bone to pick with such people. In a letter to his nephew, on the topic of forming his own views on religion (a topic which he labeled “important”), Thomas Jefferson…
I’m different. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. I know we’re all unique. (And since unique means ‘one of a kind’, well then, how can there be a ‘different’—since there is no ‘normal’, nor ‘standard’?) But I’m really different. It’s quite nearly every single thing that could possible be ‘different’. Allow me…