Is Social Justice merely a Leftist Talking Point?

We've heard a lot about Social Justice lately. When used in a positive way, it is often connected with the move toward public recognition and equal treatment for historically disenfranchised peoples, including Blacks, Latinx, and Queer persons. When used in a negative way, Social Justice is portrayed as a kind of Leftist "trojan horse" to inflict good hearted people with guilt and shame and even debt because of historic policies and events they had nothing directly to do with. So, is "social justice" just some kind of newly devised left-wing catch phrase designed to browbeat Americans into policies which are at odds with the foundational principles of our civilization?

A Mediation on James Three

Words are a gift

An intimate gift

A holy gift

From the Word

Through the words

By our words 

We are invited 

To climb into someone else’s soul

To think their thoughts alongside them

To see through their eyes

To feel with their heart

To imagine their imaginations

And dream their dreams

Such is the sacred power of words. 

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And yet we live in World

Deaf to words

And blind to the Word

Because we spew words frantically and frenetically 

We fire them like bullets to slay our enemies

We use words to lure and trap and ensnare

We prostitute our words

We whore them out for power and praise

We use them to manipulate and infiltrate

And desecrate

The Temple of the Soul

Using our many many many words

For anything

For everything 

Except communication and communion

Our use of words is to the Gift of the Word

What pornography is to the Marriage Bed. 

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Words are a gift

Words are a weapon

Words are a tool

Words are a lure

Words can be signposts 

Pointing to the creative Word of Love and Light

Or they can be directions

Leading us to the depths of Hell

So take care how you use them. 

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A poem on the occasion 

Of my 500th post to this blog

May my words be part of the solution

And not part of the problem

A Provocation on Irony and Cynicism

Novelist David Foster Wallace once observed: “Few artists dare to try to talk about ways of working toward redeeming what’s wrong, because they’ll look sentimental and naive to all the weary ironists. Irony’s gone from liberating to enslaving. There’s some great essay somewhere that has a line about irony being the song of the prisoner who’s come to love his cage.” From newscaster comedians to blockbuster movies to social media, we are drenched in irony and sarcasm and cynicism that pretends to complain about the way things are. But secretly many don’t want to change anything about it. They get too much profit and popularity from the dysfunctional and destructive system we live in. Irony has become the song of the caged bird who is secretly scared to death of leaving its cage. Irony is merely ersatz resistance: It makes us feel like we are rejecting the system and rebelling against injustice, when in fact constant irony imprisons our imaginations to “what is possible” and adjusts our behavior to the “the way things are”. Using irony, we complain as we obey. But we still obey nonetheless. And when irony and cynicism become orthodoxy, then sincerity and hope become subversion of what is “realistic”. So let’s really become realists and demand the impossible with sincerity and hope. 

Why I think #deletefacebook is a scam

I think #deletefacebook is a scam. A lot of the motivation and funding and systematized "outrage" for the delete facebook movement in the wake of Facebook's data “breaches” apparently comes from other social media companies who are trying to gain market share, ad traffic, and profit from Facebook users SO THEY CAN DO THE EXACT SAME THINGS WITH YOUR DATA that Facebook is doing. And of course traditional media companies are piling on because news stories about outrage gain market share and ad revenue for them too.

Actually, I do have an Agenda

When someone volunteers a viewpoint but says "I don't have an agenda", my brain automatically hits the ignore button. It's like a saleswoman saying she's not trying to sell you anything, or a young man who says he reads playboy just for the articles. It is at best an intellectually sloppy habit, and at worst an attempt to disguise one's attempt to influence others. Everyone has an agenda, and we are all trying to persuade others, or at least see how our agenda stacks up to other agendas. 

How to win at Facebook

The definitive guide to crushing opponents on social media

Are you tired of stupid people clogging up you newsfeed with their inane ideas, stupid memes, and useless tirades? Do you want to destroy their stupidity without getting locked into endless battles of point-counterpoint? Well, if you desire to quickly and decisively win arguments on Facebook, comments sections, and other social media, just follow these five tried-and-true steps:

This Advent perhaps we don't have to be rage monsters after all

Nietzsche once wrote "Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster". It seems that in our culture all sides tend to make those we disagree with into enemies. Then we make our enemies into monsters. And then we become monsters while fighting them, filled with constant rage and indignation and anxiety and blame. And soon, if we do not stop it, we will all reap the consequences of the monsters we have created and become.

On the use of Nazi in public discourse

Just a quick thought: Calling people Nazis does not make them want to stop acting like Nazis. You know who else was called "Nazi" and yet kept acting like Nazis? Actual Nazis.

Calling someone a Nazi-- like calling someone a Libtard, or a Fascist, or any other derogatory name-- identifies that person or group of people as totally encapsulated in a certain negative identity. It no longer treats them as human. It no longer provides any room for them to repent and change. It demeans them and imprisons them in a shameful label, and tells them that "you are just THIS and can never be any other". And most people, when labeled thus, live into the label. At some level, consciously or unconsciously, they say "OK, if you are going to demean me with that label, I will turn it into a badge of honor, and I will be more [insert label] than you can possibly imagine".

Beyond Sit Down and Shut Up: On the need for debate and explanation in civil discourse

It seems lately that a bunch of folks from all sides want other folks to accept certain ideas and events as "facts" without explanation or debate. Trump folks want everyone to shut up and accept the election without question or protest. Progressives want folks to accept diversity without question as a social fact, and delegitimize anyone who disagrees as either ignorant or prejudiced or both. Scientists want folks to accept evolution and global climate change as fact and ignore young earth creationists and climate change deniers. Inerrantists want folks to accept a certain read of the Bible as the way Reality works without being questioned by secularism or other religions.

Campus Minister Receives Evangelism Award [Sat 19-Apr 11am]

The Late +Donis Patterson, Bishop of Dallas

Our Campus Minister, Nate Bostian, has received the "Bishop Donis Patterson" award for excellence in Evangelistic preaching. Part of his reward for the award is to preach Saturday at 11am at the Stanton School for Ministry, located at St. Matthew's Cathedral near downtown Dallas.

So, to come hear Nate preach at the Eucharist for the Stanton Center, show up at St. Matthew's Cathedral at 11am, Saturday April 19th. Lunch will follow. To find the Cathedral, go here:
http://www.episcopalcathedral.org

When contacted for comment, Nate said "Huh? I won what? You're kidding, right?"

Theomedy: The jokes on you...

What could be more comedic than a smelly biped with a three pound brain trying to comprehend the purposes of God? Yet, that's what delights our Maker! So much that He became a smelly biped too. This blog explores this ironic fact with amusement, wit, and just a little bit of sarcasm.

Oh no they didn't...

We have some work to do! It seems that there is a website (and publishing company) out there called "Lighthouse Trails Research Project", who claims to "expose the truth about contemplative spirituality, the bridge that unites all religions andthus denies the gospel of Jesus Christ". They hate people and movements as diverse as contemplative prayer, the emergent church, the charismatic movement, Rick Warren, Roman Catholics, and basically anything that does not fit into the Biblicist fundamentalist [lack-of-a]mindset.

You can find them at: http://lighthousetrailsresearch.com/index.html

These people are mean, nasty, anti-everything-fundamentalists who lie and spread gossip about their self-proclaimed enemies in the name of Jesus Christ, without offering much more than a shred of evidence (if that much). For instance, did you know that Henry Nouwen was a homosexual, or that the Alpha Course is tied into the New Age? That's what they chaim. They make the guys over at Fide-O look like Oxford University. At least those guys can marshal a strong Scriptural argument.

Blogging etiquette and sloganeering

I believe that God made us to be filled with what some call "virtue", and what St. Paul calls "the fruit of the Spirit" (cf. Gal. 5:16-25) or even "the spiritual gifts" (cf. 1Co. ch. 12-13).  In all of these lists "Love" comes up as the first and foremost gift / fruit slice / virtue.  Love may look very different at different times, depending on the need.  Love sometimes comforts and consoles.  Love other times disciplines and rebukes.  The first and foremost thing that Love ALWAYS does is that it always puts the needs and the welfare of others before itself.  Second, it never lies about, curses, or belittles the person it loves, even if it may need to destroy a false idea or rebuke an evil action done by the beloved.

From this central virtue of love then flows various "academic virtues" which should be held to if one is going to participate in a debate on Christ's behalf, and if one does not use these virtues, they are not honoring Christ even if they utter true statements.