Reading Time: 6 minutes To be human is to be a work in progress. Human beings grow, change, and fail. That’s why we need compassion and forgiveness. We ought to give people a break, show some patience, and stop scolding one another. No one is perfect. This goes for other people and ourselves. But we remain strangely wedded to […]
forgiveness
Posted inPsychology
Should I be mad at my son? Anger and forgiveness after suicide
Reading Time: 5 minutes This entire column, not just this entry, contains a content warning. I will be writing about suicide, depression, post-traumatic stress, and other serious topics. If you are having suicidal thoughts, please reach out to someone you trust, establish care with a therapist, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (800-273-8255), or go to your nearest emergency […]
Posted inFilm/TV
Cobra Kai is the best show on television
Reading Time: 4 minutes The Karate Kid movies weren’t exactly my idea of a good time, but Cobra Kai? Oh, that’s the jam in my jelly.
Posted inGeneral
How Controlling People Try to Force Forgiveness
Reading Time: 6 minutes That’s what I saw in that one video that I wish I could find again. In the context of apologizing, an influencer got up on stage and began talking about her own apparent requirements for granting forgiveness. She told her audience that if someone comes to her admitting their mistake and owning up to it, then she forgives them. Ta-da! Very clearly, she was ordering her audience to do the same for her.
Posted inReligion
The Birth of Jesus: Anything But Heartwarming
Reading Time: 7 minutes Hi and welcome back! It’s very nearly Christmas, that special, magical time of year when Christians celebrate the arrival on Earth of their god’s future human sacrifice. Oh wait. I mean, the birth of their savior. As you might guess, I don’t consider this myth nearly as admirable as the vast majority of Christians do. Today, […]
Posted inLGBTQ, Religion
Dueling Decals Reveal Why Forgiveness Fails.
Reading Time: 7 minutes If you hang out on Twitter, you might have seen a peculiar decal making the rounds: a stylized rainbow man embracing a stylized man printed with the Confederate flag. Beneath the figures is the slogan “FORGIVENESS 2016.” Variants of the figures (some quite inventive) and comments on them have been making the rounds extensively, mostly in a mocking way. This mockery is well-deserved, because it’s not time for forgiveness yet.
Posted inReligion
The Ashley Madison Hack Was a Factor in a Seminary Professor’s Suicide.
Reading Time: 6 minutes Last month, a Professor of Communications at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary took his own life. A few days ago, his family revealed the shocking news that in his suicide note, John Gibson had noted that his name was on the Ashley Madison client list that had been released by “hacktivists” only six days earlier. Depressed and wracked with fear and remorse, he took his life rather than face his “loving” tribe once the news got out. John Gibson paid the ultimate price for his culture’s impossible demands and misplaced priorities.
Posted inReligion
David Helm Knows There’s a Path to Redemption, Because He Drove A Race Car On It.
Reading Time: 8 minutes Meet 35-year-old David Helm, an Air Force guy who just got sentenced to 25 years in prison after his court martial trial for various charges: desertion, rape and assault of a child, and indecent filming and subsequent broadcast of the images taken of a woman without her consent.
Posted inReligion
Let the Spinning Commence for Josh Duggar.
Reading Time: 7 minutes Yesterday I noted that Josh Duggar, whose name has been linked to the Ashley Madison customer database leak, had not responded to any allegations against him. Well, today he has. It’s a doozy of a story all by itself.
Posted inReligion
Josh Duggar: Excusing the Inexcusable.
Reading Time: 12 minutes The scandal around Josh Duggar has had a few days to ferment. News sites that previously hadn’t even breathed a word about the scandal are now tiptoeing into the waters with super-carefully-worded pieces about what he did, now that it’s painfully obvious that Christians as a group are talking about it. Mainly, unfortunately, they’re largely defending it.