There is a church downtown that doesn’t look like a church. They had a big lighted reader board that looked like a movie marquee.  Then they got a  bigger one, so now it looks like a casino.

There’s a church of the same denomination in my neighborhood. Can you believe it? They have  lighted message board that reads “Like us on Facebook?” No kidding.

I wonder if the Lord has a Facebook page? I would love to be in touch with him there. You know, prayer requests, opportunities for service, upcoming weather, incoming missiles.

Mater Dolorosa

The President and Vice-President recently spoke out in opposition to abortion and in support of a march in D.C.

Here’s the thing: No one thinks abortion is a good thing.  It means that something, any number of things, went terribly, terribly wrong. It does not mean that women are selfish sluts or bad mothers. It might even mean that they wanted that baby very much but had to make a heart-breaking decision or were coerced to do so by their families or the man who impregnated them. 

Men can single-handedly wipe out abortion in exactly 280 days. Do not impregnate.  How hard is that? Men should have just one thing to say on this topic, whether they are the president, vice-president, or fathers, and they should say it to each other, loud and clear:  “Do not impregnate!” How hard is that? 

How do we determine whether we — here, I am referring to my two readers who are white — are racists.

I can’t deny it. I notice the beautiful Somali family who often walks their children to school on my street.  And I notice it on the rare occasions when I look out from my place in the choir at the front of church and spot a family of color in the congregation.  And if I were asked to describe a person I saw doing something naughty, I could probably tell you two things  for sure– gender and color.

I would like to have more friends of color, but how do I go about it in this whitebread community?

I do not one of those think we bear guilt for what people of our race did hundreds of years ago or for the patriarchy of our forefathers.  We surely do not condone these things and we speak out against them, but we cannot claim responsibility for things that happened before we were born.

But I know for sure who among my acquaintances are racists, and this does not mean that they dragged a black man behind their pickup truck or threw a fit when their daughters went out with men of color.

It’s often very subtle and we need to examine ourselves.

Does it break your heart when the President of the United States of America is never subtle and couldn’t examine himself if his country depended on it.

I hope so.

You knew that before you asked the question.  Wait and see.

Think of all the important questions that one might ask.  Never is that response appropriate.

Will you marry me?

Do I have cancer?

Did you bring protection?

Does my insurance cover that?

Is that gun loaded?

You know, I could vote for Oprah. For a number of reasons. She’s like a stable genius. And between now and then, I bet she would devote her spare time to studying the constitution, learning about the balance of powers and the rule of law. She already speaks in complete sentences, reads books, and knows lots of words.