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What follows is a manually maintained archive of posts. It may lag behind. The above features for browsing by category, tag, or month are automated.

2022

July 2022
  • Story problems (7/2/2022). Once you start down the road of insisting that the only permissible stories are ones that align with your sense of how the world ought to be, you are on the road to ideological indoctrination.
  • Keeping the Declaration of Equality (7/4/2022). The most basic claim of the document that announced the birth of the USA as a nation is not the independence of this nation. It is the equality of all humans.
  • What Angela Rigas said at the school board meeting (7/20/2022). Michigan state rep candidate Angela Rigas swoops in and fires off a wild shot in the direction of the Caledonia Community Schools.
  • All those who practice it (Psalm 111) (7/20/2022). So we praise God for his works but tell ourselves that God doesn’t require us to do anything? What Bible are we reading, anyway?
  • JAMES ERNEST FOR CALEDONIA COMMUNITY SCHOOLS (7/21/2022). Announcing my candidacy for trustee on the board of education for Caledonia (MI) Community Schools. This is the long form of my platform. Please read and consider donating.
  • Acquiescence is complicity; love requires truthtelling (7/23/2022). Until we have agreed that we will speak truthfully and respectfully to and about each other, and that we will not choose as our representatives people who are unable to do either, we cannot hope for progress on anything else.
June 2022
May 2022
  • Roe v. Wade and everything else (5/4/2022). On praying the Lord’s Prayer in the context of current events.
  • On reading Psalm 93 (5/6/2022). The Lord is high and lifted up, but the scripture he has given us is given through our own mouths, and portrays our own plight, is right down here on the ground with us, in the mud and the blood and the gore.
  • Needing redemption (Psalm 137) (5/9/2022). A guest post by Jeff HansPeterson. The bright burning intensity of righteous anger may still fail to illuminate our desperate need for reconciliation.
March 2022
February 2022
January 2022

2021

December 2021
November 2021
  • The real choice (11/5/2021). The most basic choice you make is not between left and right, liberal and conservative. Something else is more basic.
October 2021
September 2021
  • The choice we make (Psalm 1) (9/1/2021). Psalm 1 is about two kinds of people: wicked and righteous. The point is not polarization but moral choice: we can, we inevitably do, decide which type to be, and we are being urged to be one way and not the other.
  • All day long (Romans 10:21) (9/11/2021). When we see disobedience and recalcitrance, we may wan to give voice to the divine words of coming judgment. But we are living in the long now during which God’s hands are held out to us in pleading. Maybe it is our job to imitate that posture.
August 2021
  • Hiatus (8/22/2021). My posts have been sparse lately. Work has been consuming, and sometimes one takes a break.
July 2021
  • Ecology as doxology (Psalm 104) (7/20/2021). To understand the structure of the cosmos and expound its workings in a way that acknowledges its creator is to be filled with wonder and overflow with praise.
  • Living between divine love and human iniquity (Psalm 36) (7/8/2021). Abiding in God’s love does not make us pious dopes who think that everything is always wonderful. It enables us to see evil clearly, call it what it is, and understand that in the end it is powerless before the power of Love.
  • The President and the Fourth (7/5/2021). July 4 is not about celebrating the president, but it’s good to have a president who understands and supports the values that July 4 celebrates.
  • On observing July 4 as an American Christian (7/4/2021). When the Fourth of July falls on a Sunday, Christians need to be careful about how they relate patriotism and worship.
  • Defining human existence (Psalm 139) (7/1/2021). To be is to be known by God. God’s omniscience is knowledge not only of everything but of everyone. My existence resides in the fact that God knows me. My identity is this: I am who God knows that I am.
June 2021
May 2021
April 2021
March 2021
February 2021
January 2021

2020

December 2020
November 2020
October 2020
September 2020
August 2020
July 2020
June 2020
May 2020
March 2020

2019

  • The abortion distortion in current US politics (6/29/2019). Why abortion is not analogous to slavery as a blight on US history, and is not a valid excuse for supporting a grossly unfit president.
  • Read Timothy Snyder; skip Ben Sasse (5/24/2019). Snyder’s version of stability encourages you to face facts and effect positive change. Sasse’s leads to denial, complacency, and complicity.
  • The profanity presidency (5/19/2019). The ugliness is not an embarrassing blot on the Trumpist movement. It is its essence, flowing from the top and permeating the whole.

2018

  • Truthfulness and the Word (Christmas 2018) (12/24/2018). To honor the incarnation of the Word that was in the beginning is to align our words and deeds with him in truthful speech that is congruent with grace-filled action.
  • On publishing books in a world in turmoil (8/20/2018). When the foundations are shaken, what can a religious book publisher do?
  • Do you have any patience for argument? (7/26/2018) People who believe that what became flesh in Jesus Christ was the Logos should be slow to give up on words, on speech, on patient, reasoned explanation and persuasion.
  • Can I trust you? (Greg Sterling) (5/21/2018). Psalm 15 gives a divinity school dean a basis upon which to charge graduates to uncompromising integrity and truthfulness in a society where both are scarce.
  • In memorian: Gabe Fackre (2/9/2018). An EerdWord post marking the death of an Eerdmans author who was also one of my teachers.

2017

2016

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Everyone Needs Compassion

At the monthly meetings of the Board of Education of Caledonia Community School, members of the public are allowed to make three-minute addresses to the trustees. Here is what I said tonight. Two words from me tonight: compassion and sex. Compassion comes first. And last. I know a song: “Everyone needs compassion.” It’s true. Life…

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