Following Jesus in rejecting empire
On December 28 the Western Church celebrates the feast of the holy innocents (December 29 in the Eastern Church). It is a day to remember the children who were killed by Israel’s King Herod after learning of the birth of a rival king. Herod was so threatened by this news that he ordered the execution…
As the Russian Orthodox Patriarch blessed Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, I could not help but think of the Crusades (which, by the way, were not just directed at Muslims, but also toward Orthodox Christians). As a young man, St. Francis attempted to join the fourth crusade but turned back due to a recurring malarial fever.…
“Oh what savory satisfaction. What splendid joy. In one instant, all my anger dissipated and all the rot in my soul has been removed!” That’s how I imagined it. What freedom would taste like once the earth was rid of Frederick Johnson, and I had exacted revenge. Once I had exchanged my passive fist with…
The summer before my life disintegrated was lovely. There are Knoxville summers where the heat oppresses a person like a tyrant, but not that summer. Not the summer of 1997. Highs barely reached to 80 and the humidity must’ve pushed its way around us and into Georgia. I remember being happy, but only as though…
I consider myself a patient man. It comes naturally to me. I think I must be hard wired for patience. I remember one day as a child of about seven-years-old. Mom was talking to a neighbor in our backyard and I was standing next to her. “Mom?” I asked. “Just wait a minute, Scotty, I’m…