The Narrowing Road

I, like most aware folks in the United States, don't see our fellow citizens as united anything. In the mix of arguments comes suppositions about what Jesus would do in light of current culture. As with most classic literature and philosophy, most people leveraging Jesus err in their understanding of Him and many care only to point out supposed hypocrisy of whomever their arguments are aimed.  Some common presuppositions - the foundational framework that guides attitudes, opinion, and perspective - are: 1) I love Jesus therefore He would agree with me 2) Jesus loves me therefore He would agree with me 3) Jesus was all about peace, peace, peace and love, love, love 4) If Christ-followers ran government it would be a righteous government 5) Christianity has no business being interjected into political discourse.  This obviously is not an exhaustive list and with no further comment from me can ignite all the controversy and debate that one could ask for. The reader might be surpr...

My chin stubble had been an insult to my manhood since early adolescence, but it was only the icing, or lack thereof, on the cake of my doubtful masculinity. As if it wasn't insulting enough that my chest hair is singular and my fishing and hunting skills would make my survival in the wild dependent on berries and acorns, that my highest sports achievement was getting to third base in little league, whereupon I peed my pants praying for the end of the world, I couldn't get past the average 8th grader in the beard growing game. Many Facebook friends participate in No Shave November (for what purpose I don't recall), but despite my efforts I ended up looking like No Shave Since Tuesday. During my work life, much of which was spent in uniform, having no facial hair was standard, ostensibly to ensure a proper fit to a gas mask should the occasion arise. What the bearded cops of today do about that I don't know, but perhaps agencies capitulated so that the male officers cou...

Retirement has offered time for reading and reflection that long weeks and days and middle-of-the-night phone calls do not afford. For some reason - and who knows what prompts a random thought or memory - but perhaps the recent Father's Day, I thought of my Grampa Earl. Even now, as I think about it, I don't think I ever called him Grampa, which would be a title of endearment he had not earned. Maybe just Earl. I'm not sure my Mom ever called him Dad, either for that matter, but I'm not sure. Again, unearned endearment.  My memories of him are from just a few visits and the few times my Mother spoke of him. She never had stories, just statements and not even full statements sometimes when she caught herself in memories she did not want to resurrect or share. I do know that he was an alcoholic. I have compassion for addicts, but sometimes their trail of destruction is simply too worn to find it. Mom just said he was an old drunk, the type that made them scramble to hide ...

Can We Re-Christianize America? God forbid. Recent presumably well-intentioned mandates proposed by government officials in Texas, Louisianna, and Oklahoma do not portend well for religious liberty or for the restoration of Biblical literacy in the U.S. A knowledge of the Bible was not lost due to the government, nor can it or should it be restored by government. It is the American church that has failed to maintain the eminence of the Bible. Since labels seem to be a prerequisite for getting an audience I guess I'll cave and say I am a boomer steeped in postwar patriotism and anti-communism, politically and religiously conservative, leaning Libertarian in thought but void of rightist extremism or Christian Nationalism. I hesitate to call myself an intellectual but I have spent half of my career in a college classroom and have earned a Doctorate in Education. My conservatism was forged in the "roots of my raisin'" in the Midwest (the Ozarks, more specifically) Bible B...

So Abraham gets a promise from God to be the father of a great nation. So he and his wife (who is also his half-sister) wait around to get pregnant and get this thing started. Years go by. Abraham isn’t so studly anymore and Sarah, although cute for her age, has no hope of childbearing.  So here they sit around the breakfast table wondering how to help God out. Sarah says Abraham should just go have a baby with Hagar, a servant woman. Abraham drums his fingers on the table, trying not to look too interested, but gets up shrugging his shoulders and says “If you say so, dear” and wastes no time getting Hagar pregnant. Which, to no one’s surprise, really bothers Sarah. She’s disgusted with herself, describing herself as “worn-out” (Gen 18:11) with a guffaw when angelic visitors tell her that when they visit her next year she’ll have son. “Yeah, right”.  But she does! Little Isaac. One boy to fulfill the promise of descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven.  Isaac and Re...

 The Cancer Starter Pack By Joel Shults F*#% Cancer T shirt. Check GoFundMe site. Check Light Blue prostate cancer support ribbon frame for Facebook profile. Check Start My Cancer Journey blog. Check Actually, I'm doing none of those (with the slight deviation on the blog thing, since this is one). But I don't intend to do a play by play as some do. And I'm not criticizing those who do that because I often read them and they have a lot of value. Mostly, I'm writing this for me to look back on in a year or two and to help myself navigate an uncomfortable new territory. The discomfort is not that I have cancer, but what kind of person I should be now that the Big C is trying to define who I am.  I resent the invasion. I have submitted myself to other forces before as a  soldier, police officer, and follower of Jesus but to be forced to submit to a cancer-fighting lifestyle is insulting to my existential integrity. The first issue, in my mind, is disclosure. Really, how ma...