Faith Challenges: It Ain't All Comfort

I wrote some of these words 12 years ago after the Sandy Hook massacre in Newtown, CT. Unfortunately not much has changed, other than a continued increase in violent rhetoric from many sides. We are especially seeing a lot more violent rhetoric within right-leaning political circles. The public growth and empowerment of Nazi, Neo-Nazi, white supremacist, racist, misogynist, and anti-immigrant sentiment, including related rhetoric and actions continues to increase. We can talk all we want about minor contributing factors, but it does no good if we do not stem the tide of incivility in our media, political, and social discourse. Too many pundits in religious circles have been decrying various issues as responsible for the massacre at Sandy Hook. Some say the issue is the separation of church and state and the withdrawal of state-sponsored religious speech and rituals. Others claim the influence of video game and television violence, or the prevalence of and easy access to deadly...

Did you really think I would give you more importance than my own daughter? Did you really think you could use our father’s memory as a weapon to bend me to your will? Did you really think pulling rank would force me to adapt to your definitions of propriety, when you have never once interrupted your life on my behalf? Did you really think protecting a relationship that has always depended on my initiative would have greater weight than maintaining, caring for, and supporting the family I’ve made and lived with more than twice the time I ever lived with you? Did you really think I would refashion my life and character after your expectations for me? Did you really think I would hand over my autonomy to you, simply because you refused to listen or learn anything about me and my family? Did you really think I would interpret your attempts to control me and my family as love? Did you really think I don’t understand love enough to recognize your prote...

In the humblest of spaces where the reportedly important are loathe to go we find truth, meaning, and value. In a world ripped apart by violence, anger, hate, and incivility all powered by greed, God arrives in the simplest guise of all. God’s arrival is the greatest of all messages, even when we miss the point. As much as we portray ourselves as important, superior, and greater than any and all others, the Greatest of all enters our midst with no semblance of fanfare. As far as anyone in Chickasaw knew, it was another night like any other. Nothing special was going on that evening, unless you count a newborn baby’s cry. There was nothing of note in most of the ways we consider something important. The newborn did not cry out in a sterile hospital delivery room. There were no doctors or nurses attending in scrubs. We’ll never know its Apgar scores. No one recorded weight, length, race, or footprints. The only people to know of this baby’s birth should have been the very few i...