FollowNo, not Mexico, I’m talking about The Tackiest Place On Earth, good old S.O.B., located right on the border of North and South Carolina. To the uninitiated, this may seem like an odd comparison to make, but someone who’s driven the stretch of I-95 between Virginia and Georgia might just get it. Why, you ask? …
Category Archives: Liturgical
Let’s Get Ashy!
Today is Ash Wednesday, and that can only mean one thing: Lent is here! Ah, yes, that most wonderful time in the liturgical calendar all about prayer, penance and preparation for Easter. And, what better way to kick things off than by getting your ash on? Yes, friends, today is the day when hipsters and yuppies, …
“Contemporary” Isn’t A Cuss Word
I am so sick of people laying part of the blame for the church’s decline at the feet of “the contemporary worship experience”. I’m talking about people like Steve McSwain, who said in his article Why Nobody Wants to Go to Church Anymore that “It’s been the trend in the last couple of decades for traditional, mainline …
I’m Dreaming Of A White(washed) Christmas?
Well, I did it, beloved. I made it all the way through Advent without talking about Christmas once (okay, so maybe I mentioned once or twice, But, still…). But, now that the Christmas season is here, I can yammer away as much as I want and not worry that some damn high-church liturgy freak will …
Continue reading “I’m Dreaming Of A White(washed) Christmas?”
It’s Advent (Sigh) Pt II
On Monday, I wrote about my problems with Advent. After a rather snarky start, I said Advent was hard for me, in part, because of the words associated with it: hope, peace, joy and love. At the end, I said that I would take a word a week and write about my problems with it. To …
It’s Advent (Sigh)
Yesterday was the beginning of Advent and posts about it are starting to show up in my news feed. I am not happy about that, in part, because Advent posts are almost as irritating as people who are whiter than sour cream saying “That’ll preach” at every opportunity, thinking it makes them sound hip(And, by “hip”, I mean …
Giving Up Lent,Or Why I Won’t Feel Bad About Myself Until Easter
Last Sunday, someone asked me what I was giving up for Lent and I honestly couldn’t answer. The truth is, until that moment, I really hadn’t given it a thought. It’s not that I don’t like Lent, we just have a complicated relationship. The truth is, Lent never really worked for me. It’s supposed to …
Continue reading “Giving Up Lent,Or Why I Won’t Feel Bad About Myself Until Easter”
What’s That On Your Forehead?
Well, it’s Ash Wednesday and you know what that means: a bunch of weirdos walking around with smudgy, black crosses on their foreheads. These “weirdos” are actually mainstream and progressive Christians heathens and they do it to signify their “repentance before God”. Seriously? You can do the same thing with good, old-fashioned piety. And, by …
Advent? Not a Fan
When you have a lot of friends who’ve been to seminary, you see and hear a lot of churchy, religious stuff the average joe doesn’t. Discussions about theological systems, obscure religious teachers and atonement theories are everyday fare. If your seminarian friends are particularly nerdy, like mine, you get to hear about Beer and Hymns …