family Archives - Joel Rieves

Thanksgiving is the Best Holiday of the Year

All right, Halloween and the election are over and there’s nothing left to get in the way of the holidays. But that doesn’t mean all you Christmas cluckers can start with all your “Tis the season” crap. I mean ,seriously, Christmas is two months away and if you start this twaddle now, by the time […]

Family Reunion

Donnie sat on the edge of the bed in nothing but his underwear and bright, white t-shirt. He held a pair of socks, his shoes on the floor between his feet. The pants his mother had picked out lay on the bed beside him, while a shirt hung on the door of his closet. Normally, […]

A Mystical Experience?

I have written more than once about my problems with the more mystical aspects of Christianity. Some of those issues spring from a mind that may be too analytical for my own good (questioning the virgin birth, miracles, speaking in tongues, etc.), but most of them are related to the absence of a “God” experience […]

God Bless Grace Ann

Today, boys and girls, you’re in for a treat: I’m turning The Progressive Redneck over to a guest blogger, my boyhood friend and idol, Jefferson Davis Dudley, a great American. Jeff was born and raised in Volunteer, NC and is a graduate of Little Bethel Free Will Baptist Bible College in Pilot Mountain, NC (not far from the […]

Angels and Demons

Spend even a few minutes listening to an evangelical/fundamentalist sermon and it’s almost inevitable that you’ll hear about angels and/or demons. It is a topic our more conservative brothers and sisters are not afraid to embrace. I, on the other hand, usually get uncomfortable when it comes up. I don’t have a problem talking about […]

Should I Stay Or Should I Go Now

Two years ago yesterday (April 10th), my father became one with the cosmos. And, that is exactly how he would put it. None of that “went to be with the Lord” stuff; flowery euphemisms about heaven were not his thing. He talked about heaven, of course, but it was never the standard issue, sit-on-a-cloud-with-a-halo-and-a-harp variety. Over […]

Making A Change

My morning has not followed its usual pattern. For one thing, I got up early this morning and…, wait, let me rephrase that. I got up at the same time, but I left the house much earlier than I usually do. Diana and I are making one of our semi-annual trips to Florida this weekend […]

Church Shouldn’t Be a Trial

For those of you who are new here, I used to be a Methodist. I’ve written about UMC extensively, sometimes complimentary, sometimes not. Today is not going to be complimentary. Last year, I gave up my membership and cut ties with UMC as an organization after the general conference when the church voted to continue its […]

I… Am… A… Nerd

The past week, I feel like I’ve been on the edge of burning out on the blogging thing. A couple of days ago, I started 3 different pieces before I finally found one that didn’t bore the hell out of me. That’s not to say I was excited about it, though; only that I was […]

Home Again

The past two weeks have been…, let’s say interesting. Two Mondays ago, I began a project (building a teardrop camper) that turned out to be much bigger than I thought. I had planned to use my new creation at Wild Goose this year, but that was not to be. Despite working furiously, I just couldn’t […]