Author Archive
Morf Morford
Can we have a Rational Conversation about Guns?
Monday, April 30th, 2012
- Source: Getty Images
How many more shootings, local or national, do we need?
How many more school shootings do we need before have anything like an adult conversation about these playthings of death that we love so much?
I know the constitutional arguments protecting gun ownership. I grew up in a house with many guns. My father was a hunter and I went out hunting with him many times. My favorite games as a child had something to do with guns.
I do not fear guns. But I also do not worship them.
Like any real – or potentially – dangerous tool, we should treat guns respectfully – both for what they do and for what they promise.
The Gospel Shell Game
Sunday, April 15th, 2012
- Photo: FlickR/Still Burning
Have you ever known anyone imprisoned by a cell of their own making?
Perhaps we all do it to some degree, but some do it to the extent that their lives are an ever-shrinking, imploding world of self-absorption. Indignation can be addictive, and some seem to have been seduced by it entirely.
I know a woman who has built impenetrable walls around herself, solid and unyielding, against any personal offense (and, of course everything is personal) past, or present, real or imagined.
She carries an impossible burden; she is the eternal victim – and so she thinks – must be eternally vigilant regarding what must be done – and how. Her life is all about control – and about the inherent futility and lack of appreciation from those around her.
Jesus, the Ham of God
Thursday, April 5th, 2012
How did we go from the Passover Lamb to the Easter Ham?
It’s a complicated, not very pretty story, central to modern religious identity and, for those reasons, tucked away from public view.
A truly “new” religion is quite rare in human history. Virtually all religions are derived from a previous one. And virtually every religion has culturally defining boundaries that clarify who does – or does not – belong.
The New Testament is a continuing portrayal of the argument about just how “Jewish” this new faith should be. The term “Christian” was originally a derogatory term (Acts 11:26) and Peter and Paul (and James) fiercely debated how “new” and separate Christianity should be.
Bullies R Us
Thursday, March 29th, 2012
Watch your thoughts, they become words.
Watch your words, they become actions.
Watch your actions, they become habits.
Watch your habits, they become your character.
Watch your character, it becomes your destiny. -Anonymous
Sometimes there is a confluence of events that that makes current issues so vivid and obvious that it is hard to deny divine intervention.
The new film “Bully” just happens to overlap with yet another controversy in response to crude comments from Rush Limbaugh aimed at those who he disagrees with, and cannot defend themselves (usually women) and another pointless massacre in Afghanistan.
An English Teacher Looks At Rush Limbaugh
Tuesday, March 13th, 2012
I teach English, writing and public speaking at the college level.
There are three key principles of communication; to inform, to persuade and to entertain. Effective and memorable communicators will incorporate at least one, but preferably all three, of these.
Rush Limbaugh, much to my amazement, accomplishes what I had always considered impossible; he does none of these.
When he is cornered, as he often is, for his outright distortions and grossly inappropriate statements, his default defense is that he is “an entertainer” and should not be compelled to stick to actual facts in his programs.
I Know Your Works
Saturday, March 3rd, 2012
I live in what is known as earthquake country. It’s a fairly common sight to see an exposed cliff-side with a diagonal line exposing an ancient earth fracture, where one surface has been split into two pieces and the result is a cliff face showing two surfaces clearly out of alignment with each other.
This geographic fracture is the perfect analogy for what we call The Fall.
God, in multiple aspects, reflecting his own oneness, created a single, unified truth, but we, thanks to The Fall, have split God’s truth, His unified reality, tore it out of alignment and, instead of turning to God to restore His original order, fight to the death (sometimes literally) over our differences.
