To make good decisions and to keep relationships running smoothly, consider accounting for at least two types of context. Proximate context includes what’s happening in and around the decision-maker and the community or problem they hope to engage. Temporal context includes what’s happened up to the present moment and future possibilities, probabilities, and risks given past […]
The Evangelical Turn — A Few Hard Questions
This week, Eliel Cruz interviewed evangelical ethics professor Dr. David Gushee for his LGBT-faith column at the Religious News Service. I’ll either share or comment on that interview when it’s live. Gushee, who teaches at Mercer University in Atlanta, hit the national papers earlier this fall after declaring that his theology had changed and he could no longer support […]
Raise a Fist: On Saluting the Humane
Real peace is more than the absence of war. Rather, we need to change the culture, situations, and systems that lead to violence. —American Friends Service Committee Five years ago I’m sitting behind the bar of a House of Representatives committee room, Washington, D.C. It’s a mark up day, when the committee meets to comment […]
Quote of the Week: Peter Rollins
Conspiracy theory plays into the power it questions. For in looking towards what’s hidden, it fails to be horrified by what is plainly evident. —Peter Rollins Now why stop at being horrified? Horror is where the fatalists live. Grieve if you want about dreams deferred; pine, even, about hopes yet to come. But then get […]
Of Circumstance and Action
In the New Year’s Eve reflection I posted last night, there are a few lines that say more about my year than anything else I wrote: All of that [skill, experience, enthusiasm, potential, will, and grit] I had, but it wasn’t enough to move me forward. Outside of the umbrella of my former university, I was […]
Moving forward
This was part of the last sunset of 2013. My Australian friends have been enjoying 2014 for almost a day now, but I still have a few hours to wait, work, and reflect. This Site I started mackenzian.com last January as a space for writing, exploring ideas, and connecting with others, and also as an […]