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Does God Care About Football?

Today I finally received the answer to the question I’ve asked nearly all my life: Does God care about football? Richard John Mouw informs me [TU, Voices of Faith, 2/3/18¹] that “God cares much about how the game is played. And it is not simply about how the players treat each other.” Has Mr Mouw read the New Testament? I get that the Old Testament is quite football-worthy, what with all that smiting and so forth, but it sure seems that the NT becomes quite un-football-esque in places. But maybe that’s just me. It’s not as if Matthew 25, or the Sermon on the Mount comes down on the side of how we treat one another. Did not Jesus say it best when he offered us, "Do to others what you want them to do to you...and hit ‘em hard! Knock his block off. Role the replay!" No, he didn’t say exactly that, but one can imagine him saying it...if you pretend for a moment that you live in the universe of Richard John Mouw. I’d leave football out of the equation. No spectacle where...
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After a Trump Victory in 2020, How Would I React?

After a Trump Victory in 2020, How Would I React? With resignation. Allow me to explain. Resignation may be applied to someone who takes an unfortunate circumstance with grace and decorum, or if not with that level of charitableness, then at least a simple stoicism. I do not mean that. I mean the other definition: the act of giving up one’s position. If Trump and the Republicans win the Senate once again, the country will officially be a failed experiment. The American Empire will be over. We will have imploded, blown ourselves up from within, and not with a bang but a whimper, as Eliot said. The climate will then be well over the tipping point of no return. Our grand-kids will be doomed…humanity itself will have set the alarm to some centuries further on. And so there won’t be a whole lot to do anymore. We can—many will, no doubt—gnash our teeth, fulminate, march, and so on, but it will have been a case of too little, too late. They might as well save the wear and tear on t...
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J. K. Rowling Manifesto

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I've just come across a piece by J. K. Rowling, she of Harry Potter fame, and I wanted to showcase it. It is from years ago, concerning an election in the UK but I think it still applies, especially in the current dawn of the neo-fascist Trump era. So... From  The Times Online , J.K. Rowling writes: I’ve never voted Tory before, but . . .” Those much parodied posters, with their photogenic subjects and their trite captions, remind me irresistibly of glossy greetings cards. Indeed, the more I think about it, the more general elections have in common with the birthdays of middle life. Both entail a lot of largely unwelcome fuss; both offer unrivalled opportunities for congratulation and spite, and you have seen so many go by that a lot of the excitement has worn off. Nevertheless, they become more meaningful, more serious. Behind all the bombast and balloons there is the melancholy awareness of more time gone, the tally of ambitions achieved and of opportunities missed. So...
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