Painfully Hopeful

“Fake News” and Social Media Reaction

I’ve been seeing a great deal of social media shares declaring how “Don Lemon stormed off the set” when someone called a segment “fake news.” This “storming” was, alternatively, cheered and condemned by partisans looking to score points in the culture war. Frankly, there are days when I think progressives and reactionaries deserve each other…

Hacksaw Ridge

It’s rare nowadays to see a story in which faith plays a central role, but is neither a caricature of a protagonist nor the villain. In a great deal of modern popular culture, faith either makes you a crazy cartoon character or a wicked person who wants to see the world burn. And then there…

Bird in Flight

Temperatures reached the mid-60’s yesterday, a blessed reprieve from typical Winter temperatures, so my neighbor and I decided we were long overdue for a photowalk. We headed down to Palmyra Nature Cove and headed out on a path down which we’d never walked. We headed straight out from the science center and out on the…

Unexpected Beauty

I was researching USB microphones on my MacBook yesterday afternoon when, unnoticed by me, the wall behind our desk suddenly took on a brilliant pink hue. My wife, ever more observant than her hyper-focused husband, pointed it out. “What’s the Sunset look like?” Now, when I’m typically in hyper-focus mode I get annoyed when someone…

Paying for News

My post on February 2, entitled #resist laid out some of the ways I plan to resist the current political shift in our culture. One method I chose to pursue was paying for news. Achievement Unlocked. This past week my wife and I spoke and agreed to get a digital-only subscription to the Washington Post….

We Will Not Forget

Note The post below was written for the Central Baptist Church website. I am reposting it here because my voice is actually a little louder on Painfully Hopeful. The Message On Sunday, February 12, residents in a neighborhood not too far from Central Baptist woke to find hate literature in their driveways. The cards, disguised…