J.R. Houck

Any solidarity movement worth its salt should be about that togetherness. This is obviously not a problem everywhere, just something to be aware of because of how easy it is to slip into us vs. them mentalities. Especially today, where it's hard not to see it all around us if you are marginalized.

It is all too easy for us to fall into the trap of thinking our problems would just vanish if we get rid of the "other", but the reality is someone will always take their place till we learn to build a world where the sword has been turned into a plowshare.

Our great struggle is to push back against those demons who would have us give in to the same hate that has been pressed upon us.

We are living in a time of great change and horror, but it is not a time unique to us. It is a time we have seen over countless generations. It is, however, our turn to play out this dance and, if we dare, bring it to a close.

I think they are literally the only publisher still printing the NRSV now too since that was sunsetted last June. But yeah they hold up real well and the print quality is usually pretty good.

I am eagerly awaiting Cambridge's NRSVue Diadem which will have a new concordance made just for it. That's the reason it didn't come out last year.

Have you considered burning it down and starting over? (I have no idea about Presbyterian polity).

...permeate even Episcopalian spaces too. It can be all too easy to say what you aren't and how you aren't like "those" people, but it's much more work to define yourself from a positive position. Who you are and what you believe and why that is good news. But that is the work that must be done.2/2⚓️

As an ex-evangelical, one thing I have noticed others struggle to move beyond is an oppositional faith. Where their faith is defined by who they are not. It was one of the reasons I eventually pulled out of those spaces and joined the Episcopal Church. Sadly, that same kind of thinking can... 1/2⚓️

Yeah and so much of what Paul is doing in those epistles is dealing with a church sliding into the habits that promoted the kinds of abuses propagated by the wealthy and powerful autocracy of the city.

That's actually not far off. It was an extremely wealthy town with all the kinds of debauchery wealth can buy.

before then. He sees such a short time of marriage to possibly be a pain to a person (probably based on the neither given to marriage in the kingdom). So in this context, you can start to understand why he is urging people to remain single because the time is short. 2/2 ⚓️

I think the general malaise to Paul sometimes is just not understanding him in context. Take today's Daily Office reading of 1 Cor. 7:25-31. Paul thought Christ would literally return at any moment, so his admonition to be single is in the context of all the work he believed needed to be done 1/2⚓️

It's the same reason conspiracies are so popular: people need to believe everything is ordered and under control instead of accepting that we might genuinely just elect really stupid people, and chaos and chance are the only two constants in the universe.

Overall, it has been a very nice day, which is good because it was a bad week last week, compounded by February, personally being a bad month for me. I need to nail down a new place to live quickly. I looked at a few places this afternoon a few blocks from the Cathedral.

I guess the summer months are all Rite II, but this felt different. Could be due to Lent. Anyhow, I had actually forgotten Rite II eucharistic prayers. It's so short. Or at least the form we used today was short.

Sun just complete set and night has set in. It's just after 8pm. I am sitting next to an open window listening to the Crickets. I did make it to the 9am Rite II service today. I realized I had only gone to one once last year. I think when I move closer to the parish I will attend more 9am services.⚓️

So here is how to fix your unsolicited advice problem...

After a very long several weeks of work I feel this. Sad thing is this week will probably be busier.

Who hasn't fallen in love with a Vampire.

I seem to be in love songs mood tonight for no real discernible reason.

a man in a tuxedo and bow tie is laughing in a library in front of a bookshelf . ALT: a man in a tuxedo and bow tie is laughing in a library in front of a bookshelf .

So real challenge will I make it to the 9am Rite II service tomorrow or wait till the Rite I at 11:15? It's daylight savings time tomorrow so the world may never know. ⚓️

From Cash we go to a wee bit of Birth Year music.

Personal Jesus YouTube video by Johnny Cash - Topic

Time for a little Cash.

Controversial take, but this isn't so much about being a kid as it is the failure of Neo-Liberalism in the 21st century. Economic crisis after economic crisis along with 20 years of straight war. Now the solution they present is wrong; you can't go back to the 90s because the 90s gave us today.

I am facilitating a book study through Lent of Brueggemann's The Prophetic Imagination, and my small group is going from decent liberal Episcopalians to complete radicals. It's hard to maintain liberal moderation when faced with the reality of the Royal Consciousness and what it takes to defeat it.⚓️

You know as a thought experiment this would be wild because a lot of the project 2025 people are extreme reformed guys but the WH is made up of a bunch of borderline antisemitic Catholic sedecavantists. Then you got dyed in the wool SBC Christian Zionists like Mike Johnson. It would be a disaster.

Listened to this at 6 minutes in or so. It’s not directly stated, but it appears the reason that Mamdani has not directed H+H to absorb trans patients is out of fear of the federal government. “It’s part of the game we have to play with the federal government .”

It’s the EXACT logic NYU is using.

I was planning on going to the 9 o'clock service tomorrow but I just remembered it's Daylight savings time.....

Absolutely underrated ⚓️