Snow on My Radishes

The weather’s been bad this week over much of the U.S. from Fargo to Savannah, so I don’t have any right to complain. When did that ever stop me?
I’m a little plucked to see snow on my radishes. Of course, they don’t mind cold weather, which proves that radishes aren’t very bright. But still, I [...]

A Gay Christian Memoir

The other day I got a notion that I might write a memoir of my faith. I don’t imagine anyone will beat down the bookstore door to read it, but here’s a possible Chapter 1. See if it’s worth your time, and feel free to comment pro or con.
The picture above is my parish church, [...]

Obama & Warren: Way Too Cute

I’ve found myself since Friday posting a lot of comments on newspapers’ websites concerning the incoming President’s selection of Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inaugural.
I’ve used phrases like “megachurch huckster,” so you know where I’m coming from. I’ve also posted my displeasure on Obama’s “transition” website, change.gov.
This is not just an [...]

Dirk Vanden’s Remarkable Novel “All Is Well”

I’ve just finished reading Dirk Vanden’s magnum opus, “All Is Well.”
This guy started out writing stroke books for money, but ended up authoring real novels—all the more remarkable because they first appeared just two years after Stonewall. Gone were the sissy stereotypes, the internalized homophobia, the clueless guesses by Straight pornographers of what motivates Gay [...]

Reading Genesis

Part of my Advent discipline (an opportunity I’ve freely taken, not a duty) is to begin reading the Old Testament in something like chronological order—by which I mean not when it was composed (which often took centuries), but when it purports to tell of events. This must, of course, begin in Genesis—which puts me right [...]

Tips for Spiritual Health: Toss the TV, Read a Psalm

I went to a store this evening in my hometown. It’s a very small store, the kind where one clerk (the owner’s daughter) sits around watching television as she waits for a customer to show up. I live in a very small town.
So I walked in and was instantly hit with the sound of the [...]

Thank You, Iowa

Against the War in Iraq, September 2002
Let me be clear when I say “the entire Midwest” voted for Obama. I refer to the Great Lakes states of the Big Ten Conference: Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota and Iowa.
Kansas is not in the Midwest, though it often claims to be. Neither is Missouri. The [...]

Yes, We Did

When I was 13, in a house two doors down from where I now live, I saw little Black children get water-cannoned on TV just for wanting to go to school. I got to go to school; nobody ever tried to stop me, so why couldn’t they go to school?
I saw Black senior citizens get [...]

James & His Dog, Dallas to Lake Village

A man came by my house a little while ago, an Obama volunteer named James Rhodes from Dallas, Texas. He and his dog spent the day at Democratic headquarters in Lake Village, Indiana, pop. 812.
Dallas to Lake Village, I kid you not. Indiana’s a “tossup” this year, don’tcha know. We haven’t gone Democrat since “All [...]

Debate 2: Start of the Obama Landslide

(Stephen Crowley/The New York Times)
I watched the second presidential debate tonight online, from some outfit called hugo.com which carried the NBC coverage, including the last half-hour of analysis and reactions. Kudos to hugo, because usually the live streaming online cuts off as soon as the moderator says goodnight. (And thanks to HuffPost, which provided the [...]