Category Archives: Peace

A Simple Way to Comprehend Kneeling at National Anthems

Posted by Caleb Coy on

As of this month, over 27 NFL players have chosen to sit, kneel, or raise a fist of solidarity during the procedural playing of the US national anthem.

This has strangely been met with some very angry reactions. People who don’t know what’s going on see rich football players refusing to comply with the pledge and imagine it’s just a bunch of spoiled brats who haven’t seen combat and therefore don’t respect what soldiers are dying for.

Some people in America seem to hate Colin Kaepernick more than they hate racism. That is part of why he initiated this wave of lamentation and solidarity. Continue reading →

#Charlottesville

Posted by Caleb Coy on

I visited the campus of UVA one when I was a kid. It was a peaceful day, and I recall it as a mostly boring tour of a pretty campus and some pretty buildings. It was a history field trip, because something about Thomas Jefferson starting the college.

I remember those awkward history lessons about how when the college was founded people owned other people as slaves and treated them like animals. We knew this was wrong. When I was a kid, I knew racism was wrong, and if you asked me, I would tell you it’s wrong to drive a car through people for no reason.
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5 Reasons Why Trade Sanctions are Bad Foreign Policy

Posted by Caleb Coy on

So, you hear a lot about sanctions when countries are at odds with one another. You’ve probably heard some about it recently too. A sanction is one country, attempting to penalize another country, places trade restrictions on that country. This also includes imposing tariffs and “freezing” another country’s assets. These sanctions amount to a nation holding hostage another nation’s ability to trade.
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Reading Flannery O’Connor’s “The Displaced Person”: Part II

Posted by Caleb Coy on

Part II—All the Colorful, Useless Peafowl
[Read part I here]

In part two of O’Connor’s story, Mrs. Shortley has left the farm and Mrs. McIntyre is left with the displaced Pole and her black workers. We’re given more insight into her character through her conversations with the older farmhand, Astor. While Astor remembers well her husband, the Judge, Mrs. McIntyre is haunted by her late husband. Astor has noticed two things: The decline of the peacocks and the incline of Mrs. McIntyre’s greed.
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Reading Flannery O’Connor’s “The Displaced Person”: Part I

Posted by Caleb Coy on

For fans of Flannery O’Connor, “The Displaced Person” is a a short story that occupies a special place, not only because it exhibits her love for peacocks, but because of its more overt religious themes. The story takes place on a farm, the inciting incident being the hiring of a “displaced person” (or refugee) from Poland. O’Connor, a devout Catholic, is one of America’s most famous writers, known for her southern stories of grotesque people encountering beautiful grace.

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The Myth of a Pro-Life Donald Trump

Posted by Caleb Coy on

With the election of Donald Trump, many conservative Christians are celebrating their vision of an America where abortions will occur less, and the possibility that one day soon abortion will be completely outlawed. In fact, the promise of stopping abortion was for many on-the-fence Christians the tipping point that led them to ultimately support Donald Trump and cast their vote for him. We’ll tolerate everything nasty and despicable about this horrible man, the idea goes, if we can use him to stop abortion.

Firstly, Donald Trump only recently “converted” to the anti-abortion cause, so America should be skeptical about both his commitment to the cause and his method of pursuing it. Did he become pro-life in order to gain votes? Does he know the best strategy? Will his speeches touch the hearts of pro-choice Americans to reconsider their views? Will he communicate well with the Supreme Court? These are important questions. Most of Trump’s statements on abortion since his anti-abortion “conversion” have been clumsy, illogical, myopic, narcissistic, and antagonistic toward women. The President Elect has spoken to pro-life voters promising them a turning of the tables.
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How Will I Raise Both My Children in This Violent World?

Posted by Caleb Coy on

For over a week we’ve been expecting the imminent birth of our second son.

5520439491_beb66a0e23_bOur first son knows about violence. He likes to pretend to punch things, throw spikes, burn and freeze. He knows that if you cut somebody, there’s blood, that he wants to kill bad guys. At the age of four, his penchant for terror worries me already. Will he grow up to respect human life in the way I want him to?
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X-Men’s Apocalypse is Right

Posted by Caleb Coy on

X-Men: Apocalypse opened this summer, the latest installment in a famous comic turned film franchise. Although I have not seen the film, anyone familiar with the titular villain knows that the premise follows his character’s legacy: A nearly invincible and all-powerful mutant wishes to destroy the world of humans (and weak mutants) and create a world meant only for the strongest.
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What I think when an abortion clinic is bombed during an Islamic terrorism crisis on Thanksgiving

Posted by Caleb Coy on

I think to myself, when will we American Christians see the irony?

When we label Islam a violent religion with no teachings of peace, when we use violent rhetoric to attack doctors who perform abortions, when we treat refugees like potential threats to a country defined by mass immigration—what are we missing?
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