Last month we had Passover and Easter. We also had Holocaust Remembrance Day. We also had an announcement about a big Marvel film. We also had some significant events happen at Harvard.
This all brought to mind something I’ve been thinking about, and it has to do with a famous comic book character. Continue reading
I never watch the news. I sometimes read about it. There’s just too much to keep up with.
This past Friday I spent the night with my parents after my dad had a stint in the hospital. My brother used to live in Memphis, we have friends there, and the city is on the verge of something big as police body cam footage is about to be released. My mind has been filled with frustrating, sad, angry, and confusing thoughts.
It’s Holocaust Memorial Day, and the only positive news story I see is of a successful play about Holocaust survivors. But even that is only good news about bad news that must be remembered.
But there’s a tiredness to everything. What lessons have we learned? That same night, news of a shooting at a synagogue, that was a response to a shooting of Palestinians.
The home attack of the spouse of a House Speaker.
School shootings in schools where nothing was done.
And the killing of a man by five police officers in Memphis.
I picked the worst night to watch the news.
Nothing feels safe. Nothing feels stable. Nothing feels right.
It all keeps swirling around as the same experience in my head tonight as I sit with my parents, befuddled.
Why does this keep happening? Why did this happen this time? Who is responsible? What will be done to them? How do we keep it from happening again?
And these questions as being asked of everything. All the pain. All the violence. All the history repeating itself.
I’m tired of hearing over and over again of a few bad apples. What are we putting in the basket?
Where was the good news tonight?
Lord come quickly.
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.
Continue reading
What is the difference between what the Bible says about Jesus (testimony carried on), and what history can tell us (history outside of the Bible)? It is claimed that when true scholars subject the Gospels to objective scrutiny, much doubt is cast on their storytelling. It seems legit that we believe what we see in the Bible not because it said so, but because “the historian has independently verified it.” To an extent, this is understandable, but when we refuse to treat the Gospels as historical documents themselves, we rob them of their legitimacy as witness reporting. In our study with our skeptic friend, we began to talk about why the Bible is mistrusted as a source of history.
CALEB COY 