On friday nite we had some mates around for a meal and some in depth conversation. The picture above is not a group selfie but rather a close-up of the phone basket that was my wife's idea. We emailed everyone beforehand to let them know, and as they arrived at the party we held out the basket and they muted their phones and dropped them in and got them again as they left at the [...]
The other day i wrote a poem titled 'to them who have ears' and just thinking about it a little more today, have dubbed it a choir poem - as in those who get what it's about and who agree will totally be reading and nodding and cheering and liking and sharing... but those who don't, are unlikely to even read it and if they somehow do, unlikely to understand the point trying to be made... [...]
In the last day of so, i have seen the phrase and hashtag, "Christian Cleavage" showing up all over the internet and so, being a curious guy, went to take a look at what my extended family is up to this time. Turns out it all started [was re-ignited?] when an apparently prominent Christian blogger, Jarrid Wilson, wrote a blog post titled, 'The Problem with Christian Cleavage' that apparently caused so much controversy and mayhem [...]
i hate white people! i know, i know, i could barely believe it myself when i found out, but having heard so many people suggest it on my blog the past week or two [some in comments i chose not to print due to their not-fit-to-be-read-by-other-humans content] it really must be true. It started when i started suggesting that i don't think white people are better than black people [if i had a dollar for [...]
A few days ago i wrote a piece on 'Freedom of Speech' and the fact that i feel like i may be the only person in the world who doesn't think it's such a great idea. To be honest, i was expecting a bit of a backlash, but no-one seemed particularly interested - in commenting either way. Then i read a really great piece by Megan Butler on a friend's blog, titled 'We need to [...]
i should probably disable comments on this one, but i generally want to understand. Let me just jump in and say it, although i do feel like i am the only person in the world that feels like this, given the fuss people generally put up about this sort of thing, altho i don't know that i've had many direct conversations about it specifically, but here it is: I don't know that i believe that [...]
a guest post by my friend Sindile Mlingo Vabaza responding to a much made comment on this blog recently about people in poverty, although typically been aimed at black people, having too many babies as one of the main factors of their continued impoverishment: There are a lot of people out there who are putting up 'family planning' as the solution to certain societal ills in the country. I want to assert that this is [...]
It is early 2012. The phone rings and my brother George answers. Silence. Eventually I whisper: “I need to get out of here. I need help.” But the story starts in 1995, at a party, where a friend was having so much more fun than everyone else. “What’s he on? Is he drunk?” Our innocent questions were answered with “Ecstasy” and a journey into 18 years of intense addiction began. That first pill was exactly [...]
Too often, it has been the arrival of the question that has instantly muted the conversation. As i have sought to write [and invite others to] about topics such as Race and Reconciliation, the Church, Relationships and more, it has been disappointing to me how often a term [White Privilege] or phrase [We aren't currently part of a local church congregation] or idea [No sex before marriage] has sent people scurrying off back to where people [...]
So, the other day i tried to take a few steps back in this ongoing Race and Reconciliation conversation we've been having over here with this post trying to see if we could all agree that the incredibly out-of-proportion extreme gap between rich and poor in our country [and the world at large] is not okay. Most people stayed away from engaging at all [maybe it's cos of the busy time of the year, but [...]