I've been listening to a lot of Alasdair MacIntyre lectures lately, and figured I would share some of my favorite insights to entice others to do the same. MacIntyre does an excellent job of unsettling the left/right dichotomies that tend to frame debates in our society, so he is well worth listening to no matter where you fit on that spectrum.

While both mass shootings and police shootings have become regular features of the American landscape, the debates about gun control and policing seem to be as intractable as ever. Gun advocates have frequently questioned the consistency of their ideological opponents: it seems like we blame the gun when the shooter is a citizen, but we blame the person when the shooter is an officer…

Among Jesus’ closest friends is a family in the town of Bethany, a couple of miles outside of Jerusalem. The home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus is, for Jesus and his disciples, a happy meeting place. It is also a context where the perceived tensions between hospitality and devotion are repeatedly explored.

The theologian Stanley Hauerwas once wrote that ‘to be a Christian means you can never protect yourself from the truth.’ I think this experience, and our gospel reading for today, show me also that to be a Christian means you can never protect yourself from the surprising, unsettling work that God is doing in and through people and places that we would not expect.

Recently, my daughter Sophia and I visited the Fitzwilliam Museum to see the ‘Human Touch’ exhibit. Ironically, and much to her disappointment, we weren’t actually allowed to touch any of it. But we enjoyed roaming the dimly-lit rooms, admiring the paintings, drawings, and sculptures…

For those of us fasting—either from food, or from things like social media, alcohol, or Zoom (I wish!)—I thought it might be helpful to consider what Thomas Aquinas (1224–1274) has to say about fasting. He discusses the topic in various biblical commentaries and devotes a question of his Summa Theologiae to the topic (ST II-II, q. 147).

While anti-vaccine advocates frequently speak of informed consent and increased transparency, they have themselves failed to provide accurate information and have painted a misleading picture about the transparency that already exists in the literature regarding the safety and efficacy of vaccines.

A reflection on the advent hymn ‘Come Thou Long Expected Jesus’ as performed by Kings Kaleidoscope.