It’s getting to the point where I can’t stand to watch football anymore. It used to be entertainment and spectacle, and the action on the field. Now, it’s the non-stop testosterone-fueled commentary and banter in the booth, filled with breathless talk of strategy, and “battling in the trenches,” and “overcoming adversity” and “stepping up and being a man.” All I can think is, “How can you be so into this?”

Football is life? C’mon man.

Add the growing gaggle of wagering concerns to the mix and now you’ve got the potential for a real slimy mess.

Dear Mitch,

You out-of-touch fossil. I know you think that what you’re doing is “strategy,” the game you so enjoy playing, designed to make Democrats sweat, hoping to make them look like the fall guys as the debt ceiling deadline looms. What’s so infuriating is that, in your cold-hearted deadpan logic, you’re setting the whole country on a collision course– in the midst of a lingering pandemic, with whole segments of the population still reeling from wildfires and flooding and hurricane damage and insanely high drug prices and health insurance premiums, and a general hopelessness. More (avoidable) pain and suffering. Much more, by the sound of it.

You’re willing to go the brinkmanship route just so you can win something. You’re willing to take us all down with you, although you must feel like you could emerge from all this smelling like a rose. Hands clean and washed of everything as the shit hits the fan. Like you could just step back and say, “don’t look at me- I had nothing to do with this.” After all, you’re safe, you have money in the bank.

Nice try, asshole.

When it comes to relevance, the church in some ways has always faced an uphill battle. Most everything about it is a little off. Out of step. Its efforts seem invested in walking a line between preserving its language and its past while trying really hard to be consequential in the present. Often enough, though, it just ends up looking like the person who thinks he can dance but really can’t.

Personally speaking, I’ve never found such an approach at all palatable- the “trying to look cool” thing. Trying to fit in. It feels contrived, forced, desperate. In fact, it often enough ends up being embarrassing to me. 

Relevance as packaged by Madison Avenue won’t really work for the church, partly because it’s too slick and polished, too focused on “getting the most bang for the buck.” And also because most advertising is designed to feed narcissism or prey on emotions and create the illusion of need.

Besides, how cool can we make dying on a cross? Sometimes it seems this is the elephant in the room that no one wants to acknowledge. How might we best fit this into a commercial touting how friendly and welcoming we are?

Yes, we are an Easter people, and faith tells us that resurrection life begins now. We are buoyed by and need that hope, since the essence of the church, the essence of a Christ-centered life this side of the Second Coming remains that of a voice crying in the wilderness. A prophet on the periphery. A disciple engaged in the hard, often selfless work of exorcising demons and relieving suffering.

How cool can a cruciform life ever really be?

Since coolness wasn’t a thing in Jesus’ day (or maybe it was just known by another name), one would have been more concerned with being real. Authenticity never goes out of style. Jesus was certainly authentic. His actions spoke louder than his words- and his words spoke quite loudly.

It seems the church will never know much success being “mainstream.” But this shouldn’t surprise- or disappoint- anyone. A square peg will never fit into a round hole.

The gospel message of love and mercy, forgiveness and grace, will always be at odds with a larger culture that, from all appearances, seems hell-bent on running away from the cross and toward a place where swagger counts more than humility, style more than substance. Where self-indulgence and ignorance are fed at every turn. Where the completely human tendency toward self-preservation often enough wins the day.

The New Testament speaks of our journey of faith as more of a marathon than a sprint, the most important victory having already been won. By Jesus. On that cross.

Until he comes again, I say we embrace our nerdiness. Let’s celebrate the fact that our relevance lies in offering anyone with ears to hear and hearts that yearn an authenticity grounded in faith, in God’s love for all of creation. That kind of love never goes out of style, cool in its own enduring- and endearing- way.

We, or at least I, thought for the longest time that it couldn’t happen here. Not in the USA. We were impervious to such decay, such poisonous thinking. Of course that turns out not to be true. We’re not special. We have serious flaws. In some ways we’re just another gathering of scared, selfish humans, a shrinking enclave of descendants of western and northern Europeans who see the writing on the wall, who are riding the prevailing winds of self-centeredness and fear and digging in of heels, trying to hold on for dear life in a world that’s changing, and in a country that’s trying, in fits and starts, to live up to its ideals.

Donald Trump and his mindless followers do not want this to happen, and the groundwork is being laid by which the white, Anglo-Saxon status quo will continue, and America will become just the latest failed experiment in democracy, ruled by a minority and the latest batch of autocrats. No doubt a most dramatic and shocking fall.

I care not one bit how Fox News treated the results of the Arizona audit. All I know is that the news sources I trust are at once laughing at the predictable results and also looking beyond them to what they indicate: that we have reached the crisis point when all signs point to a frightening abandonment of checks and balances, where Trump continues to lurk, or loom, and plot his return to power by assaulting and discrediting a process that has survived but may not survive much longer.

Steve Schmidt eloquently observes that America stands or falls on our capacity for honoring a compact, i.e. not losing faith and belief and trust in a sharing of power in a complex world. Trump and all his zombie friends would prefer to keep it much simpler, much less complex and more just a contrast between patriots and traitors, between “freedom lovers” and those who hate America. Even though most of those “haters” actually love America, albeit a fuller expression of it.

Not sure anymore what matters when it comes to Donald Trump’s presidency. The conversation he had with Mike Pence before the January 6 events is as telling as anything we’ve heard and seen. Trump said he wouldn’t be Mike’s friend anymore if he didn’t do something to gum up the works and keep Congress from ratifying the election results.

Gee, former Mr. President, sounds like you needed some toys to take home.

So the MAGA crowd gets to return to D.C. to rally in support of the January 6 “heroes.” Only in America, or this current iteration of it. Donald Trump has to somehow disappear. He is of no earthly good to anyone, even the people who for some incomprehensible reason still love him.

The Republican candidate in the recall election in CA is already claiming “fraud” before the election even happens. I guess maybe because he can see the writing on the wall with all the mail-in ballots being returned, and assuming that many of those are from people who are voting Democratic?

This is where the Republicans are right now—if their candidate isn’t winning, then the election is fraudulent. Frightening precedent. Earth 1 and Earth 2, as Maddow puts it. What happened to the good old days when people just came to terms with the loss, perhaps recognizing that their candidate wasn’t as popular as the other one?

What’s scary is that, going forward, we will not be able to rest assured that any outcome is as it is being reported. There will be a cloud of doubt over a process we have taken for granted for a long time. The voices shouting “fraud!” are already loud enough to shake the foundations, sow confusion, and make everyone wonder about an election’s validity, even if the results are based on hard numbers. It’s sinister. It’s a strategy, but it’s sinister.

Politically speaking, “Win at all costs” is a reckless, dangerous mantra, reeking of desperation and immaturity. How can anyone who supports such a philosophy sleep at night? They haven’t really won, fair and square, at least. Fair and square should still count for something.

Learn how to lose, and come back to fight another day. In the Republicans’ case, rework your agenda and platform, and make the effort to join us in the 21st century.

Covid is bringing out the worst in this country. Wow, that’s a real news flash.

Let’s add churches to the list of casualties. Yes, it’s wreaking havoc in congregations, too. Same list of reasons- stubbornness masquerading as patriotism, a mistrust of actual experts, differences of opinion regarding precautions. Some think masks are for sissies, hiding behind the convenient excuse that they’re unhealthy and restrictive, and ineffective. And the defectors choose to gather at some other house of worship and bitch about that other pastor and spout stupidity to each other, believing it to be wisdom, and that they actually have a cogent argument.

Maybe, out of righteous indignation and protest, or sheer spite and ignorance, they should start yet another branch of Lutheranism. How about the NALCM—the North American Lutheran Congregations of the Misinformed? They can join forces with their homophobic and racist sisters and brothers who are sure they know what the Bible says, who are all holier than thou.

Sorry. I can neither find nor make room in my head and heart for such hooey anymore.

American football is getting harder to watch. It’s turning into a blood sport. Tuned in a “game” between Ole Miss and Louisville last night, and in the few minutes I was watching, I saw 3 game disqualifications handed out for targeting. There might have been 4. And this was in the first half.

Some might say, “Let the guys play, for crying out loud!” but that’s a ridiculous attitude. The perps should be suspended for the season or kicked out entirely. There should be zero tolerance for such behavior.

“Football” in America has always been legalized mayhem. But it seems to be getting worse. Blame it on Covid, or maybe it’s just the natural progression of a violent game that has to trend more violent in order to entertain and keep the people watching. Whatever is at play, more power to the refs for keeping things from getting totally out of hand.

There are some anti-vaxxers who contract Covid, who get really sick, who eventually die, but before they die view themselves as martyrs for the “cause.” The public persona they wish to leave behind is one of brash denial, stubbornness, “bravery” in the face of the sickness they claimed was a hoax.

Bravo! Done in true Donald Trump double down style. It doesn’t matter if the virus is real. They’re gonna go down with their ship. My oh my.

“We’re gonna get through this.”

It could be Gov. Edwards, Gov. Hochul, Bill De Blasio, Gov. Murphy, Gov. Wolf. Probably not Gov. De Santis, because he’s Alfred E. Neuman in the flesh. Nothing to worry about in Florida. Everything is fine there.

In any event, these words are ringing hollow, just an increasingly pathetic attempt at something leaders are expected to say in the midst of a disaster. The whole country is burning or drowning or suffocating, but all our leaders can muster is “we’re gonna get through this.” Wow. Thanks. Don’t know what I would have done without your powerful words.

And then to add insult to injury, the solution put forth is to anticipate these bigger and angrier storms, build our infrastructure so it withstands the assaults… instead of having the balls to acknowledge that we have a more pressing issue: we need to change. We the people need to curb our appetites and change our habits and stop feeling so entitled. Because the forces of nature will always stay one step ahead of us.

Holy shit. Bigger and better isn’t the answer! That’s not the direction we need to go! Why is it not possible for people to see this by now?

Ida was mayhem. Ida was a slice of chaos and hell on earth from which many will never recover. And some day soon, Ida is going to seem like child’s play. But chances are that our elected leaders will just keep using the lazy and tried but not-so-true sound byte.

“We’re gonna get through this.”