Say What?

I've had enough. Like many people, I've toyed with the thought of deleting my Facebook account. Earlier this week, in a spur-of-the-moment decision, I decided to toy no more and did it. More accurately, I stopped short of deleting it and deactivated it instead. Not deleting it gives me continued access to Messenger, where I can still connect with friends. Perhaps it was the algorithm I had cultivated, but maybe not. I used to manage a Facebook page that I started a while back as a tribute to a lighted oak tree in Bloomington. I let the page go dormant for years and was shocked when I looked at it a few months ago and found that it had been overrun with hard-right propaganda accounts. I've heard of this happening before. A quick search shows it's not uncommon  for that to happen.  My experience of late on the platform shows a trend toward more racist and hateful comments, especially on pages for local TV stations, where the comments are primarily from residents of the me...

This is a continuation of a blog post I wrote today. You can find it here . I began using a more critical eye in my future devotions, and soon found myself doubting the validity of some of what I was reading. Was this really from God, or was this actually Moses editorializing with the writing of God's laws? I thought, wow, Moses can pretty much tell his people anything he wants—that it's direct from God to him—and they don't question it.  I was well on my way to leaving the faith during Trump's first term. I had been jumping out and jumping in over the span of a few years. But when I saw the way Trump's supporters believed every one of his huge and ridiculous lies, I thought about the origins of my faith. I wondered, what if Moses were a Trump-like figure who would tell his people grandiose stories, and they would believe him? Could this religion of mine be built on something like that?  I thought about how a man could easily assemble the basic structure of a belief...

Like many people living in the Midwest, Christianity is in my DNA, or was. It was part of my core. I was raised in a Lutheran household, where we regularly attended church and Sunday school and, when I was old enough, weekly confirmation classes. There was never any talk among our family of questioning our faith, nor did we discuss religion that I can recall. What was there to discuss? If it was good enough for my parents, it was good enough for me, or something like that.  I've come to see my faith life as a winding journey. For most of my life, I was strong in my Christian faith, but then I began questioning the entire church apparatus that I'd been indoctrinated into, because there's a part of me that isn't content to embrace something I'm struggling to understand. This was maybe fifteen years ago. I still felt committed to the faith, but I recall some doubts creeping in—and I found myself open to new ideas.  My core belief centered around Jesus and the understan...

As much as I can, I avoid using my blog to recount the endless provocations and destructive actions Trump and his administration are taking. I would rather spend my time writing about what these offenses mean to me and holding up a mirror to those who support this madness, hoping to appeal to their better angels. If there is a goal with a post like this, it's to help people see another perspective and, hopefully, to cause them to think outside the lines conservative media and conservative politicians would like them to remain in, in steadfast loyalty to them and their narrative. I recall learning about propaganda in middle school. I was fascinated by the thought of so many people being lied to and not realizing it. I never imagined it could take root here in the United States. We're too smart for that, or so I thought. But I lacked imagination. I lacked the understanding of what billions of dollars fed into a media conglomerate could do as they invited people to come for the he...

I don't always ride for my physical health; I ride for my mental health as well. My bikes and my walks are my escapes from the world and its problems. They're what I use to help sort out my thoughts, just as writing in my blog does.  I remember the exact stretch of highway I was riding, just east of Lydia on a beautiful Sunday morning in October 2008, when I stopped being owned by the Republican Party for my pro-life vote. I took it back. I had been contemplating the presidential endorsement Colin Powell gave Obama on Meet the Press a couple of hours earlier. It was a powerful endorsement and one I couldn't ignore. I made a conscious decision in that moment to open my mind to switching my support.  Before that morning, I had always been a reliable vote for conservatives, primarily because of reasons centered around abortion. But they were using me. Putting the issue of abortion aside, it became clear to me that I could no longer support a political party that was heavily we...

I attended the official lighting ceremony for the Glowing Tree in Bloomington earlier this month. I was worried that the new version of the lighted oak wouldn't live up to years past, but it did. It's every bit as beautiful as it ever was, and likely even better. I spoke with one of the workers and one of the owners of the home where the tree resides. They said it took 40,000 lights and 160 man-hours to string the lights. I've included a video of the tree's lighting at the end of this post.  If you're in the Minneapolis metro area, you can find the tree less than a mile southwest of the Mall of America, just west of Cedar Ave. Here's a link . Our 17-year-old furnace began acting up when we turned it on last month. It was an ignition issue. The tech who came out to service it said the manufacturer no longer made parts for our Ruud furnace and that it would need to be replaced. Thankfully, the tech was able to get it working again, but cautioned us that it was a t...