If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
There is a God of justice, and those who unjustly indulge their comforts at the expense of others will one day have to face reality. Numerical calculations of 666 aside, perhaps Revelation still has something to teach us today.
What if love is the ultimate key to salvation and our behavior, not our words, is the test of our worthiness?
We can turn the darkness around us in the brightness of noon, as the Prophet Isaiah said, if we live out the core principles of compassion and peace that are shared by the world's great religions.
They asked about the preacher's affairs. About the money he made. They asked if Donna Johnson, the woman who considered the preacher her stepdad, had forgiven him. But what they really wanted to know was had she ever seen a miracle that she believed was real?
To give this some perspective the force of the explosion was equal to 500 kilotons of TNT -- when put into nuclear blast language Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed by bombs with a 13-22 kiloton force.
The growing market for survival shelters and other provisions is fast becoming big business. Dozens of companies have popped up that construct and install survival shelters, and this popularity could even create a niche market for homes with old bomb shelters.
Most people probably took the Mayan Apocalypse as light-heartedly as I did, though clearly there were some who really thought the end was nigh. What worries me, however, is that this story is symptomatic of a more pathological apocalypticism that has begun to permeate American culture.
I was in Cairo on the day the world ended. Well, not really, but on the day the world was supposed to end, Dec. 21, 2012.
New Year's is one of my favorite times of the year. I love that feeling of starting new and fresh with an untouched 365 days that YOU will have control over.
In case you expect me to include 50 Shades of Grey, the Kardashians or Clint Eastwood's profound discussion with a chair, sorry, but nobody actually rated them highly.
I'm glad the world did not end so I could enjoy a few days of Forced Family Fun with some pretty awesome adults.
No matter religious or scientific End Times, the world is said to end in fire. And of all the signs that get things rolling toward those days of end, a new world leader, or messiah, being born is the biggest.
This archetype shows up consistently throughout history and compels human beings to believe that a huge shift or monumental transition is about to happen. In reality, the grand utopian visions and doomsday scenarios, so far at least, have never really come to pass.
The Mayans turned out to be wrong about the end of the world, but there was still a lot of gloom this week as we watched the procession of funerals for victims of the Newtown shooting. On Thursday alone, services were held for four six-year-olds and one seven-year-old. In an attempt at establishing some normalcy for those kids who survived, officials are recreating their classrooms at a nearby school, right down to the art on the walls and the placement of desks and backpacks. That's good for the children; the rest of us need the exact opposite. We need to break the all-too familiar routine of gun-victim funerals and leaders who helplessly throw up their hands. On Wednesday, the president announced that Joe Biden would lead a task force on gun violence. It's a step in the right direction, but only if it results in legislation that makes a week of wrenching funerals begin to seem utterly unfamiliar.
That's the hard part with college admissions. You never know what the quality of the applications looks like until everyone applies -- but once you know that, you can't really do anything to set yourself apart from the crowd. By that point, you are who you are.
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