You know what? Reading this really makes me angry. I read this, and I’d like to be one of those offended Christians. Call Dobson. Call Roy Moore. Tell the guy off for insulting Christians. All that yap.

But you know what? I’m worse than Bill Maher. Lots worse. I stand in the shadow of the cross and spit on all that it means….all the while saying I believe it, and that it’s what my life is all about.

I know Jesus and still live no differently than this guy lives most of the time. My heart has the same cynicism and cruel indifference towards God. I know what the Gospel means, and most of the time I act like I don’t care. Some of the time, I don’t feel like I do care. My heart, mind and emotions ought to be saturated, filled, overflowing and satisfied with Jesus. But I still drink from the cisterns of the world, as if there were no fountain flowing freely from the throne. I look at the cross, and am moved no more than Bill Maher.

God became man for Bill Maher. God died for Bill Maher. All that stuff in The Passion that made me want to puke? For Bill Maher. And even more outrageous….for me. Far more outrageous that it’s for scum like me.

Take a glimpse at what we would be be were it not for the grace of our creator, and remember his bloody sacrifice for this man, for you and for a world much worse. Take a moment and worship such a God.

Today’s lesson in my AP English IV class was Shirley Jackson’s well-known short story, “The Lottery.” Many of you probably read this story in your senior year of high school. From the standpoint of a teacher, “The Lottery” is a winner because it’s great art and a great starter for discussions. It is a simple story, swimming in a quiet sea of irony that suddenly rises up as a terrible monster in the last two paragraphs. We’ll be working with it for a couple of days, and the students are clearly moved by the power of Jackson’s multi-leveled artistic achievement. It’s the kind of story that leaves me in awe of what a simple writer can do with a single insight and a great talent.

I choose to spend most of today’s discussion on the subject of “scapegoating.” This is one of the most direct routes into the story, but the direct route seemed appealing to me after reading several essays on the Marxist, feminist and political interpretations of the stories. Some criticise this approach, saying it is too obvious, but the effect of the story is heavily oriented to the subject of scapegoating as an example of tradition, violence and unquestioning allegience to evil through accepted social norms.

It’s also a subject that made me think theologically, and here’s the result: The need for scapegoating is deep in human nature, and God recognizes this in making our salvation the acceptance of our role in the greatest of all scapegoating rituals.
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I want to thank BHT fellow Phillip Winn for some MT wizardry that once and for all rids me of the plague of comment spam that has decimated this site. The price to pay for peace in the neighborhood is small: you must preview comment posts. Press two buttons instead of one.

Let me also say that if I never hear the words “Texas Hold ‘em” or “Penis extender” again, it will be too soon. May all comment spammers spend a happy eternity enduring the wrath of God and anything I can throw at them as well.