We're back, with an all new site.BurnsideWriters.c...
The missing cross
7:27 AM
It's easy to be critical of the church, especially retrospectively. Like Monday morning quarterbacks, we can all look back through the centuries and see the folly of crusades, colonization, slavery, and the unholy marriage of political power and wealth with the name of Jesus. These failures are, ostensibly, the reasons offered by millions for their rejection of Christ and, especially, of the church.Surely our failures are part of the story, but I suspect there's more to it than that. Thomas Merton said something to the effect that the crisis among believers and unbelievers is really the same - we are, all of us, recoiling at the cross.Of course,...
Posted in: MeditationsNew Burnside on Monday
5:00 PM
This may very well be the final post on the Burnside Blog.On Monday, barring any unforeseen disasters, and requiring a load of work this weekend, we will launch our new site. We've been working on it for a while, and we're thrilled to finally show you what we have. We've also changed our URL. The new site will be at burnsidewriters.com.The blog will still be up, but posts won't go here. Our old site will link directly to our new one. The blog and main site will be integrated. Some of the posts you've seen here will become articles. For shorter pieces, our site will offer an Asides department, for quick links, posts, and videos.I get a...
Genesis - The Facebook Edition
12:33 PM
I'm so glad I have access to David Sessions' Google status, or I would've missed this.And speaking of our friends at Patrol Magazine, they have a terrific editorial on profanity and Christian magazines.We've got a similar piece on censorship and profanity as it pertains to Burnside coming with the launch of our new site...stay tun...
9/11
8:34 AM
Relevant Magazine asked a few Burnside writers for short reflections on 9/11.You can read those here.We didn't have a ton of room, but I do want to mention how writing about 9/11 feels vaguely self-absorbed. I mean, think that day changed everyone on some level, but writing on how my thoughts about the world, politics, and war began to shift seem to pale in comparison to people who suffered directly, before and since.(It's also a shame Susan Isaacs' memories weren't posted...she didn't have time to write a piece, but her story is in her book, and it's craz...
"More coffee, hun?"
4:33 PM
I�ve had many memories at Waffle House. But I�m guessing some of you have never even been to one before. For those who don't know, it's a 24 hour grease-pit. A southern staple of grits and hospitality. It originally began in a little suburb outside of Atlanta Georgia in 1955 and now reaches as far north as Pennsylvania / Rhode Island and stretches west to Arizona / Colorado. Sorry Portland, but Waffle House might be my favorite cup of coffee. The coffee is not good, it�s bland. But the atmosphere is ironically endearing in that white-trash sort of way. A classic American icon if you ask me. With three of us at the table my friend looks...
Teach Me To Pray
4:18 AM
I write at a kitchen table. There are days when I'd love to have a writer's desk with an old Tiffany lamp perched just so and fountain pens in an empty soup can and copies of The New Yorker strewn about the edges and...but that would be someone else's story. I write at a kitchen table.As I wrote yesterday, I could see him. Then he'd disappear. Then I'd see him again. Rising. Falling. Rising again. You see, his backyard has a trampoline, like our backyard does. I watched him turn flip after flip after flip, I bet twenty in a row, his eyes closed. He was poetry. Our trampoline has a black safety web that feeds our abandon. His does not; he jumps without a net.The lights in his house stay on all night long and the windows are always, always open, every last one, and people are always...
Wait a minute...THERE'S A WALL HERE!!!
9:30 PM
AND IT'S NOT HOLDING BACK PALESTINIANS!!!If there's a single area of the world I would infer would be completely covered by archaeologists, that single area would be Jerusalem.You know what they say: when you infer, you make an in out of 'f' and 'er'.But seriously, they just found a giant wall in Jerusalem. Now the maps in the back of every Bible ever have to be rewritten!!!(When reached for comment, the Christian book industry simply said, "Cha-ching!...
Ugly Ducklings
6:21 AM
I'm trying to remember a worse day to be a Duck fan.It was nearly comical.The Oregon Ducks-Boise State Broncos matchup to kick off the college football season ended up a disaster. From the opening kick-off, the aura played into Boise's hands: the plucky, all-American underdog facing its Nike-funded, evil-empire, neighboring state, BCS rival.In last year's game, a Boise State defender delivered a vicious helmet-to-helmet cheap shot to Oregon QB Jeremiah Masoli after his first pass attempt. It was the one moral ground a Ducks fan could stand on going in, and even then it was reluctant. Before the last two season, most Oregon fans loved Boise...
This has to be a joke...
8:26 AM
Apparently, Christians aren't the only ones looking to profit off the apocalypse.I'm not sure it's real. (The FAQs say it is!) If it is, though...oh, mama. What a wonderful scheme.(Thanks to reader James for the tip. This blog would be a sad, liberal-infested place without him, and we love him for tha...
Who wants SEC Championship Game tickets?
6:06 AM
Okay, I know a great many of you live in the Pacific Northwest. And I know most of you who care about football care more about the PAC 10. But I'm writing a book on Faith and Fanaticism in the Southeastern Conference, and to generate a little interest in the project I'm giving away two tickets to the SEC Title Game.Here is how the contest works.You have until Oct 17th to enter. On the 18th I will draw 10 names, and those fans will compete in a six-week, knock out style pick 'em contest, with the winner taking two tickets to the big game. So how do you get entered? Easy, there are three ways.1. Join my Facebook group.2. Take the Faith and...
"E" - the estrogen factor of American Christianity
7:15 AM
I'm intrigued by a study David Murrow did (found here, archives of the Winter 2008 issue) that examined a possible hypothesis regarding the vast percentage difference between the genders when it comes to church attendance. It's about 60/40 in our church, and this is common. This imbalance is unique to Christianity, as Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, and Hindus all display a remarkable gender balance in their faith practices.One could speculate about the 'why' of this, and such speculations abound, including hypotheses that address the patriarchal bent of other religions ("of course men are in... they carry all the power cards!"), or their cultural...
Posted in: Gender RolesDerek Webb, Stockholm Syndrome
11:50 AM
I like Derek Webb a lot. He's a truly creative guy, working in and around the fringes of Christian music, a genre that doesn't exactly prize "the artist" often. I met him briefly when he was touring during his first round with Caedmon's Call (a band Webb announced he will be reuniting with soon) and it already seemed he was uneasy with the constraints of the business, frustrated by the limitations of playing in churches and the unofficially-enforced Jesus-per-minute standard. After a very weird time in Caedmon's (his songs seemed either pinned on at the last minute, or on a few albums, Webb didn't get a song on at all), he turned to a solo...
