The Blaze: Matt Walsh, Blogger, Responds to my Email

Photo the Blaze's Matt Walsh, Blogger*Author’s Note: this is an edited re-post from my old blog. I originally wrote it in August of 2014*

If you haven’t heard of him, Matt Walsh (blogger) is sort of an internet anti-celebrity who works for the Blaze blogging about really controversial things and upsets a lot of people. In a nutshell.

Anyway, the point is that he’s a Christian blogger whom I highly respect. I enjoy his writing and I agree with his arguments. And so I sent him an email.

Something Matt occasionally does is respond to emails from readers. Usually he’s logically defending his stance from someone who is irrationally screaming at him, calling him names, and generally being really nasty while blaming him for hatred.

But sometimes he blogs in response to people like the “quiet, boring girl in class,” or people like me! You can find the post here.

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How to be Intimate With God

"Chapel" sign - How to be Intimate with GodI’ve never written about supernatural experiences before. Nor have I ever written about my personal worship experiences, or really even much about my prayer life. This is mainly because I’ve experienced very few such events worth mentioning.

That is, not much out of the ordinary the like of which you haven’t heard before. There are a few exceptions, however, some of which I will share in this post.

In the past (and still sometimes today) I wondered how to be intimate with God. How to get intimate with God. Truly intimate. Like, Eden intimate. Okay, maybe that’s a bit lofty.

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C.S. Lewis Grief Observed Summary and Review

Cover of C.S. Lewis Grief Observed (Summary)I’ve more or less always known that C.S. Lewis was a fabulous writer. “A Grief Observed,” though, being his first nonfiction book I read through, blew my mind. It’s not necessarily his diction or prose, nor even the way he writes. It’s not even his intelligence that captures me per se.

Lewis has a wonderful knack for painting dirty reality and piercing truth in such a real sense of understanding; reading into his reservations and insights is flooring because of its relatability and honesty.

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God’s Not Dead Review – My Reservations

DVD Cover - God's Not Dead ReviewSo I finally got around to watching the film God’s Not Dead (I know, I’m not one of those really hip Christians). I have mixed feelings about this movie and though it does have good production quality (for a Christian movie) it also has enough downfalls to keep me from highly recommending it.

I have seen this movie a good 3-4 times now and it seems like I change my opinion on it every time I see it. I’m altogether wishy-washy about this film and although I’m not singing it’s praises, I’m not quick to condemn it either.

There are some questionable things about this film including it’s theology, motives, realism, and authenticity. However, I do think it’s probably still worth seeing if for no other reason than to examine the morphing of quality and message in Christian movies today.

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Christians and Gay Marriage: Why You Can’t Touch It

Photo of the White House lit with multicolored lights to form rainbow flag

There is a lot I have to say about homosexuality. If only I were well researched and in-the-know I could write a book about it. As it is, however, I’m just a guy. A guy who knows some things about what the Bible says and sees an upside-down culture. That includes an upside-down Christian culture as well.

In this particular post I will not be discussing homosexuality from a Biblical, moral perspective. I’ve already written about that. Now I’m talking about it on a level of civil law. In particular, as a reaction to the reaction on the supreme court’s tyrannical encroachment on sovereign state law last year. I will be discussing the sad and broken relationship between Christians and gay marriage.

So yes: I disagree with the court’s decision and I don’t think it’s right for unelected federal judges to decide what is best for individual states. I know, politics! Sue me. But that’s not what I’m talking about either.

What I’m talking about is why, at this particular point in time and for the near and foreseeable future, Christians and conservative supporters of traditional marriage will be unable to turn the tide of the pro-homosexual culture and political agenda.

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Wedding Small Talk

Photo of bride and groom cutting wedding cake*Author’s note: this is another re-upload, a short post I wrote roughly two years ago on an old freebie blog I had. Since it was about this time two years ago I proposed to my now-wife (and since I am barren to write much at this point in the week and have extra blog-fodder sitting aside), I found it appropriate to republish this.

It’s basically me giving a highly annoyed critique and social commentary on several trite sayings I heard over and over again as a betrothed man. In other words, it’s me complaining and generally being a curmudgeon about pre-wedding conversation. Enjoy my excessively peevish ramblings!*

 

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Breaking Up With the Past

Photo of a woman cryingFor many late adolescents and young adults, I would guess that some of the most hellish and haunting pages you can turn through are those from your school yearbooks. Looking into those thick devils reminds us of everything that was, many things that could or should have been, and begging questions of “what if.”

If you are one of the few who chose not to purchase your school yearbooks, or could not afford them, you are blessed. But buying them sure was the thing to do, wasn’t it? Every year, book buying and signing was a big event.

It was almost like the the torturous culture of high school was saying “here, pay us $75 to carry around your past like a ball-and-chain.” I am glad I had the experience, I guess, but I wish I would have been more wise.

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Looking Down on Ourselves

photo of desertI’m not sure if you’ve noticed this, but whenever you hear people talking about humans that lived in the past they usually have this condescending tone in their voice. Especially on television, from “scientific” research, and hyperbolic depictions in motion pictures.

It’s like when we talk about where we thought infants came from when we were little. “Haha, I used to think babies were made in tummies after a kiss! I was so dumb!” Example: the common belief about our solar system, before we had sufficient evidence otherwise, was that the sun orbited the earth. “Wow, humans really thought that? How naive of us! It’s a good thing we’re smarter now!”

Except we’re not.

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Never Question Anything. Ever.

Photo of two women wearing blindfolds walkingY’know how people hate being questioned? Having their authority challenged? Nobody ever really wants to have to look at what they believe and ask themselves “why do I believe this? Is this right? Is this true?

Because that could lead to horror. That could lead to them finding out they are wrong, and then they would have to… change! GASP!

I’m trying really hard not to mention any of the major scientific debates and controversies going on right now. Firefights between two major schools of thought in the United States come to mind: atheistic science and creationism.

The former is obsessed with trying to snuff out the ideology they perceive as childish and imaginary that the latter believes, and the latter fights fire with fire because they feel threatened by what they see as oppression by and false information of the former.

Ironically, both usually get really defensive, even angry, when you question them.

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Blog Update: The Blog Life (Revisited)

Photo of floor tiles colored to look like a decorative map compass*Author’s Note:*  this is admittedly a bit of lazy work today, but I’m posting this to show how far I’ve come and provide some clarity to where I am going. I wrote this tiny piece sometime around 2012 (roughly 4 years before this post). It’s cute that I thought 400 words was an acceptable length for a quality blog post: now I am bobbing around 1000, and even that is a bit on the low side. Read on and see how silly I was – and in four more years I’ll look back at this and see how silly I am. Still… onward!


Direction (Or Lack Thereof)

Before I had direction – that is, before technical school, before meeting the perfect woman, before Christ (all Christians have a BC era), before Dave Ramsey and Dan Miller and Craig Groeschel and Francis Chan and all the other public figures I chose to inspire myself by listening to – I had no idea where I was going.

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