KtBlog
The Kabul Scarf
It’s New Year’s Eve, and last night my colleague at Waging Nonviolence, Eric Stoner, returned safely from Afghanistan. He was there as a journalist and activist with an envoy of peacemakers, meeting networks of Afghans and internationals who are working to end the endless war, to which so many young people in that country have…
Taking the Christ Out of Christmas
My brother and I got into a fight at the Christmas dinner table. This year it wasn’t our usual conservative-vs.-liberal spat, over homosexuality or abortion. (My brother is a Bible-believing Evangelical who reads Athanasius, to grasp the fullness of the Trinitarian God. I’m a Babel-believing writer who reads Flannery O’Connor, to hear revelation in the…
Have Yourself a Godless Little Christmas
When I penned a piece on the latest round of anti-God campaigns for Washington Post’s On Faith column, I observed how the tenor among atheists seems to have softened this year. Instead of trying to de-convert people of faith, most atheists and humanist groups simply want to create a space for themselves to celebrate the holiday…
A Hanukkah Miracle
Nes Katan Hayah Po. A small miracle happened here. Here, of all places, on the Metro Transit Authority’s turf. That’s what I thought, at least, when I stepped off the Q train and onto the platform of the 30th Avenue stop. I had to laugh. I should explain why. The ancient history: The Judeans found…
What’s the Real Story of Hanukkah?
Our friends over at Obit are taking a super-revisionist approach to the Hanukkah story: Some time ago, a group of fanatics grew irritated and agitated by the lack of zeal demonstrated by some of their co-religionists, many of them wealthy and educated. A number of these non-zealots were assimilating at a fast pace into modern…
The Christmas Tree Conundrum
I heard a radio commercial recently singing the praises of locally-farmed Christmas trees. Eco-friendly, ’cause a bunch of trees are planted for each farmed tree. Natural, not full of plastic. Supporting local farmers. Smells good and all that. Sure. But, to me, it’s still a dead tree which gets dolled up like a corpse, laid…
Give Thanks for Guy Fawkes
Philosopher of science Michael Ruse writes at the Chronicle: I grew up in England, so of course I knew nothing of Thanksgiving. Our fall celebration was November Fifth, Guy Fawkes Night, when we used to light bonfires and let off fireworks—no safety restrictions in those days—and celebrate the foiling of the Catholic plot to blow…
Transgender Day of Remembrance
November 20th marks the 12th annual Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day to memorialize those who have been killed by anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. This event began when 250 people gathered for a candlelight vigil in 1998 following the murder of Rita Hester, a woman who was transsexual and a fixture in the Boston rock…
The Dark Side of the Festival of Lights
I knew something was changing in India when I arrived for Diwali about ten years back and some of my nephews were boycotting the five-day Hindu Festival of Lights. While subtler forms of light are used too—a cascade of clay oil lamps illuminating sets of stairs—firecrackers are the big attraction in this annual commemoration of good over…
Season of the Witch
Tea Party candidates aside, I’m always thrilled by the pagan good times offered by Halloween, and what is now called the Halloween season. We are approaching the time of year when many cultures consider the membrane between the worlds to be the thinnest. I enjoy celebrating the Feast of All Saints on November 1st, and…
Let Freedom Wring
I didn’t know it was Banned Books Week when I attended the discussion on Sherman Alexie’s National Book Award-winning The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian at the school library last night. Nor had I read the book, though it seemed worth supporting. Heck, anything that gets my 19-year-old welding and construction students to…
Independence Day, almost
This one day during basic training when we did a night live fire exercise crawling under exploding things made me kind of done with fireworks. I was low-crawling through the sand with tracer bullets flying overhead (“Don’t stand up, or you might get killed,” they told us, though I figured the bullets were probably higher…
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