Why Wood Badge Was My Latest Watershed

Those of you, dear readers, who have read most of my blog posts know that I haven't posted much of anything for the past year or so. Part of that was that the fire for lectionary analysis had died down to embers (becoming something I mostly kept to myself), and the fact that I didn't feel that I had much to share, now that I was not in the diaconal formation program anymore.

As such, I didn't share on the blog that I had joined up with a Boy Scout troop in September. I joined as an adult leader, thinking that I would be able to be a mentor, or that I would be able to contribute somehow to the lives and formation of these young men.

I suppose that I have, but more than anything, I have been taken with what Scouts has opened up for me, now that I'm back in as an adult.

Be a Lover, Not a Hater

This isn't my image. It's the cover photo from
Rev. Simmons' blog post

I've long wanted to write a piece describing why I think the phrase "hate the sin, love the sinner," is not as loving of a response as people want it to be. But lo and behold, I have been beaten to the punch. After the mass shooting perpetrated at the nightclub in Orlando last week, the Rev. David Simmons wrote a great piece that connected that tragedy with how we, as Christians, cannot keep using that phrase as justification to denounce someone's "lifestyle choices" while continuing to "love at" a particular group of people.

That being said, please read his post. But nevertheless, I have a few things that I want to say, too...