ONLY AUTOCRATS FEAR FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY ON THEIR BORDERS. When an autocrat acts aggressively and violently against a neighboring nation, for no other reason than such a fear, that autocrat becomes an agent of evil. In the Russian war against Ukraine, now underway, the Russian autocrat is raining down suffering, destruction and death on the …
The Boy Who Would Be King
WHAT THE RISE OF DONALD TRUMP HAS SHOWN US IS THE MAGICAL POWER a massively inflated ego has to attract “wounded” people who fear loss and diminishment, that is, people who have developed the so-called “victim mentality.” Inflation, however, is not enough by itself to explain the magical power of the attraction. An unconscious archetypal …
Dreamwalking
WHAT A REMARKABLE AND REVEALING SCENE. One of the cable news shows aired a brief video clip of the FBI interviewing a young man who admitted using a Taser to assault a police officer during the January 6 attack on the capitol. There were two FBI agents in the room, sitting calmly on opposites sides …
Soulfully, on the Edge
ON THE WAY HOME FROM A WEEKEND GETAWAY, my wife and I chose to drive one of Colorado’s most scenic mountain highways, one the AAA guidebook warns “should be traveled with caution.” During the weekend trip, we also went to see the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park. The highway and the dwellings both …
The Trouble with Following “the Leader”
THE PROBLEM IS PROJECTION — AND THE DARK SHADOWS IT CASTS. For anyone to ascend to the heights of popular power in a society, he (or, rarely, she) must provide an adequate “hook” on which the mass of people can hang their archetypal projections. The primary archetypal image at play here is the Sovereign. Like …
The Tragic Irony of Knowing the Truth
THIS WEEK’S POST IS WILL BE A LITTLE DIFFERENT, a little more personal than usual. Here’s why. The online course I’m offering, “Jesus and the Feminine in the Gospel of John,” begins next week (see my note below). Although I’m offering it through my local church, the course is open to the public at large. …
Reaching One Through Addition
THE HISTORY OF RELIGION ACTUALLY HAS SOMETHING TO SAY that’s important for us to hear, right now. Recognizing the ambiguity of the American national motto, E pluribus unum, points us toward the same understanding. How does one get to one, through subtraction or addition? In mathematics, reaching one through addition means we’re dealing with abstractions …
Let’s Not Neglect Justice and Mercy and Faith
“HYPOCRITES! HYPOCRITES! YOU HYPOCRITES!” This past weekend, while watching the news about the death of Ruth Bader Ginsberg, and the Republican response, these exclamations (and a few other choice words) kept screaming into my head — and occasionally out through my lips. Eventually, I realized I was responding, appropriately, in biblical terms. In the Gospel …
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