As a writer, I always knew that "dumping the notebook" would create a longer and less focused news story. The time and discipline it takes to match ideas and paraphrase would trade density for brevity, rather than the opposite. This look at how police work is conducted today and the impact that has on local, particularly minority, communities does the opposite. It's more sprawling and anything but brief. On an issue where jumping to quick conclusions is far too common, I felt the need to take mo...
Jan 19, 2015•1 hr 49 min
Whether the prophets of old have been, or need to be, updated by contemporary prophecy?
Jan 03, 2015•38 min
It's both accurate and inaccurate to describe Boxing Day as a time to remember people who are in working class positions or struggling economically. When I was told that December 26th was the day set aside for sharing old and no-longer-wanted toys with others, that actually drifts a bit from the true Commonwealth history of the holiday. All the same, it is a nice and fitting idea. Different Drummer: Elvis Costello Songs recorded by Elvis Costello...
Dec 26, 2014•50 min
Most Americans probably perceive the "12 days of Christmas" to be intense retail shopping days before Christmas. The expression actually refers to the true period of Christmas celebration starting on the selected date of December 25th and counting from there. It makes me wonder why many people are so focused on pulling down decorations and silencing all holiday hymns right in the middle of those 12 days. I understand the argument that we start too soon. I would also understand an argument that w...
Dec 22, 2014•49 min
Whether serving at a food bank or soup kitchen is more worshipful than what we call church?
Dec 12, 2014•34 min
Even from an Advent Calendar perspective, I prefer music to chocolate. This includes Christmas music, both reverent and irreverent, along with songs that would be more accurately described as "winter holiday" than Christmas music. Different Drummer: George Frideric Handel
Nov 27, 2014•1 hr 53 min
Happy Thanksgiving week! As an Advent Booklet of sorts, the content for this episode really applies to next Sunday. Advent begins on November 30th this year. You can listen all at once or take the content one week at a time between now and Christmas. Different Drummer: John Fahey
Nov 23, 2014•1 hr 7 min
Whether the church has a vital role to play in national elections?
Nov 05, 2014•40 min
The best thing about suspense films, whether thrillers or horror, is the build up not the payoff. Getting the the edge of your seat doesn't happen at the moment of shock or surprise, it happens on the way there. Les Diaboliques is one of my favorite examples. It's a movie that might be described as the one that got away from Hitchcock. Different Drummer: Alfred Hitchcock Spoiler scene from the 1954-55 Clouzot film...
Oct 29, 2014•54 min
Time to respond to feedback, formally, for the fourth time. The P's and Q's are your points and questions. Thanks! Different Drummer: Michael J. Fox
Oct 24, 2014•38 min
Whether travel, health, rain and other hopes should be the primary focus of prayer?
Oct 16, 2014•41 min
Scriptures, in order of appearance: Acts 17: 10-12 Hebrews 5:7 – 6:3 1 Corinthians 2:11 – 3:11 Romans 12: 1-6 Psalms 19:14 Matthew 5: 13-24 John 19: 28-30 Galatians 3: 6-18 Galatians 3: 23-29 James 2: 8-13 Romans 13: 8-10 Galatians 5: 1-15 Matthew 25: 31-46 John 8: 1-11 Luke 10: 25-37 John 4: 1-30 John 14: 1-10 Luke 14: 1-24 Matthew 18:21 – 19:12 Isaiah 56: 1-8 Luke 6:43 – 7:10 Matthew 8: 5-13 John 10: 1-18 Mark 8: 27-38 Acts 4:32 – 5:16 Mark 3: 20-35 Matthew 7: 21-24 Luke 13: 22-30 Mark 12: 18-...
Sep 23, 2014•3 hr 33 min
Whether faith can abide superstition and where to draw a line between the two?
Sep 16, 2014•38 min
This Sunday is National Grandparents' Day, which has been a secular holiday since 1978, or so I'm told. The day doesn't receive anywhere near the respect, or marketing, of days for mothers and fathers. I suspect a large number of grandparents could argue that insufficient respect is par for the course. What does it mean, though, to "respect your elders" as I've been told many times in my life? I believe real respect means remembering what they've said and done, challenging them when they fall sh...
Sep 03, 2014•1 hr 5 min
If I had been younger when record companies began putting warning labels on albums and tapes, responding to pressure from the Parents Music Resource Center and others, I'm sure I would have responded like almost every teenager I observed while working in a record store. The "Tipper sticker" served as a beacon, telling them which albums to buy. Only very rarely did I observe this attempt at censorship (some associated with the PMRC openly hoped their approach would lead to album bans) go in the o...
Aug 26, 2014•1 hr 11 min
Whether the Sunday School calendar should follow the school year, including a dormant period for summer months?
Aug 12, 2014•32 min
Friends have recently called to my attention that I've insufficiently emphasized the most important of my human relationships. It is true. One reason is trying to keep some private things private. Another is that I forget how a passionate lifelong romantic partnership is, perhaps, strange. I'd never want to take anything for granted though. Note: I could have gone without the explicit language tag -- arguably -- but it's a practical joke on my wife to have this Inappropriate Conversation labeled...
Jul 19, 2014•59 min
Whether the concept of "home church" is necessary or merely particularism? Also: Some thoughts on 1 John 4: 7-21 Greetings From Nowhere 1 Greetings From Nowhere 2 Take Him With You 1 Take Him With You 2...
Jul 13, 2014•40 min
A century ago in sermons and speeches that would become My Utmost For His Highest , the current sad state of Christianity was described aptly with the question, "Are you loyal to Jesus or to your notion of him?" by Oswald Chambers. We see the problem when Christians openly dispute the things Jesus said, or when popular versions of Bible stories don't match the "inspired word of God" and those obsessed with Biblical perfection fail to side with the inerrant text. Chambers might say that we are gu...
Jul 06, 2014•49 min
Whether maintaining a hierarchy of sins is itself un-Biblical and sinful?
Jun 28, 2014•33 min
Business author Jason Jennings once raised the question: what's the good business reason for doing this? It's a notion we should apply to other aspects of life. The church should mix this with "what would Jesus do?" slogans and challenge whether congregations have asked about the good Jesus reasons before taking a stand. Likewise, in the area of state secrets, our government leaders need to ask themselves tough questions before classifying documents. Making secrets out of things that either ough...
Jun 12, 2014•1 hr
Whether equipping virtually can effectively lead to an actual outreach?
Jun 06, 2014•34 min
The birth of a pseudonym tends to be all about necessity, but the death of a pen name is rarely chronicled. I've been speaking, here and there, about The Author since the second Inappropriate Conversations podcast. Here is the rest of that story, in a surrealistic way. Different Drummer: M. C. Escher
May 25, 2014•55 min
Whether membership must focus on a single church, as if fidelity is more to a congregation than to Christ?
May 20, 2014•40 min
Imagine that everything you ever have done and everything you ever will do has either already happened in a single flash of "time" or is happening now. Everything. We are only aware of an echo, a flow from that moment of reality, and it appears to proceed horizontally to us. What if the bigger picture functions vertically, though, and instantaneously? Our perspective on several theological concepts would be very different, and so would our relationships. Different Drummer: Kurt Vonnegut, Jr....
May 13, 2014•1 hr 1 min
A long trip and a long interval between podcasts may call for a long episode. This nostalgia show covers my recent journey through England, Scotland, and Wales. Please, mind the gap while you are listening to this show. Our next stop will be the verticality of time. Thanks for listening! Different Drummer: John Peel
Apr 26, 2014•1 hr 21 min
Whether the concept of tithing applies to the giver or to the church as the receiver?
Apr 10, 2014•44 min
Whether the notion of "things we don't discuss in church" is strangling our ministry?
Mar 27, 2014•40 min
Rather than noting what is in this World Storytelling Day episode, I'll note what is regrettably missing. * Not much personal storytelling, despite a commitment to return to nostalgia a few weeks ago. * Repeating some material from Inappropriate Conversations #50 about Lilo & Stitch . * Insufficient callout to the band The Peddlers for the theme song to The Lost Continent . * Planned but forgot to connect the "sound" of Dana Gillespie to Candye Kane. * Missed an opportunity to feature at lea...
Mar 16, 2014•43 min
Whether condemnation of a denomination based on its lack of prejudice is really more of an endorsement?
Mar 09, 2014•44 min
