Well, the virus finally hit my small town in rural Pennsylvania last week, and it hit in a way that surprised us all. Don’t worry, we’re all fine and healthy for the most part. But the virus hasn’t just come for our bodies and spirits. The most recent casualty of COVID-19 was our annual town […]
Scared and Sacred, Faith and Fear
During the quarantine, I’ve spent many afternoons sitting quietly on the trunk of a tree that had fallen across the neighborhood creek—a small body of water that meanders through the woods behind my home. One recent afternoon, as my three young children splashed, I watched the sunlight in the treetops render the green leaves almost […]
Miss Anthropocene and the Romance of Human Extinction
The costly aversion of the eyes from death— Beneath it all, desire of oblivion runs. – Philip Larkin Until last fall when she was accused of technofascism, I had only a vague familiarity with Grimes, whose 2012 hit “Oblivion” had come to me a time or two from Spotify’s all-knowing algorithm. She didn’t seem to […]
How Depression Prepared Me for the Coronavirus or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Uncertainty
Trevor Almy sent us this beautiful reflection. For Chris Crane As we approach the end of our shelter-in-place orders, I have been reflecting on how, although I have an anxiety-based disorder, I have not panicked from the external crisis or from being sequestered. Paradoxically, the coronavirus has given me an outward threat to direct my […]
The Long Bag We Drag Behind Us
Someone once said, “The greatest possible thing that could happen to you would be to have your worst sins broadcast on the 5 o’clock news.” In theory, maybe. But in practice? I don’t know about you, but I tend to read Jesus’ promise that “all darkness will be brought to light” as, well, ominous. Who […]
Freud, Wish Fulfillment, and the Gospel
Thankful for this one from David Clay. The chief end of man, according to my two-year-old daughter Ellie, is to eat as many cookies as possible. Her destination of choice is “the bakery,” which is not a specific location but rather a term encompassing any number of local coffee houses, restaurants, and at least one […]
There Is a Shrink in Gilead: The Church and Mental Health
When it comes to the treatment of mental health, many of the therapeutic approaches taken today tend to be highly individualized. The afflicted person goes (alone) to see a therapist, who provides a resources or insight to aid the patient. The broad successes of this approach speaks for itself. Mental health professionals so often see […]
Ancient Samaritans and 70s Seminarians
It was curious to me that the first Christians didn’t see the parable of the Good Samaritan as a purely ethical mandate. I’m talking about the oft maligned, rarely approved interpretation of the Good Samaritan parable that nearly every early church father embraced. If you dabble in the waters of church history, then you know […]
How Phobia Has Made Me Think About Fear
Thankful for this one from Joey Jekel. But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend; you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, “You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off”; […]
Merton, Depression, and Therapy
I’m an individualist who protects himself with information. That’s what the Enneagram tells me, or what my friends who’ve studied it tell me it tells me. I used to resent personality tests—you can’t put me in a box!—but then the personality test explained why I resented them in the first place—because I want to be […]
