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Marvin
Richmond VA USA
Ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA), I am a Ph.D. student at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia, a husband, and father of two red-headed boys.
Recent Activity
Goodbye
It's time to put this blog to bed. There are many reasons, not the least of which is that I am in the dissertation phase of my program, and I really ought to devote as much time as possible to... Continue reading
Posted Sep 13, 2011 at Avdat
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Just what am I not supposed to forget this week?
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It's going to be a long week of 9/11 retrospectives. Some will be thoughtful, moving and/or eloquent. Others will be sentimental and/or jingoistic. I'm puzzled by how many remembrances admonish us to "Never forget," as if that terrible day weren't... Continue reading
Posted Sep 6, 2011 at Avdat
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The GOP jobs market
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For you, is Labor Day 2011 a well-deserved day off from work? Or is it another tedious day of puttering about the house, sending out resumes and hoping that one day you'll rejoin the workforce? Either way, it's a good... Continue reading
Posted Sep 5, 2011 at Avdat
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Art, baseball and health insurance
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My younger son loves to draw. And my minister has a great eye for talent. So she's commissioned him to create artwork for this fall's Sunday School class. Well fall is just about here, but he hasn't delivered his promised... Continue reading
Posted Sep 4, 2011 at Avdat
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The Fighter as model for mutual accountability
There's a lot of great scenes in The Fighter, but this is my favorite. Dicky, just released from prison, approaches his brother Micky's girlfriend Charlene, seeking permission to coach Micky again, a role he'd lost due to bad behavior (language... Continue reading
Posted Sep 3, 2011 at Avdat
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Jobs speech kabuki
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I know I'm late to this game, but about that jobs speech kerfuffle: so the President wanted to address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night. And the speaker says, No you can't because you'd upstage my party's presidential... Continue reading
Posted Sep 3, 2011 at Avdat
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Media hype
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I'm ambivalent about Howard Kurtz's Hurricane of Hype article which slams the media for fearmongering before Irene's landfall. Yes, the media outlets do seize on the crisis of the moment like a pit bull on a mailman's cuff. And yes,... Continue reading
Posted Aug 31, 2011 at Avdat
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Obligatory post on Bachmann's natural disaster comments
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A lot of what I post here is about politics or religion. So when Representative Michelle Bachmann labeled the earthquake and the hurricane a shot across the bow from God, that's just begging for comment, right? For the record, this... Continue reading
Posted Aug 30, 2011 at Avdat
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A body that TSA screeners would love to pat down
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In today's Times-Dispatch, Barton Hinkle tells the story of Aaron Tobey, arrested at the Richmond airport last December for disorderly conduct. When TSA staff directed him to enter one of those see-through screening machines, Tobey yanked his shirt off revealing... Continue reading
Posted Aug 19, 2011 at Avdat
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Web sites that suck: www.pcusa.org
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To follow up on my previous post, in which I mentioned both Andrew Sullivan and the awful PC(USA) web site, there's a thread on Sullivan's blog about web sites that suck. So why don't you go the PC(USA) homepage and... Continue reading
Posted Aug 15, 2011 at Avdat
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Church growth
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Running past the lovely Metropolitan Community Church of Richmond the other day, a question occurred to me: Now that the Presbyterians have joined the Lutherans, Episcopalians and UCCs in ordaining gay and lesbian people, is there any need for the... Continue reading
Posted Aug 15, 2011 at Avdat
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A dog's life
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The good people of Brett-Reed Presbyterian Church in King William County welcomed me to their pulpit this morning! And this is what I had to say about things that defile and the great faith of a Canaanite woman: Jesus finds... Continue reading
Posted Aug 14, 2011 at Avdat
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Sermons on Jacob
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Last month I led worship at the Ogden and Lawrenceville Presbyterian churches in Brunswick County, Virgina (home, they say, of the original Brunswick stew!) Three Sundays and three sermons on Jacob, whom the lectionary featured in its Old Testament lessons.... Continue reading
Posted Aug 13, 2011 at Avdat
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Sermon on Jacob's wrestling match
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Genesis 32: 22-31 We have gotten to know the youthful Jacob, the up-and-coming, hard bargaining con man. We have gotten to know the young adult Jacob, a heart sick young man tricked on his wedding day into marrying the wrong... Continue reading
Posted Aug 13, 2011 at Avdat
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Sermon on Jacob's weddings to Leah and Rachel
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Genesis 29: 15-30 “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in,” said the poet Robert Frost. That’s not quite true of Jacob’s family of origin, but fortunately for him, Frost’s statement... Continue reading
Posted Aug 13, 2011 at Avdat
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In defense of labeling
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When the school for autistic children that our son attends came out with T-shirts, we snapped up three of them. Laura makes sure to put our son in one whenever we're out in public for an extended amount of time.... Continue reading
Posted Aug 12, 2011 at Avdat
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Dear layperson
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Your preacher is having a hard week. The gospel lesson for this Sunday is Matthew 10:15-28, in which Jesus loses an argument with a desperate mother, and not before practically calling her a b***h. "Great," your preacher is thinking. "I've... Continue reading
Posted Aug 11, 2011 at Avdat
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Wanted: a better negotiator in the White House
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Kevin Drum is chagrined: Honest to God, Republicans must all be sitting in their back rooms and just cackling like hell right now. Think about it. They developed a strategy to hamstring the president completely — a strategy that's bulletproof... Continue reading
Posted Aug 10, 2011 at Avdat
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The year that nothing happened
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Ethan turned 14 last Friday. As we were celebrating his birthday it occurred to me that his arrival is about all that I remember of the year 1997. I scratched my head, but all I could recall was that the... Continue reading
Posted Aug 8, 2011 at Avdat
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Mitch Albom feels sorry for your kids because he's a really naïve and sentimental guy
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"I feel sorry for today's kids," writes Mitch Albom. They've no time to catch fire flies in mason jars or get lost in the woods. Their overachieving parents have enrolled them in too many internships and computer camps. Summer vacation... Continue reading
Posted Aug 7, 2011 at Avdat
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Everybody's getting left at the altar
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Since I'm not above quoting myself, here's what I put on Facebook this morning: Classmate: Marvin, if you were taken hostage, would you want Obama negotiating your release? Me: That depends. Who's holding me hostage, Bin Laden or the Tea... Continue reading
Posted Aug 1, 2011 at Avdat
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Suicide bombing the economy
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It's almost worthless blogging about the debt ceiling crisis. No sooner does someone propose a plan than it's shot down. Your brilliant thoughts on Plan X are already obsolete. I will say this: until last week it seemed inevitable that... Continue reading
Posted Jul 28, 2011 at Avdat
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Are Carolina fans crazier than the Tea Party?
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Yes! Indulging in my highly discriminating taste for schadenfreude, I visited the Inside Carolina site last night once news of Butch Davis' firing broke. Here's a sample of what people think in the alternative universe known as Tar Heel Nation:... Continue reading
Posted Jul 28, 2011 at Avdat
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Too hot to play baseball
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I had an epiphany while running past The Diamond on an oppressively hot Sunday afternoon: there's more to football's rise and baseball's fall than the fact that football is a better sport on TV. Baseball is a summer sport, but... Continue reading
Posted Jul 25, 2011 at Avdat
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CPE in the 6th century
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On Facebook Brother Bill called me out for missing the presbytery meeting today. But the Lord's work detained me! I was reading Gregory of Tours' History of the Franks. There's a lot of blood and guts in The History of... Continue reading
Posted Jul 19, 2011 at Avdat
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