by Ken Sehested
In my mind, missing from the public conversation among mass shootings—about the clash between hatred and neighborliness of every sort—is the failure to acknowledge that behavior is always rooted in and propelled by a moral vision. That vision may be formally articulated and reasoned or merely be gut instinct and unreflected rage.
That moral universe may be as simple as sheer anarchy, the struggle of each against all, but it does have a certain 
coherence. Our deepest convictions shape our behaviors, which then refine and reinforce (or rearrange or undermine) those core beliefs.
All moral visions assume conclusions about the nature, intent, and purpose of power and, at least implicitly, the character of life’s destiny itself. Namely, who ultimately will endure; by what provisions; and aligned according to what design?
I believe that every question of power is, in the end, a question about God: In a treacherous world, whose promises are sturdier? In Babel’s wake, whose words are trustworthy? In a world brimming with claims to authority—where significant commitments presume an outcome which cannot be verified ahead of time—whose covenant terms will endure?
As St. Augustine said so very long ago, “We imitate whom we adore.”
The inhabitants of terror’s province believe that death will have the last word. People of the Way, however, believe that the last word will be resurrection, where mourning and tears and pain will be no more; where death itself will be vanquished (Revelation 21:4).
Therefore, people of faith need to understand that life lived according to the demands of justice and the prerequisites of peace—the two of which are mediated by the ministration of mercy—is not merely an ethical calculation but is adoration, is our true and proper worship, of which we need constant reminding. (Which is why we gather for worship.)
As the Westminster Confession puts it: (Q) What is the chief end of humankind? (A) To glorify God. Yet all the church's historic creeds typically skip from cradle to cross to “crown of glory” with little reference to the actual mission and mandate of Jesus. When this occurs, redemption is separated from liberation; salvation becomes a divine bookkeeping transaction; and, in the words of Clarence Jordan, admiring Jesus is substituted for following him. Private souls are segregated from history; the Reign of God becomes an ephemeral, disembodied affair; and the Incarnation is emptied of all meaning.
Adoration of God is not the result of heroic virtue, vigorous piety, or doctrinal rigor. Adoration is the result of being immersed in a beatific vision (and we all require lengthy soaking), a vision which takes concrete shape in the manner of 
Jesus, sustained and nurtured and interceded by the Holy Spirit. Doxology happens “when righteousness and peace embrace” (Psalm 85:10-13), when the commendation of Heaven is reflected in the restoration of Creation, human and humus alike.
Adoration, doxology, is manifest in joy which, in the words of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, “is the most infallible sign of the presence of God.” Such presence blossoms into the waging of peace. As the promise in Isaiah discloses, “You shall go out in joy and be led back in peace” (85:12), at which time the hills burst forth in song, the trees in applause. A new heaven and a new earth are joined as one.
Given these things, it is proper to call terrorism by its true name: blasphemy. It is to call into question the integrity of God’s promise and provision. Even worse, it is denial of the very existence of One capable of either creation or redemption. Given that void (which Scripture personifies as "the Devil"), we are told that we are on our own. Take what you can; keep what you can defend. Violence, thereby, is evangelism for the Devil.
The vocation of faith is the ongoing work of exorcism.
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by Ken Sehested
“It flowed in small towns like Elaine, Arkansas, in medium-size places such as Annapolis, Maryland, and Syracuse, New York, and in big cities like Washington and Chicago. Hundreds of African American men, women and children were burned alive, shot, hanged or beaten to death by white mobs. Thousands saw their homes and businesses burned to the ground and were driven out, many never to return.
protect an undocumented man as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers attempted to arrest him. After a four-hour attempted arrest — during which time the undocumented man and his young son barricaded themselves inside a van parked in front of their home — ICE agents left, and neighbors and activists on the scene created a human chain to allow the family to get indoors.” —
My prayer was — and is — to end the warehousing of immigrant children in cages — 63,624 of whom have been apprehended by border patrol at the southwestern border between October 2018 and June 2019 and seven of whom have died after being in federal custody since September. More than a dozen Catholic orders and organizations sponsored the event. —
toothbrushes in order to be in held in ‘safe and sanitary’ conditions.” —
charade of innocence while deceitfully invoking the Sovereign’s blessings on your affairs. Let there be no more God bless America, for your hands are full of blood.” —continue reading “
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Host is not a giant Self, demanding subservience from petitioners. The Merciful One is not obsessive and in need of constant homage and ovation as a guarantee of kindly attention.
Above: Halitrephes Maasi jellyfish, photographed at a depth of over 4,000 feet of water off Baja California by the Exploration Vessel Nautilus. 
don’t have stories
the Cuyahoga River in Ohio. Fifty years ago, 22 June 1969, the river was so polluted it actually caught fire. It had happened before, several times, but this time the tragedy provoked the nation to do something about environmental degradation. The next year President Richard Nixon backed the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency. —Hilary Brueck, 
Guy in Line Next To Me: They
systems, but I don’t know if our culture knows how to tell those stories.” —Anil Dash
in West Africa, a forced march of more than 100 miles to the sea, a miserable Portuguese slave ship packed with 350 other Africans and an attack by pirates during the journey to the Americas. . . .
them provide a warm and very human circle of care for the only other client. This was a woman past my age who had called in a panic when her long wavy hair started coming out in handfuls as a result of her cancer treatment regimen.
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convicted (to make something happen). Insight does not come with its own legs.
Above: Lightning and rainbow, photo by Miriadna
arrogance—between delightfulness and hubris—as we transition at the end of Pride Month to the week of our premier occasion for national genuflecting, the US Independence Day revelry on 4 July. . . .” —
• “Botswana's High Court has overturned a colonial-era law criminalizing consensual same-sex relations in a landmark victory for Africa's LGBTQ movements.” —
get better, but the truth is more complicated than that. For all the progress we’ve made, thing are worse. . . . If #MeToo has reminded us that women alone cannot solve misogyny, the same is true for homophobia.” —
Iraq under President George W Bush, when President Barack Obama dramatically escalated drone strikes on sovereign nations, when Trump ordered the cruise missile strikes on Syria last year and again this year, or now as the US continues its more than half a century of embargo on Cuba.
on the verge of extinction due to climate change, “with alarming implications for human survival.” On that same day, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blocked an Artic Council policy statement referencing extreme polar ice melting, instead celebrating the amount of money to be made on the new shipping lane being created by the thaw, which would add dramatically to the flooding threat of rising sea levels. —
account the interests of other countries. —
use it as a rudder by which to steer.” —Oliver Wendell Holmes
• “
with injustice (“Your doom has come, injustice has blossomed, pride has budded.” Ezekiel 7:10) and violence (“Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment.” Psalm 73:6).
when I first began (timidly) pushing back against the vitriol of homophobia, I thought it would take another century before a significant number of church doors would be open to sexual minorities. It’s worth celebrating the gains made.
ENDNOTES
Most of my fellow North Carolinians would be surprised, maybe shocked, to learn that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operated a “torture taxi” in partnership with a local air service, Aero Contractors. Operating mostly out of a small taxpayer-subsidized Johnston County Airport in Smithfield, a Gulfstream jet would fly to Dulles International Airport, pick up an extraction team, fly to foreign countries, kidnap suspected terrorists, rendering them to secretive “black site” prisons in several regions of the world for “enhanced interrogation” by all manner of inflicted torment.
used” according to CIA counsel John Rizzo.[2] Every journey to that dark side heightens the risk of being inescapably trapped in its web: We ourselves are rendered to the very thing we hate.
accountability, thus far without success. We know, for instance, that rather than taking steps to investigate Aero, North Carolina officials have taken measures to support the company.[7]
[3] Jane Mayer, “