To the Rest I say with Pastor Eric

27/09/2025

I am not Catholic (although I was raised in the Roman church), but I would still encourage people of all stripes of faith in Jesus Christ to make this pledge.
Care for the human dignity of the refugee and the immigrant isn't some novel leftist development in the church. It has been a central tenets of the church since the beginning.
If the people I serve need something more 'Lutheran' there are plentybof initiatives to get involved in with Lutheran Global Refuge.
Pretty much any denomination will have a refugee initiative if you Google it. Even the U.S. evangelical church once considered care for the refugee a basic call of the entire church before politics got involved
I took this pledge in good ecumenical conscience. There is nothing about it that is distinctly Roman Catholic. Even the mention of Pope Leo is only a pledge to join him in prayer, which we should be willing to do with all God's children.
In similar good ecumenical conscience, I suggest the people for whom I care should also consider making this pledge.

Resources to inform your pledge and further action:Catholic Social Teaching

24/09/2025

This nation, the U.S., is in a dark place right now.
I am honestly not sure we will escape this moment without significant suffering, and I don't know what to do about that.
I don't know what will draw us back from the precipice of the devil's call to an infinite loop of vengeance, but I started praying the Matins regularly again last week.
I will add vespers and compline to my daily devotionals this week.
It won't change anything in the world around us, but it will change me. It will, I pray, fill me with the wisdom, patience and peace to respond in ways that at least don't make anything worse.
I would invite people of faith into the same habits.
Maybe liturgical hours are a bit much for you, or maybe you need to pray all of them, but what ever your daily practices of prayer are, make it more.
We need it right now. If we have any trust in God, we need to ask that God to make us the most patient and loving versions of ourselves we can be.
Real human lives depend on it.

24/09/2025

The detainees were shot. NOT THE AGENTS. This is a really important detail.

24/09/2025

Give me less secular artists write a song and the Contemporary Christian Indusrial complex loses it's mind drumming up a panic about demonic imagery kind of Christians.

Give me more overtly anti-Christian artist Danzig writes a song for Johnny Cash who just says thank you and goes and rocks it better than Glenn ever could kind of Christian.

https://youtu.be/W2apXO0RXYo?si=G5wj4Q2uAXVh_Fs-

24/09/2025

Wise words from one of the ELCA's full communion partners

"In a time when diversity is misunderstood, preachers can shine God’s light of love upon all people who might be feeling afraid of being targeted, stigmatized, and punished because of their neurodivergence."

"There is nothing broken, sinful, or cursed about being neurodivergent. The church can be a sacred community for authentic belonging, a place where the mask of 'normal' can be removed, and we can fully receive God’s love without exception."

-Rev. Dr. Sarah Griffith Lund
Minister for Disabilities & Mental Health Justice, UCC

Sept. 16, 2025, Working Preacher Blog: "Preaching & Neurodiversity" 👉🏾 Read the full blog: https://ow.ly/ygQI50X0ZG9

with: United Church of Christ Mental Health Network, UCC DISABILITIES MINISTRIES

22/09/2025

Quick lesson from your local theology nerd

(1) The rapture, as a widely accepted Christian idea, is only about 200 years old.

(2) It is only 200 years old because it is deeply unbiblical, and was rejected as a concept by the preceding 1,800 years of Christian tradition.

(3) Rapture theology (we are taken to God) inverts the vision of the New Testament (God comes to us), with disastrous results for Christian discipleship and ethics.

22/09/2025

If you've listened to any of the speeches in propaganda-palooza today and don't recognize the blasphemy, I would like to invite you to a Bible study.
How do Wednesdays work for you?

19/09/2025

My prayers go out to all who grieve, but if we're talking about models and legacies and examples to follow, this is what I have to say.

If you're looking for a legitimately positive model of how to engage people with a differing viewpoint from a Christian media personality who died too young, might I suggest Rachel Held Evans.

While many try to have the best argument in the room, she always tried to find the best in the people in the room. This is the way.

If the Lord would grant me the strength to respond to half the attacks she did with half the grace she did,I would be twice the man I am.

This, and not competitive 'debate', is the model of engagement to which I will aspire.