Why I Don’t Make Swift Endorsements

Unless you live under a rock, you know that the second most anticipated endorsement of the presidential election finally happened: Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris. Don’t hold your breath for the most anticipated: I won’t be making an endorsement. (And maybe you shouldn’t either.)

Donald Swift

This week, I saw a meme that gave me a moment of clarity. Donald Trump and Taylor Swift have an awful lot in common. Call me fearless — the last sentence could lead to nearly all of the Internet hating me — but the comparison is worth entertaining to consider our political moment.

Look What Politics Makes Christians Do

Opening up X this week, I noted that the present beverage brewing tempests were the Internet meltdown over Taylor Swift’s new love interest and the honoring of an alleged Nazi in the Canadian parliament during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit. The invisible thread binding them was the Culture Warriors claiming to fight for Jesus who made these the cause célèbre.

Has "Big Worship" Ruined Church Music?

Ah, the week after Easter, that season when we critique the music we’ve just been singing. My attention was caught when the New York Times religion reporter tweeted out a link to Bob Smietana's piece published this week bemoaning the homogenous nature of the present worship experience and how many churches did the same music over Easter weekend (and, by extension, every weekend).

Red in 11 Days

I’ll just admit I’m kinda obsessed with “Taylor’s Version” rereleases. Revisiting the original “Red” ahead of the new version reminds me of so much from some of my favorite years of life thus far. And some tracks stand out more now than they did then. This one is so hauntingly beautiful.

To Heck with Crassness

Do Trite Curse Words Really Help "Art"?

My latest take on OFB, tackling the subject of f-bombs and the like in current pop culture:

I’m tired of it. I’m tired of every currently running TV show someone tells me to watch being littered with content that might make even the proverbial sailor blush. With so many forms of entertainment now freed from the reach of the FCC’s decency rules, it is now countercultural if dialogue or song lacks a peppering of the coarsest words. Is this really the best we can do?

Introducing Zippy the Wonder Snail

Yes, it was inevitable: my partner-in-OFB-and-Bible-study-crime Jason and I are now podcasters. 🥳 Check out Episode 1 of Zippy the Wonder Snail at ZippytheWonderSnail.com. We talk on the Gospel of John, Taylor Swift’s Folklore, blogging and even NFT’s. It’s already available on Spotify, TuneIn and Amazon Music podcast directories; Apple’s Podcast Connect has been down for the week, so it isn’t there yet, but will be when it can be.