Beyoncé and the Fertility of Forgiveness

The most screenshotted sequence in Beyoncé’s visual album Lemonade is “Hold Up.” After discovering her husband’s infidelity, she walks down the street smashing storefronts with a baseball bat, finally crushing a row of cars in a monster truck. Viewed alone, the song seems like a simple . . . . Continue Reading »

“I Forgive You”

Already a victim of someone else’s hate, forgiveness frees you from being a victim of your own hate. This allows the victims to pursue justice with a clear conscience.

A Different Kind of Party

It’s funny because Linus makes the grave reading of Luke 2 for Charlie Brown and says, “That’s what it’s all about, Charlie Brown,” and we feel like something really important® has been said by Dollie Madison cakes and Coca-Cola. But Luke 2 isn’t in a vacuum. The matter of what happened on the night in question in the city of David when there was no room in the inn is not really about anything – unless there is something more to this child than a birth in poverty into an indifferent world. Continue Reading »

Not that kind of girl anymore

My point, so far, is that God’s wrath is coming, and Jesus — whose birth we celebrate at Christmas — is the savior from that wrath. It’s a point a lot of people got because that’s what a savior is — and it’s a point I have made here before, so you were . . . . Continue Reading »

Not Just Optimism

As I’m writing this fourth part, I’m betting that you’re worn out already — “OK, Frank: wrath of God. I got it. Christ was born to satisfy the wrath of God, and that’s good, and that’s a really sound reason to have joy at Christmas. Amen — I’m . . . . Continue Reading »

With Interest

At Christmas, we think –- we, Americans who say we are Christians –- we deserve a break from the things we do every day. We deserve a rest. We deserve to sleep on the sofa, and to have a big meal, and then to sleep on the sofa again, and watch a parade or some football, or whatever it is . . . . Continue Reading »