Culture Archives - Page 2 of 3

Fight Evil With Poetry: A conversation with Micah Bournes

Rich KirkpatrickDecember 18, 201821.7K views

“Fight Evil With Poetry” is not just a clever catchphrase. This anthology is rooted in the conviction that creative expressions of love are merely high road, but the most effective form of resistance against injustice.” Micah Bourne, Editor of “Fight Evil With Poetry” I sat down to talk with recording artist and poet Micah Bournes in downtown Long Beach at one of those cool hipster coffee shops. This was not the first time I met him. Several years ago he performed at a conference of creatives in the Nashville area. His story then was as compelling as his spoken-word performances. This young, African-American man from Long Beach, California attended a very conservative all-white Bible school. Micah is an activist, but artist and poets don’t fight by the same rules of the general population. Power often is wielded to silence foes. Artists give everyone a voice in the vacuum to power…

A Timeless Word – Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Address

Rich KirkpatrickNovember 20, 201801.8K views

It is the duty of nations as well as of men to owe their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord. We know that by his divine law, nations, like individuals, are subject to punishments and chastisements in this world May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins; to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity;…

Immigration and racism: People win as we apply “survival of the weakest”, not “fittest”

Rich KirkpatrickJanuary 12, 201861.5K views

The church season of Epiphany contrasts our darker nature reflected in the recent words from our president about immigration. As a Christian, true religion is more about the “least of these” than the great, powerful, and rich. There is nothing profane about having privilege. What is offensive to the Gospel is the dehumanization of the vulnerable people in the world–be they from Haiti, El Salvador, or Africa, or even Norway. Our president at this moment appeals to the darkest parts of our human nature. This nature blames the blameless. It shames the shameless. The darkness of this type of power shreds the bonds that even Christians should have for one another. The survival of the fittest is not a biblically solvent idea but is indeed a potentially genocidal policy. People win when we apply a “survival of the weakest.” This is what Jesus Christ modeled for us. [bctt tweet=”What is…

Post-Truth: Are we on the side of truth or comfort?

Rich KirkpatrickJanuary 2, 20170756 views

Truth is not a sport that wins with the score of popularity or power won. In our postmodern world, we can believe what we want. We can pay a company to spin information or post fake news on social media. Consequences do not matter. We are driven to win at any costs. Knowledge used to be equated with power. Today, popularity is power, regardless of facts or truth. A post-truth, post-fact world is one we have embraced. Faith, not always built upon empirically proven facts, causes many to still sacrifice their very lives. The ISIS beheadings of Christians is proof of this. In America, would our form of Christian faith pass the martyrdom test? Would we survive in our current squabbling? When truth impacts issues of life and death, you would think we would carefully examine it and be open to mastering it. The Bible may not be a scientific…

The Dangers of Binary Thinking: When a 2D thought meets a 3D universe

Rich KirkpatrickAugust 15, 20160825 views

Mystery cannot be contained by two dimensions. We seem to escape mystery within the walls of our binary reality. If life was as simple as a switch, we could simply turn off or turn on solutions. In fact, we do that very act every day to choose hot or cold water out of the faucet. We change the channel or swipe to the next stream of content on our smartphones with ease. Choices, no matter how full of first-world sophistication all reduce themselves to a binary question. With thousands of TV shows, hundreds of thousands of songs, and millions of click-bait articles to peruse, the choice is either a yes or a no. The muscle that might have once been used on imagination and wonder is now occupied to manage the firehose torrent of information and entertainment headed in our direction. Our schedule will not allow exploration, however. Reasonable people…