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Essay

Strikeouts are Fascist: Crash Davis and The Body of Christ

Tom Verducci recently wrote a fascinating article in Sports Illustrated in which he laments the demise of baseball. He examines the statistics that show baseball is falling into the lazy trend of relying on concentrated power in the home run and the strikeout. Increasingly, the nuances of the…
Jason Lief
June 23, 2017
EssayPolitics

James Comey’s Dinner Invitation

An interesting piece in the New York Times compares Comey's experience to what women regularly endure in the workplace, including sexual harassment or sexual assault. The title of the piece is Women Say to Comey: Welcome to out World of Sexual Harassment in the Office.…
Jason Lief
June 9, 2017
Essay

The Francis Option

Lately, there’s been much debate about the Benedict Option, a Christian response to secularism in the West. The focus is on a withdrawal from secular life in order to establish formative communities that support faith through a shared set of practices. There’s good things about…
Jason Lief
May 12, 2017
Essay

13 Reasons to Believe in Santa

Slovaj Žižek likes to use the example of Santa Claus to make a point about the nature of belief. If you ask parents, they tell you “Of course we don’t believe in Santa, we buy the presents. We just go along with it for the…
Jason Lief
April 28, 2017
Biblical StudiesEssay

St. Francis and Good Friday

When playing the hero went terribly wrong, and he had recovered from his injuries, Saint Francis came upon a broken down church where he encountered an icon of the crucifixion. Staring at the wounds of Christ, he underwent a change, a transformation of sorts. Soon, the young punk…
Jason Lief
April 14, 2017
EssayTheology

John Calvin and Roads Not Taken

It’s that time of the semester when I try to help students appreciate John Calvin. It’s a difficult task for a variety of reasons. Many students don’t know anything about him, nor do they really care. That’s not a knock on them, it’s just not…
Jason Lief
March 31, 2017
Essay

Reading A Man Called Ove in the Land of Steve King

https://youtu.be/IMZuic0dG1w I just finished Frederick Backman's book A Man Called Ove, the story of an old curmudgeon named Ove who unsuccessfully tries to kill himself. Ove is a stubborn Swede whose life revolves around routine, work, and the belief that the type of car a…
Jason Lief
March 17, 2017