Creative Joy

Randall Stephens

Ive been doing some nonfiction pleasure reading that overlaps with my work. (I try to avoid that sort of thing whenever possible, because it could nerd me out beyond all measure.) I like Herbert Asburys punch-punch, bludgeon, stab-stab prose. (Asbury sat at the feet of H. L. Mencken, like so many other talented, and even untalented, writers of his era.) So Asburys 1926 memoir about growing up in the stodgy Methodist town of Farmington, Missouri (Farmington, Misery for him) drew my eye when I saw it on a bookstore shelf some months back. As an added bonus Roy Blount, Jr. writes the insightful foreword to the 2003 edition of Up From Methodism: A Memoir of a Man Gone to the Devil. (I got it new from Half Price Books for $3.98! Half Price Books, please send the check to my office for that blurb.)

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Texas’ State Board of Education is no stranger to controversy. One of the most watched races in the Texas primaries on March 2 was the Republican contest between incumbent SBOE member Don McLeroy and challenger Thomas Ratliff. Ratliff prevailed, in part because he campaigned on the idea that the board shouldn’t get into cultural war debates over issues like teaching evolution.

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The last hours of Kimberly Simons life in 1985 were likely spent with a group of young men who worshiped the devil, tortured cats, used hallucinogenic drugs and sexually abused women, according to investigators who have been probing her homicide for the past 16 months.

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The US Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether vitriolic anti-gay protestors who picket the funerals of US soldiers are protected by free speech laws.

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Art Remillard

Just south of Syracuse, New York, members of the Onondaga Nation regularly gather in a ritualized celebration of community, tradition, and family. Its a rather sweaty affairbut then again, games of lacrosse generally are. Families here have been playing lacrosse together for a long time. It is part of our lives, says Chief Irving Powless. Unlike the game you might be familiar with, the Onondaga version of lacrosse is quite unique. Their field has neither boundaries nor standard lengths. The number of participants vary from game to game. Clans make up the teams, so a game might have 5 against 30, depending on who shows up. And people of all ages play, from 10 to 80 (as far as I can tell, Powless is in his late 70s and still plays). None of this has made the game any less intense. Rumor has it that when Jim Brown came to the reservation to play, a 145-pound Powless knocked him to the ground. Its no wonder why the Cherokee nicknamed lacrosse the little brother of war.

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Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki says his $1 million-plus home and $75,000 car are “not much” of a reward for decades of clean and righteous living and taking his message to the masses.

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(cross-posted at the Juvenile Instructor) Read the rest of this entry »

Lovers Lane United Methodist Church in Dallas and Acton United Methodist Church in Granbury will be the scene of immigration reform rallies this Sunday.

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New pastors have been appointed to run Brisbane’s Destiny Church after their predecessor and more than half the congregation walked out of last Sunday’s service.

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