Every now and then, I take a back seat to my own blog to give a different voice a chance to tell their story. I know it’s my name in the URL, but other people’s stories matter to me, so I don’t mind the passenger’s seat now and then.  A few weeks ago, I chatted with Arshia Saiyed, a first-generation Indian studying law here in Nashville.

Arshia is a Muslim, and I had a great conversation with her about the similarities and differences between our faiths. In light of the horrors taking place in Paris, I thought our conversation would be relevant to some of the chatter online.

One important point: Islam is not a monolithic religion, and no one person can claim to speak for all of it. Arshia doesn’t speak for the entirety of Muslim America. To appropriate a phrase from Lena Dunham, she’s not the voice of her faith, but a voice in her faith. This is her own story.

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(While the original Power Rangers featured a delightfully diverse cast of teenagers tasked with saving the world through karate and interlocking dinosaur robots, HollyWEIRD never got around to adding an openly Christian member to the team. Surprise, surprise. Today, that oversight will be rectified.)

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Manatees, it’s time to answer the call of Biblical Manateehood.

As Christian manatees, Biblical manateehood starts and ends with the Bible’s definition of what it means to be a manatee. We must remember that throughout eternity, God predestined us manatees to take our place as the crown of the sea, humbling basking in the glory of our headship.  Read the full post »

I was 22 years old, and e-readers were just starting to move from novelty nerd gadget to an actual thing that normal people bought. I didn’t own one, but I wanted to, and said so to the girl I was dating at the time, who wrinkled her nose in disgust.

“I don’t think I could do it,” she said. “I would miss the feel of holding an actual book.” Read the full post »

When I was little, my dad taught me a trick to deal with insomnia.

We lived on a windswept acreage, with Nebraska cornfields unfurling from a thousand directions on all sides. I combed every inch of them, alone but for the companions I invented for myself in my head. By day, the amber, flecking wildness of everything around me rustled with motley invite. By night, it was quiet and lonesome. I would lie awake for hours.

My dad taught me a trick simple enough that has served me well whenever I’m in bed, unable to quite seal with the deal with sleep: methodically work your way up through your entire body, fine tuning its position for the most comfortable position. Read the full post »

How to explain Carman?

He’s either someone you’re very familiar with, or not at all. He is a perfectly passable singer, but he was far more interested in a sort of rhyming, spoken word, preach-rap that defies description. Whatever it was, it was hugely, deliriously popular among a certain demographic of Christianity—selling millions of albums back when people still did that sort of thing and setting a record for the most people to ever attend a Christian concert.

And yet, if Carman (if he has a last name, I’ve never heard it) will be remembered for one thing, it is absolutely his music videos. They are insane. Read the full post »

By now, I reckon everyone is mighty familiar with the right sad occurrences that transpired in the church of Friar Tuck roundabout last week. For those unacquainted with the goings-on or, as I would be none too surprised to learn, those who have swallowed the whole kaboodle of the media’s spin on the events, here’s what happened straight from the old horse’s mouth.  Read the full post »

Largely overlooked in Donald Trump’s nuclear-level comments disparaging Sen. John McCain’s war record was another, possibly more illuminating quote Trump gave at the same Iowa event. Moderator Frank Luntz asked Trump, a Presbyterian, a very simple question: “Have you ever asked God for forgiveness?”

The audience chuckled at the question—this was Trump after all—but to his uncharacteristic credit, he seemed to seriously consider with the question. Alas, that consideration resulted in the following response:

“I’m not sure that I have. I just go on and try to do a better job from there. I don’t think so. I think if I do something wrong, I think, I just try and make it right. I don’t bring God into that picture. I don’t.” Read the full post »