Today I went to Zion. Not the historical Zion, of course, but a local institution calling itself by that name. It was indeed a mountain. In my early childhood I considered mountains to be only those geographic features with jutting, raw rock and year-round snowcap. It wasn’t that kind of a mountain, but as you drove up it the valley Read More

A local township is reappraising the property tax. A coworker’s property went from something about $35,000 to $89,000 assessed value. This shows the rural area I’m in, for there to be such a low value, but the increase is astounding. By all accounts the property appears at its former worth and has not been magically transformed; it is a redneck Read More

Today I visited an Assemblies of God church. I have been putting off visiting Pentecostal churches because I am always afraid I might accidentally wind up in some really creepy “spirit” filled situation. I freely consider my concern excessive, and in today’s events there was nothing “creepy.” Not to my sensitivities, anyway. Immediately after the warm-up singining someone spoke stridently Read More

It is always an encouraging sign when regular attendees are not afraid to ask questions, and even better when the attendees in general can respond to this question. May the questions people actually have be answered to the fullest ability of those present. Of course, this never happens in “regular” sermons, to their own harm.