Author: randy
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Randy Elrod: Same Interview, Six Decades
15-year-old Randy (1973) What is most important to you now? High school marching band. Your biggest fear? Hell. Your favorite artist? Chicago Your favorite book? Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand Your favorite movie? I’m not allowed to go to the movies. What makes you happy in a relationship? Being together. Describe yourself in four words….
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My First Encounter With Militant Christians
I had just graduated high school in 1976, and my new girlfriend’s church’s music director invited me to summer camp. It sounded like a great way to spend time with her and a much-needed break. I was working two jobs (one was the third shift at a yarn mill) to save money for college the…
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Why I Will NOT Pray for the Peace of Israel
Nor will I pray for Hamas and peace in the Gaza Strip. As long as fundamentalist religion and authoritarian rule are a part of the culture in this war-torn region, there will never be peace. Ironically, religion has an outsized role in Israel. Yet, most of its Jews aren’t observant—recent surveys show that almost fifty…
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I Read Banned Books as a Child and am Better For It
During my elementary school years in the early 1970s, I read everything. Books about Roman gods and teen detectives (male and female) and gruesomely martyred saints, but also ancient encyclopedias bought at Goodwill, used Reader’s Digests and my grandmother’s Penny’s catalog. In the time-honored tradition of nerds everywhere, I read the backs of cereal boxes…
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Observations As We Prepare to Move to Barcelona
9/24/2023 —We are back in the States, and Gina and I miss Barcelona desperately. It sounds strange but true. Why? —We miss the atmosphere. The division, anger, and daily mass murder we take for granted in the US are not there. There is a peacefulness, a sense of family, and a zest for life rather…
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The Search for an Equal Companion
9/21/2023 Eighteen years ago, in 2005, I sat down with my wife of twenty-six years in our dream home on Main Street in the utopian town of Franklin, Tennessee. I will never forget it: the classy Lane recliners, the marble fireplace, the horrendously expensive Oriental rug, the aroma of Spring flowers coming through the open…
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Why Are We So Divided?
9/20/2023 America is a fragmented country. Her people are divided. Why? An opposite of division is wholeness. As I continue to travel inward and expand my Quest for wholeness, I realize once again that most people want easy answers—sequential steps to a better life. But what if life is more like a meander, not a…
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I Defy You, Oh Church (Notes from a Rebellious Ass)
08/31/2023 And now I, at long last, know why I can’t stand religious people. They try to take away my wholeness: my sensuality, my curiosity, my intimacy, and my freedom. For how can any person be free without an illimitable life? Yet religion tries to imprison me in a sterile sanctuary and make me sing…
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Rewriting the Rules (The Ten Commandments)
08/29/2023
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Do I Regret 30 Years of My Life As A Christian Minister?
08/29/2023 Over the past seventeen years, I’ve had several social media comments asking how I reconcile spending thirty years in Evangelical ministry and, in their words, “deceiving people.” These comments deeply wounded me as I struggled with the first half of my life spent making a career in a religion I have renounced. Was all…
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Everybody Wants Rules
08/12/2023 But what if there aren’t any? Really? I’ve found life is too damn messy to be simplified into a list of rules. But everybody wants them. They lap up the next big list of rules. Why? Everyone wants easy answers. See Twitter’s 140 characters. See T***p. See religion. See fundamentalists. See five or ten…
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The Frustration of Being a Man in America
Joe Rogan, Donald T***p, Jason Aldean, Josh Hawley, Andrew Tate, Jordan Peterson, Bronze Age Pervert, Tucker Carlson, Mark Driscoll, White Evangelicals, Republicans, and their ilk say that they have the answers to being a real man in America. Watch UFC, buy big guns, buy bigger trucks, learn self-defense, wave big flags, treat women like property,…
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Unlike Jason Aldean, I Grew Up In A Small Town
His new country song “Try That In A Small Town” is, at best, deceptive propaganda and, at worst, a blatant dog whistle (a coded message communicated through words or phrases commonly understood by a particular group of people but not by others). Fact: Aldean grew up in Macon, Georgia, one of the largest cities in…
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My Weekly Wholeness Assessment
Body (My essential is: Sensuality) —Hour-long workout with weights (2 days) —Runs of 5.5 miles (2 Days) —Advanced one-hour spin class (1 day) —Limited alcohol to one cocktail per day (5 days) —Sex (5 days) —Sleep eight hours (7 days) —Mediterranean diet (5 days) Mind (My essential is: Curiosity) —Finished “Once Upon A Tome” by…
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The Quest Essentials Handwritten
I am hand-writing the essential ideas of my latest book, “The Quest,” a few sentences at a time. The ideas are invaluable for those 35 and older approaching or in the second half of life. And I wish to make them accessible to as many people as possible. #TheQuestBook
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Autonomy
For me, autonomy means freedom—to make choices not determined by prior causes or divine intervention. It is one of my four essentials of being (see The Quest) and connected to the spiritual aspect of who I am. As I pursue wholeness and joy in the second half of life, I am making more frequent autonomous…
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Curiosity
Curiosity means endless questioning, like when I was a child, asking about everything, ad infinitum. Who? What? Where? When? How? And perhaps most importantly, Why? It means refusing to take “no” answers as the final word. It prefers questions over answers. A curious mind (the mind is the human aspect directly tied to this essential…
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Father’s Day “Changes”
Seasons change and so did I Oh my children You will too Longings change and so did mine Oh my children Yours will too Beliefs change and so did mine Oh my children Yours will too Fortunes change and so did mine Oh my children Yours will too Families change and so did mine Oh…
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Think Getting Older Sucks? Think Again.
Hollywood, culture, and yes, even the medical industry tells us that getting older sucks and that people over fifty should slow down and act their age. Guess what? We are not listening. Instead, many of us are living out our dreams. A growing number of older people are showing there is much to enjoy in…
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What Was The Last Book You Read?
We were watching Jimmy Kimmel Show as they did a street interview asking people what the last book they had read was. Not one could think of the last time they read a book. Not one. This absence of reading is inconceivable to me. Reading brings me joy, and there is rarely, if ever, a…