Category: Post
-
The Five Most Enchanting Places of My Life
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 12 seconds. I have lived a charmed life. By anyone’s standards, but certainly for someone who grew up in the poverty and illiteracy of Appalachia. My childhood was beyond poor. I remember having cowpeas and stale bread (we would have to scratch the mold off) for weeks on end and…
-
And Now Forward: Thoughts on the Election, Politics, Christianity, and Life
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 26 seconds. If you follow me closely on social networks, you may have noticed an increase in post content intensity over the past few weeks. There is a method to the madness. Over the past two weeks, I have unfriended over 200 people that I no longer consider life-giving. In…
-
I Believe That Repressing Ideas Spreads Ideas
Reading Time: 2 minutes and 27 seconds. I believe we should be free to argue, explain, clarify, debate, rage, sing, dramatize, and deny. I do not believe that shooting people, bombing, murdering, burning, shaming, judging, drowning, threatening, bullying, or name-calling will work to contain ideologies or opinions that you do not like. On Facebook, I…
-
Why Most Christians Are So Easily Duped
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 57 seconds. Christians, by their very nature, are less literate than the general public. They are less able to navigate the world, to understand it, to solve problems. They can be more easily lied to and misled, and they are less able to change the world in which they find…
-
The Struggle To Find Home
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes, 53 seconds. For as long as I can remember I longed to find a better life outside of my tiny rural growing up place—to free myself from the bonds of my family and from the restrictions of a poor education. That visceral and intellectual ache for freedom permeated my body and…
-
7 Biblical Reasons A True Christian Cannot Support Trump Any Longer
I firmly believe people (especially white evangelical males) who still support Trump and his agenda are not true Christians and according to their own beliefs, their name will be taken out of the book of life. According to Revelation 22:19: “And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this…
-
The Day Trump Finally Kept A Promise
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes, 21 seconds. On 23 January 2016, presidential candidate Donald Trump caused controversy when he stated the following during a campaign rally in Iowa: “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.” With Kavanaugh poised to win confirmation to the Supreme…
-
My Book Review: “Hiking with Nietzsche: On Becoming Who You Are” by John Kaag
A Fleeting Moment Where Becoming Takes Place A couple of sentences set the context for this captivating book. “‘Become what you are’: has been described as ‘the most haunting of Nietzsche’s haunting aphorisms.’” “As it turns out, to ‘become who you are’ is not about finding a ‘who’ you have always been looking for. It…
-
New Book Idea: The Loss of Belonging (How To Survive When Your Tribe Abandons You)
My latest book idea is in response to the dramatic feedback about a blog post a few weeks ago. My website traffic the next few days was 100 times greater than normal. Following is a rough draft of Chapter One. I would greatly appreciate you taking time to read it and then expressing your thoughts,…
-
The Loss of Belonging: Ten Steps To Finding A New (And Better) Tribe
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes, 10 seconds. On a fateful day in June 2011 over 10,000 of my Christian family, friends, and peers abandoned me. In one day. My social networks and the Christian Arts conference which provided my income became a wasteland. Of course, they say I abandoned them, and perhaps they…
-
Ten Crazy Weird Things I Love After 3 1/2 Years Living In The Wilderness
Estimated reading time: 11 minutes 15 seconds. “Are we weird?” I suddenly asked Gina a few mornings ago as we savored an extended coffee hour on our lower porch surrounded by trees, deer, turkeys, groundhogs, singing birds, the buzz of cicadas, and…utter solitude. Sitting in the epicenter of 54 acres allows (with the exception of the…
-
How The Church Made Me Rich (Confessions of a Former Southern Baptist Minister)
Estimated reading time: 9 minutes, 6 seconds. If you are not careful, success can make you forget how far down you began. That’s why I write so candidly. I hope the point of view I lay before you is a challenge to your spirit and evokes an active response if you have ever felt within yourself…
-
“God, I Have A Question…or Two” Videos and Study Guides by Randy Elrod
Video Talks by Randy Introduction (Duration 7:49) Guilt (Duration 9:16) Loneliness (Duration 10:51) Fear & Anxiety (Duration 10:10) Doubt (Duration 10:09) Video Discussions with Panel Introductory Panel Discussion About Questions (Duration 8:55) Guilt (Duration 8:10) Fear (Duration 7:51) Downloadable Study Guides Introduction & Instructions Guilt Loneliness Fear
-
An Elrod Update (For Those Who Care And For Those Who Don’t)
After seeing out latest social network posts, many of you have asked questions about our current status. Here is a very succinct synopsis: Gina and I have purchased a delightful (circa 1955) beach cottage three blocks from the Gulf of Mexico in quaint and charming Dunedin, Florida. We have named it Cocomo. We plan…
-
Dunedin, Florida—My Top 10 Favorite Things
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes, 30 seconds. So proud to be a new resident of quaint and charming downtown Dunedin, Florida.* Here are my Top Ten favorite things so far. I’m sure there will be many more… 1) The Seafood—I love fresh seafood and Dunedin has it in spades. Jensen Bros. Seafood Market is only five minutes…
-
The Natural Life
Take A Walk In The Tennessee Woods with Artist & Author Randy Elrod, Whose Everyday Explorations Provide New Recipe Ideas, Art Projects, And Feed His Love Of Nature. by Sharon Franklin Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 27 seconds The sun is just coming up when Randy shuffles into the kitchen to brew hot water and…
-
Our Cozy and Private Mountain Cottage Is Now on Airbnb
View On AirbnbCozy & Private Mountain Cottage with a View
-
Ten Lies Most Christians Believe About The Bible
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes, 54 seconds. Especially in light of the events today in Jerusalem when many human beings are dying and are being murdered because of American and Christian Biblical beliefs, and after a search for meaning and truth, this sixty-year-old has been researching, reading widely, and asking probing questions about my religious upbringing, faith,…
-
My 60 Favorite Songs of All-Time At Age 60
(In No Particular Order) I’ve Been) Searchin’ So Long by Chicago Just You ‘N’ Me by Chicago Happy Man by Chicago Long Black Veil (Live) by Dave Matthews Band What’s Been Going On by Amos Lee You’ve Made Me So Very Happy by Blood, Sweat & Tears I Can’t Make You Love Me by Bonnie Raitt…
-
A Few of My Favorite Things Alphabetically…Musicians, Artists, Authors, Food, and Drink After 60 Years of Life
A—Allmans, Amarone, Ambrose, Asparagus B—Bakewell, Blue Cheese, Berry, Bolognese, Bradbury, Buechner C—Cabernet, Cahill, Campbell, Clapton, Chicago, Csikszentmihalyi, Caviar, Cognac D—Decemberists, Desclos, Dostoyevsky, d’Yquem E—Eagles, Edmundson, Elbow, Emerson F—Fleetwood Mac, Firenze, Fowles, G—Gire, Garam Masala, Gelato H—Heinlein, Hemingway, Hollis I—Iver J—Jackson, Jones, Joyce, Jung, K—King, Krause L—Lawrence, L’Engle, LeGuin M—Manchego, Manhattans, McCammon, McCullough, McLachlan, McKennit, Miller,…