It’s that time of year, when people are doing end of year reviews, and setting resolutions and goals for the new year. I’m not much for publicly declaring all the ways I’m going to be great this year, but I do like to look back a bit at the year that was, just as a nice reminder of what the year brought. So, in that spirit, here are the top essays, in terms of readership, that I published here at The Radical Ordinary this year. Click through and read any you may have missed, and if you aren’t already, I hope this look back on my writing for the year will convince you to subscribe!
With high expectations for 2025,
Justin
At The Crossroads
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I’ve been struggling with what to write this week. I imagine you can understand why that is, based on my writings here over the past few weeks. Tuesday was not unexpected and shocking like 2016, but it was dispiriting and ushers in a time of fear and danger for a lot of people I love. Already, I’ve heard stories from some of them, of unpleasant encounte…
A Radical Ordinary Politics
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It’s the most cliche thing to say something along the lines of “this has been a crazy year in politics.” But, let’s be real, it has. The re-emergence of Trump, the growing public awareness of Biden’s unfitness for office, the debate, the shooting, the RNC, the Biden drop out, the rise of Kamala, the contrast of JD Vance and Tim Walz, the DNC….I mean, we…
homelessness and the precarity of life
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I originally posted this on my personal Facebook earlier this week. The overwhelmingly positive feedback I received tells me I should share this here as well.
NFL 2024 season predictions
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I wrote the other day, at the end of my long piece on a Radical Ordinary politics, that I hoped to make this space a little more wide ranging, reflecting my own varied interests. Sports is one of those interests that I’ll probably be writing about more, because I always have Opinions, especially about my teams. Should you care about my sports opinions? …
Democracy in America: An Endorsement Against Donald Trump
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The presidential election this year is undoubtedly, and unfortunately, a referendum of sorts on democracy in America.
The Long Victory
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I often have a hard time reconciling my own personal dislike of hypocrisy, with the way the voting public at large seems to shrug off hypocrisy, especially is the hypocrite is of the right political persuasion. I’ve long ago come to accept that hypocrisy is one of the costs of doing politics in a democracy; people are flawed and mistake-prone, we all ch…
What has Christianity to do with democracy?
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Last week, I wrote about American democracy, and the danger I see to it in this year’s election. The piece was my endorsement, of sorts, for this election: an endorsement of democracy, and consequently, against Donald Trump. But, one thing I did not do in that essay was engage Christianity in the discussion about democracy. In fact, I only mentioned Chr…
Status Updates: August 2024
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Status Updates is one of my favorite things I used to do regularly around here, and so I figured as I start posting again, I’d return to it. This is a monthly compendium of the things I am reading, watching, listening to, cooking, or otherwise taking in. Share your own experiences or takes on these items in the comments below!
A Request
·Thanks to everyone who has been reading; we have had quite a few new folks coming through, and even a handful of new subscriptions, all of which I greatly appreciate! Things are pretty busy in life right now; work has picked up quite a bit with the return of the school year, and some new programming stuff we are trying here at the church. Not too mentio…
Finding Peace in the Days Before Election Day
·I’m at search for peace in these final days before the election. I admit, my mind this week has been overwhelmingly distracted by the looming prospects of Tuesday. This is largely my own fault, as I have allowed myself to spend too much time on Facebook, or listening to political podcasts, or obsessively checking and re-checking the polling averages at …
