The Roofless Church

Author: Higher Up IDEALS

  • Free Speech and the Awareness of Context

    The primary ingredient in anything you express is context. In the video below, I offer an analogy to assist listeners in examining how their context shapes how their content is experienced. I deliberately did not use any real world examples because this awareness is universally applicable. Additionally, like any broadly applicable awareness, it can be…

  • A Tale of Three Sheep🐑

    A Tale of Three Sheep🐑

    Person A: “You’re a sheep.Person B: “No. You’re a sheep.” Person C: “Why are you calling each other sheep?” Persons A and B: “Because the only people I listen to who told me to think for myself told me that anyone who disagrees with me is a sheep.” Person C: So let me get this…

  • Unum (One)

    If there was ever a moment to be in wonder about Oneness, it is now. How can we go from division to a unified vision?

  • George Floyd, Rene Girard’s “Founding Murder Theory” and The Point of No Return

    This is the post that I never wanted to write but knew that if I lived long enough, I would have to. In the person of George Floyd, it seems that the planet has received what Rene Girard would call its next “founding murder”. I first learned about this idea of the founding murder from…

  • Narrative Insight: How the Stories We Tell Shape the World We Experience

    Narrative Insight: How the Stories We Tell Shape the World We Experience

    Originally posted on The Roofless Church: We are moving from the information age into the age of the narrative. Look around you and it is easy to see that how you tell your story matters. Whether it is your personal story or the story of your organizations, all of your relationships–and the depth of them–are…

  • Dealing With Privilege and Playing the Cards You Were Dealt

    The subject of privilege is confusing. When some people hear it, it brings up all sorts of complex feelings. I have some personal feelings about how the term is used. But I don’t really get into it here. With this video I am making an attempt to bridge a chasm that many of us face…

  • Two Ideas One Mind: The Vices and Virtues of Cognitive Dissonance

    Two Ideas One Mind: The Vices and Virtues of Cognitive Dissonance

    I sometimes wonder if hypocrisy comes from a person’s inability to harmonize the seemingly divergent awarenesses that arise as a result of them experiencing cognitive dissonance. Take for example someone like the segregationist Senator, Strom Thurmond who, despite adamantly advocating against civil rights for Black Americans and pushed for state’s rights to impose segregation, was…

  • What Are You Talking About Witness?

    What Are You Talking About Witness?

    How committed are you to a just an equitable world? This piece is a repost of a reflection that I shared in the Together Colorado Faith Voices newsletter. When I was growing up, I used to watch a show called “Diff’rent Strokes”. It was the story about two young Black boys who were adopted by…

  • Haunted By Forgiveness

    Haunted By Forgiveness

    For the entire week before George Floyd was murdered, I meditated on the teachings of forgiveness in light of Jesus’ execution in preparation for a sermon on forgiveness. In order to get myself into the mindset, I imagined myself forgiving a police officer who was killing me and I watched an hour and a half…

  • Racism’s Last Day

    Other posts to make you scratch your head: The Threat of Equality When Rules Break the Law The Choice for Choice