The Zippy Crew returns as the Twelve Days of Christmas wrap up to think about the new year ahead of us. Jason and Tim talk about resolutions, Bible reading plans, the St. Louis Blues, the newest COVID wave and the arrival of the Magi in this packed episode to kick off 2022!
Today is the first day of autumn. The new season begins at 3:20 p.m. Eastern time, so it’s really the first part-day of autumn. It is not by design that I’ve gone on a bit recently about the passage of time and our perception thereof. It just seems to have inserted itself into a lot of recent (how do we even define “recent”?) events.
The boys are back and start off with a perfect fall medley of pumpkin spice and baseball. They also delve into vaccine mandate controversies and the new Texas and Mississippi abortion laws, with a hopeful topping of discussion around God’s love in the Old Testament.
Marjorie Thompson died seven years ago today. If you did not know her, that is your loss. She was the most remarkable person I’ve ever known in a life fortunate to have included many remarkable people. She was also the best and closest friend I’ve had in this life.
I told my friend Dennis E. Powell that I’m starting to believe in Skynet. Over the last week, virtually everything that could go wrong with the technology I depend on for work has gone wrong, as if it has actively turned against me. Having spent a fair number of years wrangling information technology, one thing has always provided a path to survival in those times: redundancy. Redundancy masks problems in the best of ways, much like the physical masks that are such a lightning rod in our culture today.
Pastors in my Evangelical circles have been increasingly faced with requests to provide “religious exemption” letters to those in our churches who do not wish to be vaccinated. With the FDA’s final approval of Pfizer’s vaccine, employer mandates will likely become ubiquitous and increase the requests for these letters. Should we give them?
Here’s something that I bet you know, but that it seems our government and news media — in large measure that’s redundant — don’t know: A lot of people are afraid of shots. They head the other way when the needle comes out. You know such people. Maybe you are such a person.
Tim and Jason zip back as your favorite snail covers the surge of the COVID Delta Variant, the coming Olympic Games, Jason’s viewing of WandaVision and a discussion on human rights in the context of Jesus’s incarnation.
Tim and Jason zip through segments on the current Washington debate over infrastructure (with a visit to plans around space exploration, no less), the case for vaccination versus going “No-Vax,” the dangers of hyper-partisanship and the value of laughter.