by Thom McKee
Who would you rather be, Negan or Rick?
Think about it. Negan has pretty much everything he wants, including immense power and access to most of the material things that people only enjoyed before the Zombie apocalypse. He also leads a very large community that may eventually become an established government in this new world.
What does Rick have? He doesn’t have much power and most of his material possessions have been stripped by the saviors – but he has
by Thom McKee
Years ago, a friend of mine who was a recovering alcoholic told me that addiction was like a full time job. He said that nothing else was a bigger priority than making sure that he could get drunk that day – not his job, his daily responsibilities or even his family. Everything in his life was consumed with acquiring and drinking alcohol. Eventually, the only thing left in his life was his addiction, as he lost his job, most of his friends and his family.
Tonight on TWD I couldn’t help but think about my old friend when we saw what was happening with Gregory. It was already pretty clear that the man is an alcoholic. Back in episode five of this season, Jesus tricked Gregory into losing some of his alcohol to the saviors and he watched his confiscated booze get carried away like he was losing his firstborn child. Tonight, we see him
by Thom McKee Jr.
Do people manufacture hope simply because they can’t deal with the possibility that there might be none? This is a question that is not only about how people react to crisis, but also about the very nature of meaning in the universe. Are we merely animals who are so fearful of the unknown that we create entire mythologies (or even religions) in order to give ourselves a sense of hope?
French philosopher Voltaire famously said that “if God didn’t exist, it would be necessary to invent him.” Another quote attributed to a first century Roman thinker, Seneca the Younger, says “Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.”
While these ideas are somewhat elitist and maybe even a little offensive, I still see an element of truth in them. I am a pastor, a thinker, and definitely a “religious” person, but I also see