From The Desk of Holy Heresy

The United States has now fully entered the Iran-Israel conflict, not as a stabilizer, not as a credible intermediary, but as a direct military actor, through a sweeping and devastating bombing campaign on Iranian soil. This intervention, sold to the public as a calculated show of strength and deterrence, is in truth an act of catastrophic strategic blindness. It abandons decades of hard-learned lessons in diplomacy, betrays every principle of restraint espoused by the likes of George Marshall, Jimmy Carter, and Anwar Sadat, and will leave the Middle East, and the United States, less secure for generations. The consequences of this escalation are already unfolding. They will not be contained to battlefields. With its bombs, America has turned a smoldering conflict into a blaze. Iran’s leadership, divided, cautious, and often pragmatic when faced with overwhelming risk, will now face immense internal pressure to retaliate. Its allies and proxies throughout the region, from Hezbollah in ...

 There’s a moment in the book of Jeremiah that haunts and heals at the same time. God calls the prophet and Jeremiah answers, not with excitement, but with fear. "Ah, Lord GOD!" he says, "I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy." And God replies, “Do not say, ‘I am only…’” That’s where many of us begin disqualifying ourselves. I’m only a beginner. I’m only human. I’m only one voice. I’m only… not good enough. But God never calls the qualified. God qualifies the called. Moses stuttered. Amos was a farmer. Peter was impulsive. Mary Magdalene was dismissed. And Jeremiah, he was just a kid, yet he still stood before kings. We live in a time when the world, and even the church, often expects polish instead of presence. But relevance doesn’t come from perfection, it comes from truth. And prophetic authority isn’t earned by applause, but by proximity to God and solidarity with the people. Some of our wisest voices have reminded us that the task of the preacher is n...