Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
Foxes have holes, birds have their nests

Foxes have holes, birds have their nests

Last updated on: April 8, 2018 at 4:56 pm by Fred Clark

Foxes have holes, birds have their nests 2018-04-08T16:56:42-04:00 Fred Clark

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

• We have a fenced-in back yard and a friendly, somewhat clueless Yorkie-poo. This has made our yard a kind of sanctuary for chipmunks, squirrels, rabbits and groudhogs. Willow is enough of a canine presence to keep most predators out of the yard, but not an actual threat to any of these various tomato-thieving species living in our yard.

In previous years, I’ve caught our resident groundhog red-handed in the vegetable patch just outside our back door. “Go get him!” I’d tell Willow, opening the door. “Sic!”

She doesn’t know “sic.” It’s not in her vocabulary or in her nature. The groundhog wouldn’t even bother running away at full speed. It would just sort of amble back to its home under our back-yard shed, unconcerned. Willow will occasionally chase a squirrel or a rabbit, but she never convincingly pursued that groundhog. She caught up to the rabbit once and managed to give it a poke with her nose — the same friendly greeting that once got her sprayed by a local skunk.

This spring, though, we have something new. The burrow under the shed is no longer home to a family of groundhogs, but to a family of foxes. The other night, Willow and I spied a teeny, adorable kit rustling through the leaves in the other side of the fence, so I thought there must be a fox family living there in the woods nearby.

But no. Friday morning the ‘vixen saw the Mama Fox right outside our back door, successfully hunting a chipmunk under the patio. She (the fox) carried it back to the shed and scampered underneath.

The groundhog never went near the trap. The squirrels couldn’t seem to stay away.

This will be interesting. I assume Mama Fox is aware of Willow and, like the prior occupants of that space, has correctly recognized she’s not a threat. But the shed is now the subject of enthusiastic curiosity and sniffing when I take the dog out back, and I’m a bit worried that Mama may get defensive. So we’re being careful, especially after dark when the little ones might be up and about.

The good news, I suppose, is that with the apparent eviction of the groundhog and the bad news for the chipmunks this entails, we may have better luck this summer actually getting to eat some of our tomatoes and cucumbers.

• “‘Concerned’ Evangelicals Plan To Meet With Trump As Sex Scandals Swirl,” NPR reports.

This is a meeting between white evangelical “leaders” and President Trump about what he and they can say to keep their flock in line as faithful, unwavering Republican voters. It’s a meeting about talking points, spin, and coordinating their stories. It’s about damage control. This is Zedekiah and the other court prophets colluding with Ahab before Jehosophat shows up to make sure they’re all on the same page.

The biggest news about this story is that one of these so-called “leaders” asked to speak anonymously. It’s a very, very rare thing in that crowd for anyone to not desperately want their name in the paper or their picture on the TV.

• Unaccredited Christian colleges are scammy. Some are more scammy than others.

• “The Price of Innocence,” by Joseph Neff for The Marshall Project, is heartbreaking and enraging. Half-brothers Henry McCollum and Leon Brown of North Carolina are both intellectually disabled. They were falsely accused, dubiously convicted, and then incarcerated for more than 30 years before previously ignored DNA evidence exonerated them.

“Then things went bad.” The settlement money that ought to have secured a decent measure of financial security for the brothers was carved away by an assortment of unscrupulous lawyers and others who saw the two men as easy prey. It seems like every institution that ought to have protected these vulnerable men instead betrayed them, over and over.

You may remember this case from when it was invoked by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who singled out these brothers in 1994 as the ultimate example of why he supported the death penalty. Scalia’s argument wasn’t really an argument on that point, merely a grandstanding assertion. He described their case as that of an: “11-year-old girl raped by four men and then killed by stuffing her panties down her throat.” Then said: “How enviable a quiet death by lethal injection compared with that!”

It was, Scalia argued, self-evidently just that Henry McCollum and Leon Brown be executed for this horrific crime. Yet they were innocent and Scalia’s understanding of the facts of the case was spectacularly wrong.

You and I will be wrong about many things in our lifetimes. But neither you nor I will ever manage to be as completely wrong and at the same time completely arrogant in our certainty about that wrongness as Antonin Scalia was in that case.

• Terrific piece of reporting and storytelling from Max Londberg about a 30-year-old cold case: “Beyond ‘Satanic Panic’: Agent has theory on 30-year mystery of missing Kansas teen.”

The case remains unsolved, but a retired special agent from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation thinks he knows what happened. Timothy Dennis is generous toward the local police who spent years chasing dead-end theories. “Some leads are strong, some aren’t,” he says, as charitably as possible. But if Dennis won’t say it, Londberg’s report makes it clear: The initial investigation focused on imaginary monsters — Dungeons & Dragons players, kids in Iron Maiden T-shirts, etc. — instead of the reality-based police work that might have solved the case.

That’s always a problem with Satanic baby-killers. All the time and energy spent chasing imaginary monsters is time and energy not spent doing something real.

Previous Post

April 8, 2018

Sunday favorites

Next Post

April 9, 2018 Revive us again

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category class warfare evangelicals Iraq Left Behind Mammon music Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which of the following is NOT part of the armor of God?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Helmet of Salvation Sword of the Spirit Belt of Truth Shield of Knowledge