Spokane Faith & Values

Bloggers » Ernesto Tinajero

Because he grew up in El Paso, Texas, on the edge of Juarez, Mexico, Ernesto Tinajero understands what it means to live on the border.

Art, he says, comes from the border of what has come before and what is coming next. Tinajero uses his experience studying poetry and theology to write about the intersecting borders of art, poetry and religion.

He studied at Fuller Theological Seminary, where he was the associate editor of Offerings literary magazine and also served as associate poetry editor for Rio Grande Review. He has blogged for the Christian Social Justice Site Sojourners, currently a Christian Century Blogger network, and has blogged for Salon.com.

Most Recent

Convinced of love’s presence

| May 24, 2013

The day of Tito’s surgery, we were more than 200 miles from our church. My father-in-law, Dennis, had made the trip to Seattle with us. We needed him. My mother flew up from Florida to be with us.
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Can empathy be dangerous?

| May 16, 2013

While working on a book about compassion and empathy I became interested in Paul Brown’s essay “The Baby in the Well” in the New Yorker. Paul Bloom argues about the limitations of empathy. Morality should be beyond empathy and he uses known phenomena “the identifiable victim effect” to claim that empathy leads us astray in moral judgments.
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All that lives to the imagination’s tongue

| May 2, 2013

My words whirlpool around my neck, with very few escaping. My mouth captured only a couple words to form barely intelligible phrases. Yes, I had won a poetry contest, publication and $25. All good things for a 19-year-old aspiring writer. Though, it was only third place and the publication was only in the university’s literary journal.
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Is going to church good for us?

| Apr 24, 2013

I found this New York op-ed by Dr. T. M Luhrmann  very interesting and so was the comment section. In it Lurhrmann explains some of her findings in her 10 years of research on evangelical churches. She took an anthropological approach. This article looks at the benefits of engaging in church. Many in the comment section say they champion critical thinking, but seem to let it go if the evidence says something they don't want to hear. We all are blind by our biases at some point.
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The devil made me do it

| Apr 15, 2013

An old theological debate has emerged with new life in our secular world. Are we free or are we predestined? The old debate rooted itself in terms of God’s power. God creates us and since God is all knowing and all-powerful, our whole creation has already been determined. The secular version’s foundation comes from biological determinism.
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Nones need community

| Apr 7, 2013

Riding the Spokane bus system the last nine years has given me a front seat to the most dramatic cultural challenge today. Riding the bus to commute to work everyday, I see the same faces on the same routes, even though some things have changed over the years. What is the difference between when I started and now? Then people became acquaintances and said hello.
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Myths of church community

| Apr 5, 2013

Community, the new buzz word of churches, suffers from two fables. With apologies to the Bard and his dear crazy King Lear, these tales are told by an idiot, full of trumpets and banquets, signifying unreality.
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For Spokane, it’s that time of year again

| Mar 30, 2013

A city reveals its soul in its festivals. So what does Spokane say in front of this mirror? Lilac Parade, Hoopfest, Bloomsday, First Night, the Guild School Penny Drive and so many more all tell the tale of a mid-size American city still holding onto its small town roots that loves basketball, its children and health.
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Driving home forgiveness

| Mar 19, 2013

Forgiveness, valuing the relationship beyond the actions, forms the stuff of Jesus’ love. Forgiveness of sins means that Jesus values love so much that despite all that has happen, he still wants to laugh and share stories.
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Taste and see, says the Good Book

| Mar 15, 2013

In 1971, in the midst of his political down fall, President Nixon journeyed to China in a historic mission of diplomacy. Soon, a place of mystery opened to Americans. Teacher tours. Student tours. Americans saw their first glimpse of a China that would soon pass away, Mao’s China.
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