By Jaime Nava

Some forty years ago, a bank in Sweden was the scene of a hostage situation. Four bankers were held for six days and covered in explosives by a couple of longtime criminals. After the captors were themselves captured by police, the four victims did something unusual. They defended the two men who held them against their will. Some say one victim was engaged to one of the criminals while another started a fund to boost their defense in court. They all had kind things to say about the two criminals in interviews that followed. Although it had been happening long before that year (see abusive relationships), the term “Stockholm Syndrome” was coined.

By Jaime Nava

Life is changing for me. I am moving states to begin a new position in St. Louis. I just had a second daughter born over a couple weeks ago. We’re selling the house and getting ready to move. It’s exciting but also sad. You see, I had to decide whether or not to stay at the congregation I served or to serve in St. Louis. I do not envy anyone with a call. It is hard.

By Jaime Nava

I had the crazy awesome privilege to baptize my daughter recently. I love baptisms in general. When it is my own kid, I’m over the moon. We had a number of visitors from both sides of the family to witness. It was awesome. Some of the members of the family come from different denominational backgrounds. Some are Roman Catholic. Others are Non-Denominational. I think there may be a Pentecostal in there somewhere.

By Jaime Nava

“So natural, it would even deceive.” Filostrato spoke with passion in C. S. Lewis’ final novel in his space trilogy. To have aluminum trees that looked as real as an organic one, that would be magical in its own way. Once we discovered a way to clean the air chemically, we wouldn’t need organic trees anymore. We could create clean aluminum trees that looked real. We could move them wherever we wanted. What about the birds? Get rid of them too. “Consider again the improvement. No feathers dropped out, no nests, no eggs, no dirt.” He goes on to say that eliminating organic life is “simple hygiene.”

By Jaime Nava

I was reading a comic. It was something like Tales from the Darkside. Although the endings of these things could be a bit gruesome, there was also a dark comedy to it. One in particular is actually fitting. There is this couple, the Robinsons. The wife would watch down the street toward the neighbor’s place. They’d get new stuff delivered, like a couch or a huge TV. She had to have it. She makes her husband miserable with all the stuff she demanded. She would keep saying she wanted whatever Mrs. Jones got. They didn’t really have the money, but the husband kept buying these things while growing equally miserable with the stuff they kept getting. One day, the wife demands whatever it is that Mrs. Jones has. The husband looks out the window and grins.

By Jaime Nava

God made husband and wife. The devil tempted the wife. She went outside her programming. Her work (and her husband not doing crap to stop her and also going out of his programming) caused a virus to enter into the program of creation. Now there’s lag. Now there are crashes. Now there are blue screens of death upon humanity. The Scripter could have wiped the drive and started over. He didn’t.