<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Compass & Altar]]></title><description><![CDATA[Compass & Altar]]></description><link>https://www.compassandaltar.com/blog</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Wed, 08 Apr 2026 00:42:15 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.compassandaltar.com/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA['Don't Confuse God's Patience with His Permission']]></title><description><![CDATA[This simple sentence from the Adventist church captures so much of the problem I have with it. A problem that goes beyond dogma, rules, and interpretive choices. A problem with its god. Adventism doesn’t have a monopoly on this god. Many of you have met him too. My worldview of origin just perfected him, and it shows in this statement. This god reminds me of something. On it’s surface, this statement is trying to remind you that you are a sinner and to emphasize urgency you should act with to...]]></description><link>https://www.compassandaltar.com/post/don-t-confuse-god-s-patience-with-his-permission</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6993b7e6884976137dab3208</guid><pubDate>Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:41:10 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/537a6d_aeefc4d6c8b142559d8d1618e51ab1d8~mv2.webp/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>William James</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Widget Co.: A Satire of Scarcity Math]]></title><description><![CDATA[Let’s say the ‘woke left’ has pressured the companies in your field to have diverse hiring policies or face casual social media backlash. There is a premier widget company in your town. While impactful, it is small: twenty employees. The CEO, a single mom who voted for Hillary, decided she wanted the company to be […]]]></description><link>https://www.compassandaltar.com/post/widget-co-a-satire-of-scarcity-math</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69939b5d884976137daaf029</guid><category><![CDATA[Race Relations]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 15 Sep 2025 16:04:47 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/537a6d_93c083a72e7f41dba1e5ecd9dccb5708~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_682,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>William James</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Criminal by Birth]]></title><description><![CDATA[The thing that makes ‘illegals’ criminals is by being here. Standing on this side of the line. It is a ‘crime’ that those of us born here cannot commit. We can commit any other crime we want and never be seen as the kind of criminal they are. Because the kind of criminal they are, […]]]></description><link>https://www.compassandaltar.com/post/criminal-by-birth</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69939b5d884976137daaf02a</guid><category><![CDATA[Race Relations]]></category><pubDate>Wed, 06 Aug 2025 10:06:44 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/537a6d_ba2501d08c9743b5bac93d4f89ad87d2~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_971,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>William James</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Soil Remembers]]></title><description><![CDATA[Layered beneath our feet lie the ages and eras that once were. Memories buried atop memories, lost to the waves of time, so we could make our own.  But the soil remembers.  The leaves we watch fall once thrived in a world where death was not their end. They had not yet ingrained themselves in the cycle […]]]></description><link>https://www.compassandaltar.com/post/the-soil-remembers</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69939b5d884976137daaf027</guid><category><![CDATA[Race Relations]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 30 Dec 2024 22:45:31 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>William James</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[I’m a Seventh Day Adventist…kind of]]></title><description><![CDATA[Seventh Day Adventism is not simply my denomination of origin – not simply my preferred flavor of Christianity. It is a fully saturating physical force integral to my existence. Adventism is gravitational. It is an underlying essence that seems to tie all other things together. It affects you and the direction of your movements whether you are thinking about it or not. Whether you are committed to it or not.]]></description><link>https://www.compassandaltar.com/post/i-m-a-seventh-day-adventist-kind-of</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69939b5d884976137daaf028</guid><category><![CDATA[faith]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hope]]></category><category><![CDATA[Life]]></category><category><![CDATA[Religion]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 08 Mar 2021 14:54:09 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>William James</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Irony]]></title><link>https://www.compassandaltar.com/post/irony</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69939b5d884976137daaf026</guid><category><![CDATA[Religion]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 28 Dec 2020 15:34:53 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/537a6d_edcf1a8a5f494a5dbd8adf1b83c22db4~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_576,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>William James</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[I am afraid for us.]]></title><description><![CDATA[[full stop]]]></description><link>https://www.compassandaltar.com/post/i-am-afraid-for-us</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69939b5d884976137daaf024</guid><category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 22 Sep 2020 12:22:51 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>William James</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Father’s Day]]></title><description><![CDATA[So, this is late and he’ll never see this anyway, but my dad is legitimately the coolest there is. I was thinking about it a lot yesterday because I really wanted to place my finger on exactly what it is about my dad that I love so much. But I realized that Dad is just […]]]></description><link>https://www.compassandaltar.com/post/father-s-day</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69939b5d884976137daaf025</guid><category><![CDATA[Parenting]]></category><pubDate>Wed, 01 Jul 2020 14:25:39 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>William James</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Prayer Had To Change/A Prayer of Lament by Rev. Dr. Sharon R. Fennema]]></title><description><![CDATA[Prayer had to change. It had to die and hopefully resurrect. It had to become less me and mine but more all of us, more contemplative, more meditative, but honestly, so far, it’s just been more rare.]]></description><link>https://www.compassandaltar.com/post/prayer-had-to-change-a-prayer-of-lament-by-rev-dr-sharon-r-fennema</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69939b5d884976137daaf02b</guid><category><![CDATA[faith]]></category><category><![CDATA[Religion]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 30 Jun 2020 14:37:35 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>William James</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[CHRONICLES AND CORONA]]></title><description><![CDATA[This Needs to Stop, NOW!]]></description><link>https://www.compassandaltar.com/post/chronicles-and-corona</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69939b5d884976137daaf02d</guid><category><![CDATA[faith]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hope]]></category><category><![CDATA[Religion]]></category><pubDate>Wed, 01 Apr 2020 19:23:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/537a6d_a11f1afc603e4107b1909f3b98dd26bc~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_623,h_524,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>William James</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Broken Plates and Baptisms]]></title><description><![CDATA[I was my mother’s saucer plate’s keeper and its shards cried out to God like Abel’s blood on the ground.]]></description><link>https://www.compassandaltar.com/post/broken-plates-and-baptisms</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69939b5d884976137daaf02c</guid><category><![CDATA[Life]]></category><category><![CDATA[Religion]]></category><pubDate>Thu, 14 Nov 2019 17:15:00 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>William James</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Confessions of a Badventist – Part 4 – Appendix – “I always feel like… somebody’s watching me.”]]></title><description><![CDATA[The process of salvation and sanctification on Earth, to Adventism, is not just about God reconciling his crown jewel of creation back to Himself. These processes are not just about saving some humans from Hell, they are ultimately about clearing God’s name and character when He sends the rest of us there.]]></description><link>https://www.compassandaltar.com/post/confessions-of-a-badventist-part-4-appendix-i-always-feel-like-somebody-s-watching-me</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69939b90cf429c4fcb4d4cf8</guid><category><![CDATA[Religion]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 12 Nov 2019 17:45:57 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/537a6d_0c28f4c146164f839af2f075269ae9ad~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_735,h_503,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>William James</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[To B.J.   (letter to a loyal soldier)]]></title><description><![CDATA[I’m sorry…
I’m sorry that I didn’t become what you wanted.
What you expected.
What you thought was expected.]]></description><link>https://www.compassandaltar.com/post/to-b-j-letter-to-a-loyal-soldier</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69939b90cf429c4fcb4d4cf4</guid><category><![CDATA[Hope]]></category><category><![CDATA[Life]]></category><pubDate>Thu, 07 Nov 2019 14:15:27 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>William James</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[It’s not an Amy Grant tattoo…]]></title><description><![CDATA[“El Shaddai” was the start of Jacob waking up to Truth after burying the myth.]]></description><link>https://www.compassandaltar.com/post/it-s-not-an-amy-grant-tattoo</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69939b90cf429c4fcb4d4cf2</guid><category><![CDATA[faith]]></category><category><![CDATA[Religion]]></category><pubDate>Thu, 31 Oct 2019 13:05:46 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>William James</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Confessions of a Badventist – Certainty – I know that I know that I know]]></title><description><![CDATA[Here is the rub: we Adventists believe we have the most tools to allow ourselves to be “doing it right,” but we make up only .5% of the adult population in America – one in every 200 adults. But, if those are the numbers, what is going to happen to the other 199 that are “doing it wrong?” Let alone what happens to the billions of people that are not Christian, not because they “rejected the Good Word” but because the corner of the globe they were born in precluded it, and the belief system th...]]></description><link>https://www.compassandaltar.com/post/confessions-of-a-badventist-certainty-i-know-that-i-know-that-i-know</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69939b90cf429c4fcb4d4cf7</guid><category><![CDATA[faith]]></category><category><![CDATA[Religion]]></category><pubDate>Thu, 15 Aug 2019 17:45:41 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>William James</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[BE at Peace]]></title><description><![CDATA[I was recently attempting this hippy-dippy meditation on my phone that was intended to cultivate a feeling of love and gratitude. Part of this meditation was to contemplate some statements directed, first to yourself, then to any person you care about, then to everyone and everything. Every minute or so, a soft female voice would […]]]></description><link>https://www.compassandaltar.com/post/be-at-peace</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69939b90cf429c4fcb4d4cf3</guid><category><![CDATA[Hope]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 29 Jul 2019 17:03:12 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>William James</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Confessions of a Badventist – Part 3 – What Does Genesis Say About Our Beginnings?]]></title><description><![CDATA[Where the origin stories of the ancient near east and Mesopotamian world tended to express great conflict amongst the gods and interfamilial wars that resulted in the accidental creation of Earth and mankind, as byproducts of chaos (i.e. the Enuma Elish), the Biblical text, the words themselves, suggest that a collective of God, (“Let us make man in our image”) made a community decision to create purpose out of chaos.]]></description><link>https://www.compassandaltar.com/post/confessions-of-a-badventist-part-3-what-does-genesis-say-about-our-beginnings</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69939b90cf429c4fcb4d4cf9</guid><category><![CDATA[faith]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hope]]></category><category><![CDATA[Religion]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 26 Jul 2019 16:12:39 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/537a6d_7b28f68ac36d45a3941d83bbf7060aa5~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_724,h_613,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>William James</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Confessions of a Badventist – Part 2 – God Said It…]]></title><description><![CDATA[Wandering in the wilderness for forty years won’t make you grateful for the creation of the dirt stuck in your eyes and mouth, but not being enslaved will make you grateful about pretty much anything. The Israelites in Deuteronomy needed a different revelation and a different reminder of who Abraham’s God was for them. An emancipator.]]></description><link>https://www.compassandaltar.com/post/confessions-of-a-badventist-part-2-god-said-it</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69939b90cf429c4fcb4d4cf6</guid><category><![CDATA[faith]]></category><category><![CDATA[Religion]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 26 Jul 2019 09:23:42 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>William James</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Confessions of a Badventist – Part 1 – The Bird’s the Word]]></title><description><![CDATA[I just couldn’t let the ideas get in my brain so the roots couldn’t take hold, you know? I knew that a lot of the everyday practical scientific things I was learning, that were testable and provable, were subject to the same physical laws, concepts, and mathematics as the “taboo” evolutionary ideas in science, but “chewing the meat and spitting out the bones” was my divine test.
Learn…apply…but never believe.]]></description><link>https://www.compassandaltar.com/post/confessions-of-a-badventist-part-1-the-bird-s-the-word</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69939b90cf429c4fcb4d4cfa</guid><category><![CDATA[faith]]></category><category><![CDATA[Religion]]></category><pubDate>Thu, 25 Jul 2019 16:23:30 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>William James</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[I met a Human last night]]></title><description><![CDATA[I met a Human last night. Seems like a weird sentence, but I met a Human last night. We often collide with others as we hurtle through life, presenting only our pre-exposed facades and pretenses, but it seems increasingly fleeting to purposely engage further, become three dimensional, especially with a “stranger.” However, in moments when […]]]></description><link>https://www.compassandaltar.com/post/i-met-a-human-last-night</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69939b90cf429c4fcb4d4cf1</guid><category><![CDATA[Hope]]></category><category><![CDATA[Life]]></category><pubDate>Wed, 22 Aug 2018 09:49:30 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>William James</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>