Norris Burkes

I needed new bike shoes for my new electric bike. Not so fast, my wife Becky said. Knowing my propensity to buy shoes for all occasions, she asked me to consider using my running shoes.

“Since we moved to the foothills, I know those shoes haven’t seen much mileage,” she said.

Becky was trying to make me feel guilty for spending good money on shoes I probably didn’t need.

It didn’t work. Off I went to a Sacramento bike store, where I was greeted by a nice clerk who straddled one of those funny shoe stools with a little loading-ramp footrest.

Are you familiar with a business named Chispa?

I’m not talking about Chispa Project, the nonprofit my daughter Sara founded to establish children’s libraries in Honduras.

I mean the Latino dating app. The platform’s website says Chispa is “Fluent in Amor.” It claims to be “the perfect dating app for single Latina women and single Latino men.”

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Chispa is Spanish for spark. That’s why both the dating app and literacy organization chose the name. Both are appropriately identified. After all, your love life and books you read can light up your life and change your future.

Wedding season is in full bloom. In McKinley Park and Downtown churches, I’ve seen the lovely dresses spilling from stretch limos, flowers flowing, jewelry sparkling.

Looking at this outside view, I see signs that the couple spent countless hours sweating the details of their lavish affair.

But long before this summer spectacular, I hope someone remembered to ask the couple this question:

This month’s column comes straight out of ancient times. This is wrath-of-God stuff, fire and brimstone, baby, right from the Old Testament cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

You know I’m messing with you. You don’t read this column to get the hellish diatribes made famous by televangelists.

Those preachers often compare the “homosexual debaucheries” of Sodom and Gomorrah with what they see as the decline of America. They use it as a cautionary tale to ban books, define sexes and influence elections.

Some months back, I visited a new church led by an energetic team. I wanted to learn how our traditional church might find some regenerative energy.

Afterward, I asked what the team liked about their church. I heard several good answers, but one woman intrigued me.

“The first time I walked into this church, I could tell I’d found a wholesome place,” she said.

“Definitely a wholesome-looking bunch,” I said.

“Yes,” she added. “No one with piercings or tattoos.”