An excellent post from Jamie Smith that generates discussion that really gets at a long standing beef I’ve had with him, even while I express my deep indebtedness to and appreciation for his introducing me, through his Introduction to Radical Orthodoxy, to the world of Radical Orthodoxy and several excellent and valuable authors. My beef with him centers mainly on his Continue Reading
Interesting list of people here: Sojourners: Red Letter Christians We’re convening a new group of Christian communicators who are taking Jesus’ words seriously. I noticed , of course, Tony Campolo, but also Shane Claiborne, Founder, The Simple Way Community , and also someone new who interested me of late: Amy Sullivan Contributing editor at The Washington Monthly and author of Continue Reading
In my previous post, I reacted to what I perceived as a lack of a strong sense of ecclesia; my sensibilities tend toward the narrative of a strong, intentional effort toward structures built by the church to enable the formation of the people ; the resistance to the culture’s values; the need for an intense “restructuring” of the way in Continue Reading
Whoa, Bruce. The first amendment is a constitiution for state, not a Biblical value; and what exactly is the intent of \”separation of church and state?\” This is a tired argument about religion and the public square, and I see many problems. It comes awfully close to elevating the Constitution of the United States to the level of a confession Continue Reading
This prime bit of Hauerwas reflection has me thinking today about this whole Sojo-RO “conflict” that seems to be underlying a lot of Hauerwas and James KA Smith (the bold part is my emphasis) : As Christans we believe we not not only need a community, but a community of a particular kind to live well morally. We need a Continue Reading
Another source of rant from David Batstone (see previous post): Halliburton. This too, riles me up. The seemingly EXTREMELY suspicious ties of VP Cheney, the ineptitude of the “work” this crew has done, and the “clear-to-any-sane-individual” priority placed on “siezing of Iraqi oil” —all of this renews longings for some fresh blood in investigative reporting to the blow the lid Continue Reading
Here’s a piece that was highlighted in the latest SojoMail , where David Batstone has a couple of rants, one of which is on how ExxonMobile has contributed to a “thinktank” whose aim is to combat with supposed “alternative science” the overwhelming ACTUAL sceintific community consensus on global warming. (Batstone draws on a NYTimes article by Paul Krugman, (which sadly, Continue Reading
Jim Wallis’ sense of the locus of that adventure being in the church has been built out from an initial sense of outrage at racism and the injustices perpretated by the US in Vietnam. The church experience he initially received was that of accomodation to all that injustice, whch drove him away. HIs experiences of reading the gospel again with Continue Reading
Larry reflects on God’s Politics Recovering Biblical Justice When Christian faith gets too cozy with any culture, it is at risk of being diluted and losing its voice. Justice requires independence and integrity. All of this is to say that as I reflect on the need for the mainline church to find its voice, I believe Jim Wallis is pointing Continue Reading
Harbinger and RoundTower talk Progressive Evangelicalism: RoundTower: Conversing with Progressive Evangelicalism: Pt. 4 – A Response Roundtower: Jim Wallis, for example, decries the hyper-politicization of E and would identify that as a key reason he wanted to differentiate himself from E. That’s why it’s problematic if that problem shows up in PE. Steve B.: If you are selecting partisan politics Continue Reading
Charlie has put up his blog entry on Chapter 10 of God’s Politics, “Blessed Are The Peacemakers” I commented there, and gave a little on my take of what Wallis was saying. I agree with Charlie that it is on this subject where Wallis treads on the most precarious ground, teetering on the edge of succumbing to the use of Continue Reading
Charlie blogs God’s Politics (you can see the whole list of his chapter by chapter summaries at BookGarden.org Interruptions: June 2005 In this chapter Wallis takes on US imperialism, or as some put it our ambition for empire. Not since Rome has a nation Lorded it over others as America does today. Add to this ambition language about God and Continue Reading
Several days ago, Eric had emailed Jamie Smith (aka known as James K.A. Smith, author of Introducing Radical Orthodoxy (which I am reading) and told him about the discussions Eric and I had been having. Jamie offered to answer 2 or 3 questions if we wanted to pose some. So , the comments section of this post, we did so, Continue Reading
The same one* who posted the entry that I point to in the previous entry below, also posted this one ( Constantinianism of the Left?) which is yet another complaint lodged against the Jim Wallis “God’s Politics” message, and again, they miss the mark, I believe. While this guy, Jamie, is obviously an articulate and peace-loving Christian, he is the Continue Reading
Another installment of the critiques of God’s Politics, to which I have posted comments Progressive Protestant » here (at Progressive Protestant) and here (Van’s Blog”) Both these blogs are great conversation supporters, and both bloggers thoroughly engaged their commenters, including me. I have no desire to give any impression that I think these guys are to be “battled” in any Continue Reading