A host of “secular” sociological, political issues
A scene in Munich, where the “team” assembled to exact vengeance on the planners of the Munich massacre, this romantic, serious music is playing as the men talk about “being assassins”; the whole scene is shot with an air of “these are ordinary men about to do bad things”, but these are “necessary” things; things they have to “live with” Continue Reading
I have been watching this tonight on PBS for the past 50 minutes (it’s still on, and it is an excellent episode…lots of stuff in this episode about Internet journalism. In a four-hour special, News War, FRONTLINE examines the political, cultural, legal, and economic forces challenging the news media today and how the press has reacted in turn. Through interviews Continue Reading
Is this possible? Looks like it. Josh Marshall: We talk a lot about the ‘surge’ and that’s important since it assumes a intensive military commitment in Iraq for years into the future. We worry about tactics and strategy and whether the White House is going to plunge us into another war as a way to wriggle out of the blame Continue Reading
This piece was pointed to by Jim Wallis on the God’s Politics blog. we need to be much more explicit on this point: from a Christian perspective, the hope of the world is in Jesus Christ, and he has chosen to center this hope in the church he established. Readers of our work should not have to figure out Continue Reading
Juan Cole recommends, and I agree, that Exxon should be boycotted Exxon Mobil is a big behind the scenes player in the Iraq War by virtue of its support for AEI. In fact, I think a boycott of its gas stations is in order until the company cuts off AEI and stops promoting the Iraq War and muddying the waters Continue Reading
This guy needs to be excommunicated from the United Methodist Church. There are such things as “AntiChrist” behavior, and this ranks up on a scale with the worst war-mongers in history. And insanity as well. This is truly the only “language they understand”. This belittles the Bushism “Jesus Christ is my favorite philosopher”. Jesus is to be for Christians the Saviour, Continue Reading
The article to which Eric points us has me quite studious this morning. The only proper sense of “theocracy†is the simple recognition that God rules the world. Of course, the matter is not “simple” when one considers the radical re-ordering of the very questions that get asked when one begins here. The wrestling with the powers like the state and “the city” (Cavanaugh Continue Reading
If this guy wasn’t such a “player” in this administration’s outright, cynical misleading of the public and national leaders, this would be comical. Great post by Juan Cole: Feith in the Situation Room: Three Lies Former No. 3 at the Pentagon under Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Douglas Feith, has been found guilty by the Inspector General of “inappropriate” behavior Continue Reading
These things (see quote below) have been brewing for months, and people keep writing articles about it, but I’d perhaps like to hear of a massive national human blockade or something; something to say to these lunatics “no way, you evil, arrogant, dangerous idiots”. How about our brave media getting this unbelievable nonsense onto the airwaves and spelling it out Continue Reading
Carrying on with the thoughts of the previous post, the participation by Christians in the “lexicon” of the patriotic piety, whether it be from the left or the right, is increasingly disturbing to me. I have been noticing more and more of that as I read Hauerwas and the RO writers (JKA Smith, William Cavanaugh, Daniel Bell, John Milbank, Graham Continue Reading
Last Thursday all four of us went downtown to RocketTown and saw and heard Derek Webb (he did “A King and a Kingdom” (my favorite) , “A New Law”, and a couple of newer songs from a forthcoming album), and my almost 18-year old son was aghast and impressed that Reliant K did 3 or 4 songs, and they were Continue Reading
In an age in which there is an outburst of enthusiasm for things spiritual, it may come as a shock to admit that Christianity is very materialistic. Our goal is not to fill you with enough spiritual hot air that you float a foot above the earth. Our goal is to teach you to pray in such a way that Continue Reading
by Dianne Butler-Bass an excellent article on abortion drawing heavily on Hauerwas. [A recent Washington Post article] reflects the failure of the Christian community to understand abortion in the context of theology and practice – and the equal failure of Christians in accepting the secular framing of abortion ethics.To commemorate the day, I decided to re-read some Stanley Hauerwas (Duke Divinity Continue Reading
No doubt, ThunderMan. I also don’t see the Vice-President demanding that the government seize the financial records of Bechtel or KBR. It seems that war profiteering is protected by privacy, but the financial records of citizens are not. In short, if you are powerful and wealthy, then the VP deems your privacy as a right that must be held even Continue Reading
This is not a video, but a still photo that shows while an 22 minute audio plays, but a complete speech King gave that contains most of what he said at Riverside (I assume it is a different speech because of his references to “today” instead of “tonight”, and it doesn’t exactly match the transcript of Riverside—some things are out Continue Reading