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Mary, can you teach us to be courageous?
My stereo is always on overdrive in the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas....
Locking up children
This week, at a refurbished camp for oil and gas workers, the Department of Homeland Security officially opened a new detention center for women and children who cross the southern U.S. border. In DHS director Jeh Johnson’s view, this is a move to prevent people from crossing the border at all. He wants to stem the tide of “illegal migration,” and he believes that detention is one means to do so. “Frankly, we want to send a message that our border is not open to illegal migration, and if you come here, you should not expect to simply be released,” said Johnson.
Let’s look at the positive side for a moment.
South Sudan clergy stand up for peace
(The Christian Science Monitor) Wearing a white cassock, Catholic bishop Paride Taban strides through the mud and tents of th...
A restless search for truth: Philosopher John Caputo
“Truth is in constant transit. The difference between a liberal and a conservative, I think, is the stomach you have for the journey.”
Forgotten genocides
Historically, the region from the Danube to the Euphrates and from Belgrade to Baghdad is religiously complex. Our modern map is a product of decades of violence and ethnic cleansing.
It's none of my business
This week, I was speaking to a handful of strong, smart writers who were on their way to publishing major books, but they were nervous about entering the Wild West World of the Internet....
End times for end times
Franklin Graham, son of the famous evangelist, recently warned that the rise of Ebola signaled that we are living in the last days. Few people noticed. Christian filmmaker Paul Lalonde released an awful movie in October about the end of the world. Despite snagging Nicolas Cage for the lead role, Lalonde’s retooling of Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins’s bestselling Left Behind books fell flat with audiences.
Evangelical apocalypticism looks almost dead.
Light, darkness, and expendable children
It has happened again; children slaughtered. This time it was a Taliban attack at a school in Pakistan, but it's an old, old story....
Sunday, December 28, 2014: Luke 2:22-40
Luke’s first two chapters are a metaphorical retirement home for elders who are “looking forward to the consolation of Israel.”
In wake of hostage crisis, Australian Muslims say no backlash to faith
(The Christian Science Monitor) Members of Australia’s Muslim community were among thousands of people who laid flowers and other tributes at...
Iraqi Sunnis pay heavy toll for fighting against IS
(The Christian Science Monitor) Iraqi Sheikh Naim al-Gaood was awakened before dawn with the grim news that Islamic State fighters had launch...
Anti-Islam voices grow louder in Germany, worrying leaders
(The Christian Science Monitor) When German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned a rash of hate-mongering on the streets of Dresden Monday, it ...
Vatican ends inquiry of nuns in U.S.
The Vatican ended an inquiry begun six years ago into U.S. nuns with a report designed to bury their differences and celebrate their contribution to the Catholic Church....
Even a necessary evil is evil
Some people see violence as an absolute wrong. Others see it as a sometimes necessary evil, with considerable variation as to just how often these times come up. I’m at the dovish end of the latter group: I believe that there are times—not many, not remotely as many as American foreign policy consensus or law enforcement norms would have it, but some times—when a violent action might be the least-bad available option.
But a necessary evil isn’t a virtue; “least bad” doesn’t mean “good.”
On the wrong side of Vespers
Last week we drove 350 miles to Smith College, where our daughter was singing with the glee club at Christmas Vespers. Each year at a pair of services, campus and community enter liminal space by hearing sacred music from student choral and orchestral groups, pondering poetry and biblical readings by students and faculty, and singing carols together.
This year it also became a setting to turn attention to other matters. As a Facebook event page put it, “You can’t sing carols if you can’t breathe.”
Help me, Baby Jesus—you’re my only hope!
A few recent conversations have gotten me to thinking about the large Load of Expectations people carry around with them this season. It’s a bit crazy making, really....
Doing Christian Ethics from the Margins, by Miguel A. De La Torre
At such ideologically charged times, it is hard to discern what a life of Christian faithfulness looks like. Miguel De La Torre offers a good resource.