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Priest quits TV show after comments on sex abuse
Benedict Groeschel, a well-known Catholic author and television personality, has given up his longtime spot on the conservative cable network EWTN following comments in which he appeared to defend ...
Now official: Mormons may drink Coke, Pepsi
Perhaps reporters, bloggers, outsiders and even many Mormons will now acknowledge that the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not forbid drinking cola....
How should we evaluate teachers?
A knotty issue in the Chicago teachers strike is teacher assessments.
Wait, why is Amazon building warehouses everywhere?
David Streitfeld's Times writeup on Amazon's latest customer-service push is generally informative, but he buries the lede. Here's his explanation as to why the retailer is putting up new warehouses all over the country:
This multibillion-dollar building frenzy comes as Amazon is about to lose perhaps its biggest competitive edge — that the vast majority of its customers do not pay sales tax. After negotiations with lawmakers, the company is beginning to collect taxes in California, Texas, Pennsylvania and other states. But Amazon hopes that the warehouses will allow it to provide better service, giving it the ability to up-end the retailing industry in an entirely new way.
So they needed a new way to have an edge, and they happened to go with more warehouses?
Thursday digest
New today from the Century: A cure for medicine, self-conversion projects, more.
Can medicine be cured?
Jeffrey Bishop is both a physician and a philosopher. Here he turns his clinical and analytical gaze on medicine, and his diagnosis is bleak.
Seeking the Straight and Narrow, by Lynne Gerber
Lynne Gerber's interaction with the discourses of evangelical weight loss and sexual reorientation is engaging, surprising and admirably charitable.
Speaking of money
My files are full of stewardship sermons. So it came as a shock when people would say, “We know you don’t like to talk about money.”
Email prompts Mormon church to reaffirm that it's neutral on Mitt Romney
c. 2012 Salt Lake Tribune...
Failure and blame
Americans are not very good with failure. We take it personally; we draw lines in the sand and cast blame. And the Chicago Public Schools are, for the most part, failing—failing to provide an environment that fosters teacher excellence, failing to provide a physical environment in which kids can learn, failing to graduate kids with the basic skills to succeed, failing to graduate kids at all.
Fifty-two years after the Houston ministers speech
The great newish online journal Religion & Politics alerted me to the fact that today is the anniversary of JFK's speech to the Houston ministers.
Wednesday digest
New today from the Century: Snow White's revival, speaking of money, more.
Once Upon a Time; Mirror, Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman
Several current tales of Snow White nod at feminist critique—while leaving the old paradigms for female power and beauty intact.
A Door in the Ocean, by David McGlynn
In his sparkling new collection of essays, David McGlynn wrestles with some of the same fierce angels that haunt his short stories.
The ministry of the risen Lord
The one who puts all things under his feet is doing something in the world.
Sunday, September 23, 2012: Proverbs 31:10-31
Enough water has passed under the bridge to allow us to take a second look at the virtuous woman of Proverbs 31.
Children in worship
In the first issue of PLGRM, Rev. LeAnn Watkins, rector at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in St....
Tuesday digest
New today from the Century: What Jesus is doing, children in worship, more.
No, voting isn't like being part of a firing squad
Another election year, another crop of posts about why people shouldn't vote....