Faith, Politics and the Bush White House
In an election loaded with vitriol and animosity, it is prudent to carefully select that which we put forward into the public forum regarding points of difference. More unites us as Americans than what we allow to divide us. Religion is one such issue. Amy Goodman's Democracy Now on-line radio interviewed two people who have spent time studying the Bush White House and the role religion plays within it. The 30 minute discussion is even handed and does not make fun of those who hold religious beliefs. It ask questions that I, as a non-traditional Christian, have regarding people who claim to "hear" God speaking to them and who see their policies as being Divinely ...A Challenge to Christianity
What is really different about Christianity when compared to other religions? Do the differences matter? Does it matter if you can debate the historicity of Christ as Messiah? Or does it matter more about how you live and what your doctrine means in how it impacts your life and the lives of those around you?DVD Review: The Fog of War
For so many years McNamara no doubt was able to sleep only by justifying his actions through some complex idea of the "rightness" of decisions he had made. But as his life has progressed he has lost the ability to rationalize it all away, as his comments on proportionality betray. Do we have to do evil in order to do good? Perhaps here too the issue of proportionality should be introduced: few actions in war can be without the loss of innocent lives. I would suggest the more right the war the more likely it will be that you do not have to engage in evil to do good. When we accept doing evil to accomplish good we are no longer doing good, we are acting purely in the mode of self-preservation, a mode that holds selfishness up as a higher ideal than any good, a mode of thinking that rationalizes revenge all too easily.News Flash: Iraqi War Will Be Hard Work
President Bush in the first debate: "In Iraq, no doubt about it, it's tough. It's hard work. It's incredibly hard. It's - and it's hard work. I understand how hard it is. I get the casualty reports every day. I see on the TV screens how hard it is. But it's necessary work. We're making progress. It is hard work." Pick your metaphor: Neo in the Matrix having to choose the blue pill or the red pill, or Alice and the rabbit hole, President Bush needs a hard reality check. Hiding behind the obvious may work for the election, but it isn't going to work in resolving the complexities arising in the Middle East due to our handling of the Iraqi War.September 2004 Bookshelf
A much shorter list of books this month given other time commitments I have had. A wonderful book on stages of development in the Christian life and a great piece of fictional mind-candy.Archbishop Desmond Tutu on the Iraqi War
Too many Christians such as myself feel out of place and disenfranchised with how American Christianity and American politics - specifically the war in Iraq - are being brought together. Today, to be against the Iraqi war is the stance of people like Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, Amy Sullivan and Gore Vidal - all good people but people who are stridently non-Christian. Why is it that American Christians have had such a boorish and frankly, non-Christian response to the war in Iraq? I encourage all my fellow searchers, fellow Christian brothers & sisters to listen to this interview by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. His comments and questions about the intersection of his Christian faith and the ...About MysteriousFaith
“If anyone can show me, and prove to me, that I am wrong in thought or deed, I will gladly change. I seek the truth, which never yet hurt anybody. It is only persistence in self-delusion and ignorance which does harm.”
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