Kiva MicroLoans
If you haven't already heard of Kiva, do yourself a favor and click on the link for the organization. They are one of the early stage pioneers advancing real microloans in economically disadvantaged areas. My own account information and who I support can be seen here. Feel free, click, explore, then see how easy it is to take what makes capitalism great and get those strengths to help the disadvantaged who might otherwise get lost in a rapidly modernizing world.Frost-Nixon on Broadway
Two weekends ago, in the quid pro quo that happily married people euphemistically call “compromise”, my wife and I made our way to New York to celebrate our 11th Anniversary; Jen got the spa package at the W and I got tickets to the Frost-Nixon play on Broadway. It remains to be seen if forcing her to sit through a two hour play is made equal by her two hour massage. A brief review - more some random thoughts than rigorous analysis - about the play follow.Carnage Hits Home
The heinous nature of yesterday's killings at Virginia Tech defy comprehension. But they are not without their immediately contemporary parallels, and unfortunately one such is in Iraq. Andrew Sullivan makes the comparison: Imagine that this kind of massacre happened every day. Imagine a police force that was far too small to even respond to most of them. Imagine this occurring repeatedly for years until the perpetrators and their accomplices became the de facto power-brokers throughout the land. Imagine the shootings also being accompanied by the brutal torture of victims. Imagine families never having finality on whether their own siblings or parents or children have been murdered or not. This is Iraq today. Now think of the justified rage many ...Richard Dawkins: Either His Way or the Highway?
My most recent article on spirituality, If Dawkins Makes Sense to Me, Does That Make Me an Atheist?, has been published at SOMA: The Society of Mutual Autopsy, a Review of Religion and Culture. This is an on-line site run by John Spalding, author of the very good A Pilgrim's Digress: My Perilous, Fumbling Quest for the Celestial City.Colbert & D’Souza … Priceless
Infamy can be acquired many ways, appearing on Steven Colbert's Comedy Central show is only one such method. Having a preposterous thesis also helps, as Dinesh D'Souza has in his most recent book The Enemy at Home: the Cultural Left & Its Responsibility for 9/11.The Tao of Borat
Borat manages to get thrown out of just about every public forum one could envision, yet it is the church that welcomes him. Cohen wants to make fun of Pentecostals, but not at the expense of seeing the good they have to offer. When Borat finally makes his statement of faith in front of the church with microphone in hand – that “Mr. Jesus” can save him and rescue his relationship with Pamela – we hold our collective breaths … will he behave in front of the church, if no where else?Postmodernity & Liberalism
Because pluralism struggles to differentiate between competing moralities under the auspices of an enlightened appreciation of another’s perspective, it does a poor job of distinguishing between clearly inferior and superior moral claims. Consequently, the elevation of each person’s perspective means pluralism encourages a wholly individual understanding of truth. Such a position inevitably leads to narcissism as we descend into a world where only what I believe matters. Religious readers eager to point out the need this illustrates for divine morals should reflect on the fact that postmodernity does not emphasize reason, and in not doing so, fails to extinguish the tired argument that morals must be disseminated from above.Andrew Sullivan’s Comments from WaPo on Bart Ehrman
Andrew Sullivan's recent blogging has had much to do with the Muslim outrage in Europe and what we should make of it. As he has written on this, he has engaged Christian fundamentalism within America in an attempt to point out to fellow Americans how easily we can overlook the seeds of despotism within our own culture, which too much within Christianity easily identifies. Andrew's most recent blog entry, which happens to borrow from the Washington Post's book review of Bart Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus, can be seen below: The Washington Post has an engrossing story today about theologian and Biblical scholar, Bart Ehrman, author of "Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why." The story of ...Quack or Spokesman?
American Christianity desperately needs to distance itself from Robertson, and to do so in a way that is explainable. Rather than attempt and pretend that Robertson’s beliefs are un-Biblical, which they are not, the Church should seriously engage the fundamental question that distances believers from unbelievers: the idea that God’s present absence has always been what characterized man’s experience. To really wrestle with this question would be to once and for all set aside the parts of Scripture that award parcels of land to special tribes, establish ridiculous claims about behavior intended to garner your favor with God, or argue that morality can be circumvented by deific decree. It is so easy to overlook that Robertson’s ...Munich
After the Israeli commando group’s first killing, they are in a garden celebrating their success. The soldiers begin telling a story about the Jews and Egyptians: an angel comes to God and says “God, your people have made it across the Red Sea.” God says “good.” Another angel who overhears this humbly asks God, “but thousands of Egyptians died in the sea. Are these not your children as well?” God replies, “Yes, they are.” The stupefied angel then asks, “but if that is the case, why are you happy to know so many of your Egyptian children died?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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