December 2007 - Posts
Sitting before a nativity scene in her home, the Tennessee state representative explained a tough new law to a television reporter. It’s designed to make employers identify illegal immigrants and send them packing, she said, oblivious to the irony of the setting.
The nativity is a story of displacement and immigration. It’s a refugee story. Joseph [...]
A VERY good question posed by JKA Smith:
Am I the only one who dreams of a conservatism without nationalism, without militarism, and without capitalism? Can’t we imagine a conservatism without Americanism (just how could a revolutionary project be “conservative,” again?)? A conservatism without a Constantinian Christendom?
Fors Clavigera: Wanted: A Conservatism Sans…
i stopped doing resolution stuff years ago. i realized i sucked at them. so why devote energy that direction. i am however looking forward to a number of things in 2008. in no particular order. i look forward to... the...
I was just reading something that mentioned a phrase I often heard used: “So focused on heaven that they are of no earthly good”, referring to how some spiritualities withdraw from any responsibility to suffering around them. It is a close relative, I think, to the “gnostics”, which claim to eschew physicality and maintain a [...]
these are probably good book or movie titles google is god tip mitch the last bush supporter tip brittney ariah on nick & josh podcast (i've been linking to him a lot lately) recap of pew report on teens and...
Bishop Willimon , co-author with Stanley Hauerwas in Resident Aliens, posts a great post:
The angel did not say good news for some people. The angel was bold to say good news for all people….
Good news this day. There is born for you a savior. Our flags, government, armies, cannot save. Only that baby [...]
I spied this article, and the closing point about community seems to have a hint of individualism embedded in it, for all its talk of the “community”. I don’t think the author realizes it, and perhaps a couple of years ago, I wouldn’t have noticed it myself, but look:
A community is a living and breathing [...]
a new year is about to begin.. seems like a good idea for a redesign.. hmmmm??
yesterday during midday prayers this was part of the readings. Yahweh says this "A voice is heard in Ramah, lamenting and weeping bitterly: it is Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted for her children because they are...
In the chapter on “recapturing” the “first love” zeal in The God of Intimacy and Action, I am inclined to disagree with Tony Campolo again. When he talks about having the “urges” and uncontrollable desire to “tell the gospel story”, and includes an account of how a former drug addict calls it a “high without [...]
a photo essay of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto by one of the photographers on scene. chilling. hosted by nytimes website. tip jordon cooper
a few years back when mountain top went through some large leadership changes i had stepped in to help out where i could. part of what i did was network and bring people into the fold and try to get...
Sorry for the lack of blogging this week. I've been enjoying time in Central New York with my family, and also have managed to get sick, which I imagine is a common happening for pastors post-Christmas and post-Easter. Nothing serious, but I'm feeling pretty overtired and uninspired when it comes to being productive and reflective!
Onward... Every year, methobloggers are asked (first by
Gavin, now for the
methoblog itself) to come up with a Top 5 posts list for the previous year. I have to admit, after looking over a year of my posts, I was pretty unimpressed with my entries for the year! But here's what I have (in chronological order):
1)
The Family Tree - Last year, Jay at
Only Wonder wrote about a new site for 'social networking' genealogy:
Geni.com. I checked out the site and rekindled my interest in genealogy, a passion shared by my cousins, my late aunt, and my late grandmother. I've since re-fallen in love with genealogy, and have made lots of cool discoveries about my family tree. I've reconnected with some relatives, 'met' relatives online for the first time, and discovered and/or confirmed relations to King Henry II, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and some Mayflower folks. And I've also become really curious in the stories behind the names. How did my Cherokee ancestor come to be a slave-owner? How did my ancestors bear so many deaths of their children? How did they take so many risks to cross the ocean to unknown worlds?
2) The hardest thing in ministry - This post announced my new appointment to the blogosphere. Not profound, but marking one of the biggest events in my life to date...
3) Pastor Nightmares - I wrote about the nightmares I've had relating to ministry, and one of them coming true: not having my manuscript with me when I had to preach. It actually turned out to be a good experience.
4) Transitions is a post about leaving one congregation and moving to another.
5)
Things I Keep Meaning to Do is a reflection on my visit to
CUMAC-ECHO in Paterson. This post is especially meaningful to me because it really points to some things that, as I say, I keep meaning to do, places of spiritual struggle I find myself in.
Eh well - with a cast and crutches and a move, I guess this hasn't been my most stellar blogging year, at least not from my own point of view. But I thank you all for reading anyway!
(the following occurred to me just as I finished the preceding post about COS’s seeking to live as an alternative society; as a “recovery group” for resisting he addictions of and to our culture):
The end of a chapter in Campolo’s new book collaboration is a bit puzzling to me, as it stops sort just as [...]
the other night i got myself in a little trouble doing some extended reading. for the holidays i thought i would get a good shot at finishing "justice in the suburbs." i started the intro shortly after meeting up with...
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