Browse by Tags
All Tags »
On Faith »
On Culture (
RSS)
Can the U.S. move from a culture of instant gratification to deferred gratification? The question was inspired by a program on NPR this morning. From the car radio I went into a meeting where the same thing was being talked about.
There’s a lot...
Athiests are coming out of the closet. And in South Carolina, no less; a place noted for the strength of its religious and political values, strongly conservative and deeply held. That’s the gist of the NY Times piece on "emerging" athiests...
Rock Singer and humanitarian activist Bono asks about the state of our souls in this time of great change.
In a Sunday op-ed he recounts Easter worship on an unnamed island and discusses the need for new beginnings. He writes affectingly about his search...
The Taliban have exploited class differences to gain control over the Swat Valley in Pakistan. The Dalit people, known as the "untouchables" in India’s caste-based social system, are throwing off oppressive discrimination to claim liberation...
As I travel, I continue to be impressed with the global reach of television evangelists based in the U.S. propounding the gospel of wealth. I also reflect upon the cultural context in which these evangelists bring their messages. More often than not the...
An economist on Marketplace this morning referred to theologian Reinhold Niebuhr’s worldview as a familiar frame of reference for both presidential candidates. Niebuhr’s view of ethically ambivalent individuals yearning for perfectibility...
“Over the last couple of decades, you have turned Rural America into a scene of devastation which can now best be described as ‘Forgotten America.’”
This is the opening sentence of the liner notes on Moneyland, a new bluegrass...
It’s hard to tell if Barack Obama and John McCain are merely clumsy in their attempts to appeal to religious voters, if they are cynically pandering to perceived religious sensibilities, if they are fuzzy-headed about religion, or if they have really...
This week at work we’ve been hearing from ad agencies as we prepare to select a new one to assist us to advertise The United Methodist Church.
The presentations were all different and creative but one theme kept surfacing–the future is online...
I’m attending the National Conference for Media Reform in Minneapolis the next couple of days. The conference began four years ago and has evolved into a significant grassroots gathering that helps sustain a movement of media activists. They are...
Reacting to claims by Scott McClellan, former Bush press secretary, that the President misled us about the Iraq War, CNN veteran Bob Franken writes on Huffington Post that, “We (the media) were pathetically pliant, willing to be timid so as not...
Social entrepreneurship is touted today as a more effective way to lift people from poverty than old-style charity. From CEOs of major corporations to energetic startups, mixing entrepreneurship with social improvement is getting lots of talk.
I heard...
While the global HIV/AIDS pandemic requires continued attention, an AIDS specialist with 15 years experience says we are ignoring many other basic health needs that are claiming millions of lives.
In an op-ed in the New York Times, Daniel Halperin makes...
I‘m traveling and have not caught my breath which is why posts have been few and far between the past ten days. Last week I was in New York to attend severl meetings, capped by a meeting of the World Business Forum. I intend to write about that...