(Ir)religiosity

It’s been a crazy weekend.  I mentioned a couple of months ago that Bonnie and I would be moving to Boston this summer.  We started the moving process this weekend.  And it is a process.

Later on in July I’ll be in a friend’s wedding.  Instead of hanging around and paying another month’s rent just for that we decided to pack up early and stay with Bonnie’s mother in Vinita for a few weeks until after the wedding.  That’s what we did this weekend.  It was pretty hectic.

Saturday we rented a Uhaul trailer and loaded up most of the stuff, made a trip to Vinita, unloaded and came right back to return the trailer.  Sunday was my last day at VUMC.  After all the church stuff we loaded up what was left in the apartment, cleaned, and headed back to Vinita from Oklahoma City for the last time.  We got in a little after midnight last night, unloaded and passed out.  We were both pretty exhausted.

So I’m hanging out in Vinita for the next three weeks until phase two (actually moving to Boston) begins.  I plan on blogging during this time, but probably not as much.  We’ll see what happens.

I’m going to try and blog the trip to Boston as well with pictures and everything.  We’ll see that goes.

So that’s the update.

This may seem redundant since I already post links almost everyday via Del.icio.us, but I’m doing it anyway.  Most of my auto postings are non-blog, non-news links anyway.  So here’s some places I’ve been this week.

Jim Wallis and Brian McLaren respond to Focus on the Family’s Dr. James Dobson’s accusation’s on Obama’s “distortion of the Bible.”

Pete Rollins posts on “Batman as the Ultimate Capitalist Superhero.” I love Batman.  I want to disagree, but I can’t.  It’s true.

A new term for your vocabulary: theophobia. [Ht. Andrew Sullivan]

Britannica looks to follow Wikipeida’s lead. I seriously doubt that they will ever overtake the Wiki-giant.  But this is encourage.  Perhaps a sign of more decentralized entities to come?

Ralph Nader calls out Obama. I to agree with him to an extent.  I may have and Obama link in my sidebar, but I’m not past voting for Nader.  Not for a second.

Incidentally, the interview/debate I posted the other day is more relevant than I thought.  37 years after that filming Fons Elders (the dude with long hair in the 1971 video) interviews Noam Chomsky once again. [Ht. Francis Siefken]

Legendary comic George Carlin passed away.  He’s all over YouTube, but here’s a good (and poignant I might add) one on religion. Everyone should watch it because it shows a typical view some persons have.  I’d say if religion is what Carlin says it is here, I don’t like it or want to participate in it either.  (LANGUAGE WARNING)

The Supreme Court makes a historic first time ruling on the 2nd Amendment upholding citizens rights to gun ownership.  Meh.

We’re beginning to see more and more signs that the old traditional form of evangelicalism is slowly dying and with its death we are witnessing the emergence of something new.  According to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 70% of evangelical Christians agree  that “many religions can lead to eternal life” and 57%  believe theirs is not the only path to salvation. This is good news. [Ht. Ben]

It’s been a while since I’ve done a blog series.  I don’t anticipate this being a long one, but it’s something that has been in the back of my mind for quite sometime.  So here goes.

It’s quite interesting — especially considering that this is an election year, and a presidential election at that — to periodically step back and take a look at the media coverage of the war in Iraq and other international news, specifically those dealing with violence and death. 

Take the typical evening newscast for example.  The majority of the coverage will undoubtedly be focused on the upcoming election, the two candidates (like there is ever only two), and why we as citizens should engage in divisive, polemical arguments for or against either one.  The rest of the coverage will more than likely speak to the plummeting economy, rising gas prices and the deteriorating environment with mention of a celebrity scandal or an isolated domestic act of violence. 

Currently there isn’t much variation to that formula.  Mention to the war in Iraq or any other international incident, especially acts of violence, by and large, aren’t covered; and when they are it’s only because American civilians were killed, injured, or in some way jeopardized. Read the rest of this entry »

These are two parts of an recorded excerpt from an epic debate between two intellectual giants, Michel Foucault and Noam Chomsky, on justice and power in 1971. The first video is part one, the second part two. Enjoy.

The United Methodist New Service published this story last week noting that at General Conference almost two months ago German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was named the first official martyr to be recognized by the denomination.

Of course we all know Bonhoeffer’s now near legendary story.  It is arbitrarily lifted by academics in ethics courses as the quintessential example of the justified use of teleological violence.  Bonhoeffer participated in the German resistance movement against Nazism during WWII and was involved in a foiled plot to assassinate Hitler.  He was imprisoned and later executed just a mere three weeks before the liberation of Berlin.

Quite a story.  Quite a noble story.  And before I get into this let me be as clear as possible: I highly respect Bohoeffer actions, his witness, and his contribution to the kingdom.  In fact, were someone to ask me to name a handful of theologians/practitioners that have influenced me and my thought, Bonhoeffer would likely be up there at the top.

However, I have mixed feelings about this.  For two main reasons. Read the rest of this entry »

From The Prophetic Imagination:

“The alternative [prophetic] consciousness to be nurtured, on the one hand, serves to criticize in dismantling the dominant consciousness.  To the extent, it attempts to do what the liberal tendency has done, engage in a rejection and delegitimizing of the present ordering of things.  On the other hand, that alternative consciousness to be nurtured serves to energize persons and communities by its promise of another time and situation toward which the community of faith may move.  To that extent it attempts to do what the conservative tendency has done, it live in fervent anticipation of the newness that God has promised and will surely give”

“In thinking this way, the key word is alternative, and every prophetic minister and prophetic community must engage in a struggle with that notion….[The] urging is that every act of a minister who would be prophetic is part of a way of evoking, forming, and reforming an alternative community.”

“The functional qualifiers, Read the rest of this entry »

This post may get me into trouble.

Gas prices just aren’t high enough.  They really aren’t.  That is, if we really want justice in the world.

Don’t get me wrong, I hate paying upwards to $4.00/gallon just as much as the next guy and I complain probably twice as much — that just proves that most days I’m a walking talking paradox of contradictions.  That aside, I find it very interesting that some people (myself included) who are constantly ranting and raving about the need for justice in the world are the same people demanding that they pay almost half as much in gas prices as the rest of world — the same world that according to them, is in dire need of justice.

That just doesn’t really add up for me.

Frankly, it makes it a little hard for me take the people who get on their soap box about all the problems in the world while at the same time Read the rest of this entry »

This is cool.  With a little bit of work you can search your “read” items in Google Reader. It involves subscribing to your read items’ feed.  Not too difficult at all.  If you’re subscribed to 300 or so feeds like I am this is very helpful.  Sometimes important things slip through. [Ht. Lifehacker]

So the new Coldplay (Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends) has been out for just about a week now.  The whole record is great.  Here’s a video for the single “Violet Hill.”  I say “a video” because it’s not the official video, which is also good.  But, in my opinion this one is better.  [Ht. Phil]