(Ir)religiosity

50,000 protesters stage a mass protest in Baghdad against the recently renegotiated mandate to extend US presence.

Prakash Ambegaonkar, the founder of Bridging Nations, wrote this piece on why and how the US must rethink foreign policy in the future.

Christian and Islamic leaders petition together for the establishment of just interest rates and rightly place for the global financial crisis on human greed.

Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz writes about how we got in the current financial mess we’re in and offers a comprehensive way forward.

The spark of the Divine is always within us. It is the common thread that unites us in our humanity.

Tony Jones writes about why the US is not an empire, at least in the classical sense.  I partly agree.  I’m beginning to come around to the idea that the US is simply part of a transnational big “E” Empire of global capitalism.

Noam Chomsky says the US has one-party system.  I agree — as I’ve written before — and I like Chomsky though he is fundamentally rooted in the modern approach.

Andrew Sullivan’s piece “Why I Blog,” is very thought provoking.  Blogging is the new postmodern format.  I wonder how much longer old-school newspapers will last?

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.

1.) Rev. Jeremiah Wright has been catapulted back into the spotlight this week.  He was on Bill Moyers Journal last Friday.  Before anyone says another word about Wright or Black theology they need set aside an hour and watch this.  Then if they still feel the need they can pass judgement.  

2.) If you haven’t kept up with what is going on the primaries then you may not know, but Hillary is actually winning. 

3.) Everybody loves a good email signature.  Here’s a great article on how to create an HTML signature.  It’s written for Apple Mail, but will work with just about any email client that allows HTML.  Here’s a snapshot of what mine looks like. 

4.) I’ve been playing around with online word processors lately, mainly Google Docs and ZoHo.  At first I was a bit apprehensive about it all, but it’s beginning to grow on me.  I like being able to save documents online and bypass the whole flash drive thing.  Anyone know of any other good options?

5.) Howard Dean was on the Daily Show last night.  It reminded me of this.  It’s been over four years and it still cracks me up.

6.) Bart Ehrman and N.T. Wright are two top-notch scholars who definitely now their stuff. Now they are debating, sort of.  They’ve been conversing about God and suffering via a “blogalogue.” I haven’t had the time to read that whole thing yet, but it looks great. 

7.) Iron Man opens today.  Here’s the trailer.  It looks awesome. I just hope it’s as good as the hype.  

1.) Two interesting and thought provoking conversations. Tony Jones takes issue the “Hauerwasian Mafia” and Eugene Cho questions Rob Bell’s white privilege. If you’ve got time read some of the comments on these threads as well. There’s some really good (and bad) dialogue going on.

2.) Speaking of Rob Bell, the dude is staying pretty busy. He’s got a new book coming out in October. Interesting…one month before the election. I bet I know where that is going. I do love the description:

“There is a church not too far from us that recently added a $25 million addition to their building. Our local newspaper ran a front-page story not too long ago about a study revealing that one in five people in our city lives in poverty. This is a book about those two numbers. It’s a book about faith and fear, wealth and war, poverty, power, safety, terror, Bibles, bombs, and homeland insecurity. It’s about empty empires and the truth that everybody’s a priest, it’s about oppression, occupation, and what happens when Christians support, animate and participate in the very things Jesus came to set people free from. It’s about what it means to be a part of the church of Jesus in a world where some people fly planes into buildings while others pick up groceries in Hummers.”

3.) A lot has been going around lately about tap water and bottled water and the problems with sanitation and whatnot. Forbes magazine has an interesting article on “The 10 Best Cities for Clean Drinking Water,” based on a 2006 study conducted by the University of Cincinnati. I was really surprised to see that Tulsa, OK (I’m an Okie) squeaked in at number 10.

4.) My wife is telling me all the time that I blog too much and spend too much time online. I probably do. If you’re like me you might find this ProBlogger piece, “On Being a Healthy Blogger” worth a read. Three words: Lack. Of. Sleep.

5.) And the depressing political stuff. We now know that not only did President Bush authorize the torturing of various detainees, but that secret, high-level meeting were held in the White House (with Cheney, Powell, Rice, Rumsfeld, Tenet, and Ashcroft) in which specific techniques and individuals were discussed in detail. Seriously?! And the worst part is that the media is largely ignoring the story and characteristically avoiding telling the truth. Hmm. Maybe it’s because we’re more concerned with Barack Obama’s missing lapel pin (again!) or Hillary Clinton’s markswomanship (?). Because those are the important issues, right? Right?!

6.) Since Earth Day is next Tuesday, and since I’m preaching a sermon about it on Sunday, I can’t resist. I never, ever, thought I would see a commercial with Al Sharpton and Pat Robertson together. Yes, you read that right, it’s now a typo. I appreciate the gesture and I agree wholeheartedly, but it still seems so…weird.

7). Lastly, if you’re like me, you “grab” YouTube videos all the time because you never know when they’ll be taken down. But I bet you didn’t know that some videos can be viewed in high quality. That not only ups the viewing quality, but also the “grabbed quality.”

There are little signs of hope and creativity everywhere. People are participating in a different type of reality, right under the nose of the empire. Wow. [Ht. Brett and Shane]  

Fox’s “24″ to return in the fall—sort of.

These are some pretty awesome pictures.

New pictures of Abu Ghraib. WARNING: These are very graphic and contain violence and nudity.

Visualizing the bible.

I’m not sure what to make of this. [Ht. Philip Brooks]

~bh ><>

Do NOT Turn Jesus On. “Not sure who designed this, but I’m pretty confident they didn’t mean to make it look as if Jesus was showing his manhood to two children!” So wrong.

Lunar Eclipse Pics. I missed the Lunar eclipse the other night. Actually, I forgot about it. Oh well. Guess I’ll wait until 2010.

Canned Cheeseburger. We’ve officially reached the bottom of the barrel. And I thought McDonald’s was bad?

Comics for hopeful cynics. A friend of mine turned me onto this a few weeks ago. It’s one of my daily visits now. Now, if they would only get RSS.

Top 40 Photoshopped Images. Very cool.

N.T. Wright says what’s some of us have been thinking for while. We’re wrong about heaven. Go figure. Not if he could just persuade some of those evangelicals of whom he has so much influence. We gots work to do!

~bh ><>

Last week, I posted a graph taken from an article in The Atlantic. At that time the article hadn’t been posted online. It’s up now and you can read it here. I think it helps explain and interpret the graph. Interesting. . .

~bh ><>

The life cycle of a blog post. Pretty cool.

I’d like to meet the person that designed this structure. Awesome.

It seems like almost every group or institution is putting out some sort of voters guide these days. I once heard someone say that the most important part of any voters guide is what gets left out. Anyway, here’s an interesting one.

Speaking of voting, what would happen if the whole world voted. The American left-wing just thinks it’s progressive.

I think this best describes how I feel most of the time. Especially during election season.

It case you missed it, the Super Bowl was amazing. The patriots got what was coming. Enough said. But I sure to feel bad for this guy. What was he thinking? [Ht. Bill Reichart]

~bh ><>

**UPDATE**

Helen graciously corrected me. Brian’s “Deep Shift” tour hasn’t started yet. It doesn’t begin until spring of next year in North Carolina. The lecture I originally mentioned was titled “Truth-Telling in “Christian” America: Globalization, Poverty and the Environment” and was given at Dominican University. Although I haven’t read the entire book yet, it seems that this lecture provides the best brief snapshot Brian could possibly provide in one installment.

While I’m on the subject check out Helen’s review of the book. Good stuff.

**UPDATE**

Brian McLaren has hit the road recently, launching a speaking tour to promote his newest book, Everything Must Change. I just started the book and it is fantastic, I highly recommend it–you can’t go wrong with any of Brian’s work. I feel pretty special, I was able to get an uncorrected proof–a reader’s advance copy–that only reviewers normally have access to; so, I’ve been noticing all the nitpicky errors most editors would point out. Not that I’m any good at editing, but I do feel distinguished.

Anyway, I’d hoped to catch the tour when it came close, but it looks like the cost may prohibit me from doing so. BUT–the other day I ran across a link over at Jesus Creed to an excellent set of notes from one of Brian’s lectures about the book. You can view the notes here. I don’t think it’s a complete digest of what Brian is actually talking about on the tour, but I think its a good start.

~bh ><>