A Thinking Reed

  • Initial thoughts on Gutierrez’s Theology of Liberation

    I just finished reading, for the first time, Gustavo Gutierrez’s Theology of Liberation. My understanding is that it was one of the earliest works of liberation theology, coming out of a Latin American, specifically Peruvian, context. What’s interesting to me is that, not having much background in LT, I was expecting something like warmed-over Marxism…

  • Production matters: the limits of locavorism

    Ezra Klein points out that eating locally is neither feasible for a lot of people, nor is it necessarily the best way to reduce carbon emissions with your food choices. (Granted, there are other reasons for eating locally.) Peter Singer and Jim Mason make a similar point in The Ethics of What We Eat (a…

  • Lazy man’s abortion blogging

    I’d been toying with writing a post outlining my current thoughts about abortion, but, turns out, I agree with nearly everything in this post from Lynn. So I’ll just refer you there. Thanks, Lynn!

  • Against obedience and suffering

    I’m still mulling over this couple of posts from the blog “An und für sich”: “Against Obedience” “Christ’s Suffering” They’re interestingly contrarian (as opposed to contrarian in a shallow, knee-jerk way).

  • Disciplines of love

    Christopher‘s reflections on the ways in which marriage rites for same-sex couples might differ from ones for opposite-sex couples are well worth your time. They take him into some thoughts on the purpose of marriage from a Christian perspective that I find very congenial. (See here, here, and here.)

  • Europe exporting its overfishing to Africa?

    This is terrible. It looks like European fleets, with the help of African governments selling lucrative fishing rights, are overfishing African waters and destroying the livelihood of small fishermen to boot. As a further consequence, many of these people, now deprived of a way to make a living, are coming to Europe as illegal immigrants.…

  • Why vote fraud essentially does not exist

    If, like John McCain, you’re were worried about ACORN destroying the fabric of our democracy, you should read this.

  • Friday metal – Red Eddie edition

    This is all kinds of awesome: Eddie the Head, the demoniacal mascot of the British heavy metal group Iron Maiden, has made his way into the debating chamber of a Spanish town hall. Eddie’s cadaverous face appears regularly at council meetings in the town of Villava, in Navarre, as part of a war of political…

  • “Spread the wealth”

    Daniel Larison: […] the idea that the message of Spread The Wealth would be a political loser at the present time is bizarre, which makes McCain’s insistence on identifying Obama as the “spread the wealth” candidate even more bizarre. I mean, does McCain want to get crushed in a landslide? Let’s think about this. There…

  • Powell to endorse?

    Just heard on NPR that Colin Powell will appear on Meet the Press this Sunday, likely for the purpose of endorsing Obama. Will this provide a big boost to Obama? My impression is that the Powell brand has been tarnished considerably in the wake of the Iraq fiasco. But maybe he’s still a widely respected…