A Thinking Reed

  • Disappearing act

    Apparently there was some controversy about the remains of John Henry Newman. The Catholic Church wanted to exhume the remains of the soon-to-be-sainted cardinal (and famous convert from Anglicanism) and display them for veneration. But Newman had explicitly requested burial next to his longtime friend Father Ambrose St John, which is further complicated by the…

  • Don’t forget Prop 2!

    A pre-Election Day reminder about Proposition 2 in California. This modest measure could not only make a dramatic difference to the lives of millions of animals, but establishing these protections in the largest state in the Union could have a dramatic ripple effect on animal welfare across the country. More info here. (Links via)

  • Invasion of the left-wing body snatchers

    I largely agree with John’s take on the whole Obama-as-closet-radical idea being pushed by the (increasingly desperate) McCain campaign and its media fellow travelers. (Be sure to follow the links he provides too.) I have plenty of lefty friends, and they certainly don’t think Obama is a radical lefty. On everything from health care to…

  • Tagged!

    From Rick Ritchie – five people (living or dead) who have been a positive influence on your spiritual life. It’s kind of tricky question for a few reasons. For one, I don’t know that my spiritual life is anything to write home about. For another, I’m sure that what spiritual life I do have has…

  • Flex time

    My pal Mary links to this article from Newsweek on “flexitarians” – folks who, for a variety of reasons, eat meat sparingly but without being full-bore vegetarians (or vegans). I think this is all to the good. In particular, as veggie options become more widespread and palatable, people will recognize that you can eat well…

  • You don’t need a weather man to know which way the wind blows

    The Nation has re-posted a story it ran on the Obama-Bill Ayers connection when the Clinton campaign tried to make hay out of the same issue during the primaries. What’s completely baffling to me is what inference the McCain campaign thinks we should draw from Obama’s (tenuous) connection to Ayers. That Obama is a secret…

  • More thoughts on omnipotence and creation

    In the previous post I talked about Jay McDaniel’s proposal for a revised account of divine omnipotence and creation based on the suggestion of a primordial chaos that coexists with God, a chaos out of which God creates the world and which limits the divine ability to shape creation. I agree with McDaniel about the…

  • Creation and omnipotence: a process perspective

    As a follow-up of sorts to my reading of Christopher Southgate’s The Groaning of Creation, I picked up Jay McDaniel’s Of God and Pelicans: A Theology of Reverence for Life, which Southgate refers to a number of times in his book. McDaniel is a process theologian who has also been influenced by feminist theology, as…

  • Getting desperate

    Palin: Obama “palling around with terrorists.” This is what happens when you don’t have anything substantive to run on, I guess.

  • A recommendation

    I keep meaning to link to the blog of Steven Waldman, the editor-in-chief of Beliefnet and author of a recent book on the religion of the Founders. Waldman offers thoughtful and even-handed commentary, usually focusing on the intersection of religion and politics. In other words: not like most blogs. So there–I’ve linked to it.