A Thinking Reed

  • O brave new world!

    At the First Things sort-of-blog Jason Byassee reviews what sounds like a fascinating book from Methodist ethicist Amy Laura Hall called Conceiving Parenthood: American Protestantism and the Spirit of Reproduction which, in Byassee’s words “aims to show that the powerful narrative of ‘progress’ in twentieth-century American Protestantism is linked indelibly with eugenics, abortion, Hiroshima, racism,…

  • How green is McCain?

    John McCain has distinguished himself from the Republican pack by actually acknowledging the reality of global warming and even sponsoring some legislation to combat it. But would a President McCain really do what’s necessary to seriously address the problem?

  • Ash Wednesday ruminations

    I managed to make it to church this afternoon for the service of Communion and the Imposition of Ashes. And it occurred to me that the cyclical nature of the liturgical year is a good way of driving home the Lutheran insight that we’re always beginning anew and always utterly dependent on God’s grace. In…

  • Confession

    The revivified American Gladiators is kind of awesome.

  • Friday metal – unemployed flying monkeys edition

    Protest the Hero, “Heretics and Killers”

  • Kibitzing

    Check out blog-friend Jeremy’s new site – The Kibitzer.

  • Good question

    Why do antiwar voters keep voting for McCain?

  • A conservative for Obama

    Jeffrey Hart, longtime National Review editor and former speechwriter for both Nixon and Reagan, is feeling the Obama magic. The “conservatives for Obama” phenomenon is interesting. More here and here.

  • Trendy would-be theologians, take heed!

    Postmodernism is sooo 1990’s.

  • The case for Obama

    Chris Hayes makes it at the Nation. Not being a progressive in good standing myself, I can’t go along with everything he says, but this, for me, is key: But while domestic policy will ultimately be determined through a complicated and fraught interplay with legislators, foreign policy is where the President’s agenda is implemented more…