A Thinking Reed

  • Jesus got out of the way

    In lieu of our weekly community group/Bible study, we attended the Solemn Mass for the Feast of the Ascension last night. Lovely as usual. The guest preacher was the Rev. Charles Hefling, a professor of theology at BC and editor of the Anglican Theological Review. Fr. Hefling asked: why did Jesus leave? I have to…

  • Is religion dangerous?

    Saw an ad for this in the new First Things: Keith Ward (see here) has written a response of sorts to the “new atheist” crowd. I imagine it’s the usual kind of irenic, thoughtful stuff Ward is known for. I’ve often thought that the whole issue of whether “religion” is on the whole good or…

  • Richardson – the green candidate?

    Bill Richardson’s energy plan gets a green thumbs up from the environmental site Grist: As of today, Bill Richardson has become the boldest, most visionary Democratic presidential candidate on climate and energy policy. Is Richardson the dark horse candidate here? Will Obama and Hillary fatigue have Democratic primary voters looking for an alternative early next…

  • Christians and war revisited

    Doug Bandow has an article worth reading on Christians and the Iraq war. I think we see here one of the problems with Just War theory, a problem that many pacifists have pointed out, namely that it can be so flexible as to (rhetorically at least) justify virtually any war. However, Just War adherents obviously…

  • Is Ron Paul right?

    The debate kerfuffle between Ron Paul and Rudy Giuliani over the question of the causes behind the 9/11 attacks has generated a fair amount of comment. I think Paul got the better of the exchange and Giuliani came across as a bit of a demagogue, but it’s still worth asking whether Paul is right here.…

  • Wanted: realists

    Ross Douthat makes a point not unlike the point I made here. Much as I enjoy Ron Paul’s red-meat isolationism, the chances that such a view will actuall carry the day are slim to none. With Romney, Guliani, and McCain all trying to out-hawk each other, it would be great if the realist-internationalist school of…

  • C. S. Lewis on Barthians

    I was reading selections last night from a volume of C.S. Lewis’ letters and came across an interesting (and rather amusing) one to his brother on February 18, 1940. Apparently Lewis had recently encountered a group of zealous students of this newfangled theologian Karl Barth: Did you fondly believe – I did – that where…

  • Confessions of a thirtysomething right-wing peacenik

    Marvin points to a blog post discussing a poll indicating that we thirtysomethings are the only age group still giving majority support to the Iraq war. Much speculation abounds in the comment thread about us children of the 80s having been brainwashed by the evil Reagan. Coming near the tail end of this cohort (I’m…

  • Against beer snobbery

    I largely agree with this. Also, not only are Bud and Miller union-made brews (as Matthew Yglesias points out), “macro” brews are often more likely to be vegetarian/vegan than many microbrews. Now, look: I enjoy microbrews, but for an everyday drinkin’ beer I’d just as soon crack open a Bud or a High Life as…

  • Mitchell’s 8 Ways

    I took the red-eye home last night from the meeting I was attending in SF and so took most of today off from work to catch up on sleep and stuff around the house. I also started reading a fascinating book called 8 Ways to Run the Country by Brian Patrick Mitchell. Mitchell, the Washington…