A Thinking Reed

  • Compassionate eating as Christian discipleship

    Here’s a good lecture on our relationship to animals from a Christian perspective by Matthew Halteman, a Calvin College philosopher. He also contributes to a blog on these themes here. Prof. Halteman conceptualizes “compassionate eating” as a Christian discipline, which he defines as a repetitive daily practice undertaken to narrow the gap between who we…

  • I’m just a dupe

    Sam Harris informs us that “there is not a person on Earth who has a good reason to believe that Jesus rose from the dead or that Muhammad spoke to the angel Gabriel in a cave.” Not only is there no conclusive proof that Jesus rose from the dead, mind you, but no good reason…

  • The new evangelical radicalism

    The cover article of the latest In These Times (complete with the inevitable Jesus-as-Che cover image) is about the new “Christian radicalism” being promoted by a variety of younger evangelical leaders and what the secular left might learn from it. The author claims that folks like Rob Bell, Shane Claiborne, and Gregory Boyd are part…

  • Dem bones

    This is a bit tardy by blogospheric standards, but friend of this blog and regular commenter Joshie has a helpful analysis of the recent “Jesus tomb” brouhaha (Pt 1, Pt 2). Thomas at Without Authority posted a while back on what the implications would be for the Christian faith if something like this turned out…

  • Bang your head

    This may well fall into the category of things that precisely no one reading this blog cares about, but I’m very excited about the upcoming release of the new Shadows Fall album early next month. SF is part of the newer breed of American heavy metal that combines hardcore and death metal influences with a…

  • Animal rights across the political spectrum

    A writer at Alternet makes the case for vegetarianism to her progressive allies. I’ve observed before that even on the Left animal rights still seems to strike many as fringy or unimportant. Matthew Scully, a former speechwriter for President Bush, has made the case for better treatment of animals on broadly conservative grounds. In fact,…

  • Ahead of the curve

    In light of the current calls for AG Alberto Gonzales’ resignation/firing, I’d like to point out that I was an early adopter of anti-Gonzalesism.

  • Am I a conservative?

    Blog-friend Russell Arben Fox of In Medias Res identified this humble blog as one of his “blogs that make you think” per some kind of game/meme that was going around (thanks, Russell!). Of course, few blogs make me think quite as much as Russell’s long, substantive posts on political philosophy written through the prism of…

  • NAE vs. torture

    The National Association of Evangelicals, recently in the news due to a dust-up over their position on global warming, has endorsed a good statement on the use of torture. I think it’s salutary that the NAE is defining itself independently of certain old-guard evangelical leaders who identify the Christian agenda with the politically conservative one.…

  • They call him Dr. No

    I neglected to mention yesterday that Dr. Ron Paul, Republican congressman from Texas, has officially thrown his hat in the presidential ring. Paul is a hardcore libertarian Republican who consistently votes against anything he believes isn’t explicit authorized by the Constitution, earning him the nickname “Dr. No.” (Paul ran as the Libertarian Party’s presidential nominee…