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The Jeffersonian impulse
Jeff Taylor, author of the interesting-sounding new book on the Democratic Party Where Did the Party Go?: William Jennings Bryan, Hubert Humphrey, and the Jeffersonian Legacy, has an essay adapted from the book on Imperialism and Isolationism: Contrasting Approaches to Foreign Policy. Taylor tries to dispel some myths about isolationism: To some, isolationism may imply…
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The problem with John McCain
John McCain seems like an admirable person in many ways, but he’s never been someone I’d particularly want to see in the Oval Office. Here’s a good op-ed on why. For some reason, McCain’s actual views frequently get obscured in all the media fawning over his straight-talkin’ maverick persona. There is also the any-stick-to-beat-Bush-with phenomenon:…
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Moral diversity in the church
I recently picked up a collection of essays from the library called Gays and the Future of Anglicanism, edited by Andrew Linzey and Richard Kirker. The essays cover a broad range of topics responding to the Church of England’s Windsor Report, which censured the American Episcopal Church and a diocese within the Canadian Anglican church…
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Hagel on exiting Iraq
I said before that one of my hopes from the election was that some of the few GOP senators who haven’t entirely drunk the administration kool-aid might start to put pressure on the White House for a change of course in Iraq. Here’s Chuck Hagel in the Washington Post arguing for just that. What he’ll…
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C.S. Lewis, scholar and spiritual writer
Unbeknownst to me until this morning, today the Episcopal Church calendar commemorates C.S. Lewis. As is traditional, we remember “saints” on the day of their death, or their birth into eternal life. (As it happens, Lewis died on November 22, 1963, the very same day as JFK and Aldous Huxley.) Here’s the collect (via fellow…
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Death, where is thy sting?
Thomas at Without Authority writes on death and whether we should consider it natural and/or evil in itself. I think he’s on the right track there (and I’m not just saying that because he had nice things to say about a few of my posts). I’m intrigued by his last paragraph where he says: So,…
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NRCAT statement of conscience
If you’re concerned about reports of the use of torture in the war on terror then you might consider endorsing the National Religious Coaltion Against Torture‘s “Statement of Conscience.” I’ve mentioned this before, but recently received an e-mail saying that they’re aiming to have 50,000 signatures by mid-January. You can view and endorse the statement…
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What does TEC teach about salvation?
Yesterday’s Boston Globe carried an article about Episcopal parishes in the Diocese of Massachusetts disassociating themselves from the national church body on account of the latter’s “teachings on gay clergy, homosexuality, and salvation.” Leaving aside for the moment the controversy over V. Gene Robinson and the larger issue of homosexuality in the church, what’s this…
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Jars of Clay – LIVE!
At the risk of incurring the mockery of Derek or others, just wanted to mention that the good wife and I attended a Jars of Clay concert last Friday at Gordon College on the north shore (billed as “the only nondenominational Christian college in New England”). Apart from being dragged to a Petra concert by…
