A Thinking Reed

  • Last Shakers standing

    Fascinating article about the last four living Shakers – a.k.a. members of the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing – who live in a historic “Shaker village” in Maine.

  • There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, left nor right…

    This is an incredibly shallow analysis of what’s going on in the mainline churches. Here’s the (old, old) story, according to the author, Jim Tonkowich the president of the Institute on Religion & Democracy: The left–also known as progressives, liberals, revisionists, and (in some circles) heretics–base their convictions on individualism, subjectivity, and majority vote with…

  • Wine makes glad the heart of man

    Maybe I haven’t been paying attention, but I didn’t realize there were still major Christian denominations that officially proscribed the drinking of alcoholic beverages by their members. And yet the Southern Baptist Convention has reaffirmed this stance at their recent annual meeting. The resolution could even be read to support reinstating prohibition. It’s easy to…

  • Medieval Irish psalter found in a bog!

    Uncovered by a construction worker, apparently dating from between 800-1000 A.D. Story here.

  • Book meme

    This one comes via Chris of Even the Devils Believe: 1. One book that changed your life: Miracles, C.S. Lewis – made me question a lot of my assumptions and take Christianity seriously as something to be reckoned with intellectually. 2. One book that you’ve read more than once: Cash: The Autobiography, Johnny Cash 3.…

  • Reading the Bible

    Whew! Things have been getting pretty grim around here lately: war, abortion, stem cells, etc. Let’s change the subject. Here’s a question for you: How do you read the Bible? Assuming that you do, that is. Lately I’ve been following the daily lectionary from Oremus. On the plus side, this, like the BCP lectionary, gives…

  • Breaking up is hard to do

    Iraqi officials say sectarian break-up is inevitable In some sense this might not be such a bad idea. “Iraq” as a country is an artificial construct which was apparently being held together primarily by the brutal rule of Saddam Hussein. Self-determination for its various ethnic/religious groups might well be preferable. Unfortunately, a break up of…

  • The other war

    Nope, not Iraq or Israel-Hezbollah/Lebanon. This one: Peace talks aimed at avoiding civil war in Somalia were officially postponed Monday following a week of high-risk brinkmanship and heightened rhetoric from emboldened Islamic militias and the country’s weak transitional government. One side and then the other refused to attend talks that were due to restart Saturday…

  • When unilateralism is good

    In light of the apparent collapse of the most recent round of trade talks, it’s worth reiterating a point I’ve made before: The talk about various countries making “concessions” by, say, lowering tariffs is misleading, at least if you take an orthodox free trade approach. According to free trade theory, a country benefits from lowering…

  • More on the Friedmans and Iraq

    Chip Frontz rightly chastises me for not providing more context to the Milton Friedman quote below. Here’s the rest of the exchange from the WSJ interview with Prof. Friedman and his wife Rose, a distinguished economist in her own right: Does it disappoint Mr. Friedman that the Bush administration hasn’t been able to roll back…