The Iraq sanctions appear to have “worked” in that it seems Saddam Hussein was unable to reconstitute his WMD programs, but at what cost? With a confrontation with Iran looming, this article at In These Times revisits the issue (via Antiwar.com).

This article by Ira Chernus, a professor of religious studies at the University of Colorado, makes several good points with respect to religion and politics. First, he points out that belief in a transcendent moral order is not the sole property of the political Right. Thoreau and Martin Luther King, for example, both justified their…

Um, I only watched an hour’s worth because it was soooo mind-numbingly boring. And I’m sure it didn’t help that I haven’t seen any of the movies that were nominated for best picture. Happy to see that Reese Witherspoon won the best actress award for Walk the Line though, being a fan of the movie…

Here’s an article about a trend among churches using the “contemporary” praise-band-and-overhead-screen format to reintroduce what some are calling a “classic service,” complete with choir and hymnals: No one can dispute that the contemporary-style worship has helped churches grow by pulling in “unchurched” young and middle-age people, who tend to like the informality and rock-influenced…

I’ve never had a problem with the idea that the opening chapters of Genesis, which I re-read just the other day, are to be read in a way alternately described as “myth,” “legend,” “metaphor,” “saga” or what have you. Moreover, I think reading Genesis in this way is fully compatible with as robust a theory…

Interesting NY Times article about young, mostly evangelical, Christians adopting the “Christian-as-rebel” model. Tough to separate the wheat from the chaff, though. On the one hand, you have what look for all the world like transparent marketing ploys trying to reach the Hot Topic crowd, such as full-contact skateboard Bible study groups; […] Christian punk,…

As my Lenten reading I’ve decided to have a go at Hans Urs Von Balthasar’s Mysterium Paschale. I’m only about ten pages in, but it’s full of rich nuggets of theological goodness like this: The image of man which revelation sets before us differs radically from the idea of the animal rationale, mortale which empirical…

This kind of thing brings out all my black-helicopter-watching-new-world-order paranoia. I’m with the Left Behinders on this one – no Mark of the Beast for me!

Penitent Magdalen, El Greco, 1605-10 (click for larger image)

From Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame): When it comes to anything complicated, I’m too ignorant to have a useful opinion. For example: Some Guy: Scott, do you think we should return to the gold standard? Scott: Um… Some Guy: Should the U.S. stay in Iraq and be bled to death or leave now and let…