A Thinking Reed

  • The First Amendment of faith

    The problem with [many common] notions of prayer is that we cannot have an intimate relationship with someone to whom we cannot speak honestly–that is, someone to whom we cannot show our ugly side, or those large clay feet of ours. We in this culture are all psychologically astute enough to know that honest, unguarded…

  • bin Laden

    Clearly no American is going to shed any tears for Osama bin Laden, me included. And based on the president’s statement last night, it sounds like the operation that got him was of the right kind–targeted, based on sound intelligence, avoiding both American and civilian casualties. If we’re going to fight terrorism, this is vastly…

  • Putting down roots in a place of transience

    I mentioned in my last post that my wife and I are buying a house. This has been a big step for us, though after having a child nothing seems like quite as big a step as it did before. Longtime readers may recall that we’ve bounced around quite a bit during the course of…

  • Life

    Sorry for the relative lack of substantive posting lately. We’re moving in just over a week (we just bought a house–our first) and our daughter just turned one, so things have been busy, as you might imagine. I spent part of today packing and part of it enjoying the absolutely perfect spring weather with my…

  • Friday links

    –On Christianity, the Holocaust, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. –Recent posts on what’s apparently now being referred to as the “new universalism” from James K.A. Smith, Halden Doerge, and David Congdon. –Does having a monarchy lead to greater equality? –Redeeming the “L word.” –Appreciating both N.T. Wright’s and Marcus Borg’s views of the Resurrection. –Why liberals should…

  • Friday Metal: While Heaven Wept, “Vessel”

  • The binding of Isaac and the binding of God

    I’m reading a wonderful book by Duke Divinity School professor Ellen F. Davis called Getting Involved with God: Rediscovering the Old Testament. It’s a series of loosely connected essays and meditations on various OT books and stories, what she calls an “unsystematic introduction.” Davis’s purpose, she says, is to provide an alternative to the way…

  • What’s a Christian to do with capitalism?

    This post from Ned Resnikoff highlights some interesting data about Americans’ views on the compatibility of capitalism and “Christian values.” As he notes, the number of people who see them as incompatible goes up when the sample is restricted to self-identified Christians. I don’t think Christianity is necessarily anti-capitalist per se. Presumably a Christian should…

  • Mission creep watch

    This is shaping up to be quite the splendid little war: European nations stepped up efforts Wednesday to aid Libyan rebels, with France pledging to intensify airstrikes against the forces of Moammar Gaddafi, and Italy joining the French and British in announcing plans to help train and organize the rebel fighters. […] The Obama administration…

  • A budget plan that really is brave

    Thought it didn’t receive much coverage, the Congressional Progressive Caucus released its own budget plan last week. According to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, the plan would reduce the debt and actually result in a budget surplus in ten years. It would pull this off by, among other things, raising taxes on the…