Giles Fraser asks what is to be learned from recent terrorist attacks in the UK: “Perhaps this: that the most dangerous people in the world are those who are absolutely convinced of their own moral virtue and innocence. It is not the scoundrel who is responsible for the darkest moral evil in the world, but the person who is assured of his or her own virtue.”
bls at The Topmost Apple blog has a timely reminder that not all, or even most, progressive Anglicans derive their theology from the writings of the Rt. Rev. John Shelby Spong, retired Bishop of Newark. The former Bishop of Monmouth, for example, had this to say about one of Spong’s theses…
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori weighs in on issues of salvation and evangelism in her most recent column for Episcopal Life, expanding on statements she has made in interviews with the media. She writes: “Maybe it would be helpful to recognize that baptism is not the goal, but rather relationship with God (or discipleship).
Why don’t mainline Protestant denominations do a better job at evangelism? The Christian Century touches on this question in two book reviews.
The New York Times examines Hillary Clinton’s faith, and offers a one-sided view of a parish conflict in Connecticut where, to read Alison Leigh Cowan, you would conclude that conservatives are the only ones who read Scripture, or have an emotional attachment to their faith.
Our thanks to everyone who supported the Café by contributing to the Diocese of Washington’s Bishop’s Appeal. You will be receiving a more formal expression of our appreciation in the mail, but we wanted to be sure you heard it from us first. If you haven’t contributed, but would like to…
Dean Colin Slee of Southwark says the Synod is being asked to give the Archbishops of Canterbury and York a “blank check” to remake the church in negotiations with other primates. He doesn’t think that is a very good idea. Meanwhile, Father Jake provides an overview.
Who said that “democracy cannot live without that true religion which gives a nation a sense of justice and of moral purpose”” Why, it was that nominal Episcopalian FDR, as Lew Daly points out in his Boston Review essay on religion, politics and the concept of the common good.
Thomas Jefferson came to believe that the combined effect of power-hungry monarchs and corrupt “priests” had despoiled the original, pristine teachings of Jesus. But beneath these corruptions—which he labeled with such words as “nonsense,” “dross,” “rags,” “distortions,” and “abracadabra”—Jefferson came to believe there lay a fulcrum of eternal truth.