Wayne Floyd: Why are church gatherings so likely to be homogenous—meetings of the like-minded, celebrations of sameness? Why are churches so often the poster children of the post-modern epidemic of sandbox-intolerance and bad manners? I got a look last week at how it might be different, when I helped to host a one-day workshop in Philadelphia.
David Gibson, one of the best journalists on the Catholic beat wrote a perceptive essay for The Washington Post’s Outlook section yesterday enumerating five myths about the child rape scandal in the church. These include that Pope Benedict XVI is the primary culprit, that gay priests are to blame and that journalists are biased against the church.
art begins with courage
The lifestyles of rich nations are harming poor people in other parts of the world; the harms are catastrophic (drought, floods, fresh water loss); and the victims have no recourse, said Penn State professor Donald Brown. “We can’t think about it as a matter of self economic interest,” he said
Do you suppose he will continue to support the border-crossing Anglican Mission in America?
Of a stranded girls’ choir and the struggle over female bishops.
Something is profoundly wrong with the way we live today. For thirty years we have made a virtue out of the pursuit of material self-interest: indeed, this very pursuit now constitutes whatever remains of our sense of collective purpose. We know what things cost but have no idea what they are worth. We no longer ask of a judicial ruling or a legislative act: Is it good? Is it fair? Is it just?
There is a great deal said today in favour of the Vikings, and an impression exists that they were either fellow-Europeans looking for new trade outlets or well-meaning tourists with long hair who sometimes roughed up the natives. Whatever the hindsight of history has to say about them, the chroniclers of the times were unanimous in their view of them as mad, bad and dangerous to know.