Debt, the economy and the church
Many in our churches are fearful when they hear the debt discussions and the seeming inability of Congress to move to a solution from their
Many in our churches are fearful when they hear the debt discussions and the seeming inability of Congress to move to a solution from their
Something beautiful happens when a skilled listener creates a safe space for stories to be told in an unhurried, unworried fashion. Ethnographers find themselves at times entering into a holy space, a space in which the speaker may be saying something brand new, even to themselves.
Some are surprised that religion is so corruptible. They should not be. When secrecy is used to protect a higher order of knowledge, it can make the keepers of the secrets think of themselves as a higher order of humans. Corruptio optimi pessima, goes the old saying. Blight at the top is the deepest blight. It is the sin of taking God’s name in vain.
Business owners and even a church in Middle Tennessee are “breathing a sigh of relief Monday that the NFL lockout is over” according to
Two things strike me today as I read the story from Mark’s gospel. First, I connect with Jesus’ compassion for the disciples (and for himself) as he responds to their weariness, inviting them to “come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” Second, I sense the obligation Jesus places on the disciples when they recognize the hunger and need of the multitude. He tells them, “You give them something to eat.”
… in an imagined cosmic warfare time is suspended, and history is transcended as the activists imagine themselves to be acting out timeless roles in a sacred drama. The tragedy is that these religious fantasies are played out in real time, with real and cruel consequences.
The biggest defining moment in my life was when I saw Trevor Huddleston and I was maybe nine or so. I didn’t know it was Trevor Huddleston, but I saw this tall, white priest in a black cassock doff his hat to my mother who was a domestic worker. I didn’t know then that it would have affected me so much, but it was something that was really – it blew your mind that a white man would doff his hat.