Self examination for a nation of jailers

There could be no law, and so no civilization, absent the imputation to persons of responsibility for their wrongful acts. But the sum of a million cases, each one rightly judged fairly on its individual merits, may nevertheless constitute a great historic wrong. This is, in my view, now the case in regards to the race and social class disparities that characterize the very punitive policy that we have directed at lawbreakers.

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Saturday collection 3/14/09

Here is a collection of a few of the good things that Episcopalians and their congregations have done that made the news this past week. And other news fit to print.

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Minns, Duncan at HOB in Nigeria

Archbishop Peter Akinola reports that Martyn Minns and Robert Duncan are among the bishops at the Church of Nigeria House of Bishops meeting.

Minns and Duncan have the opportunity to speak out against the support Akinola and his church have given to a bill persecuting gays. Unless they do so, they are directly implicated.

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Robert Wright and the Gospel of Mark

In his new book The Evolution of God, Robert Wright leans on the first gospel–that of Mark–to suggest that later gospels present a Jesus who is less historically authentic, but more palatable to modern tastes, especially on interfaith issues.

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Searching in “the mirror of the soul”

In the ancient Church of Syria and Iraq, emphasis was placed on the spiritual value of “wonder.” The fathers of the Syriac Church understood that to attempt to fathom the sacred truths of God was a difficult exercise for the faithful Christian to say the least — and nearly impossible if approached in the wrong way.

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Pursue works of compassion

In these days then of the holy fast, let us pursue even more fruitfully the works of compassion which must always be the aim of our zeal. “We must do good to all, and especially to those of the household of the faith,” so that in the very distribution of alms also, we may imitate the goodness of the heavenly Father “who causes his sun to rise on good people as well as evil, and his rain to fall of the just and unjust alike.”

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Nigeria’s legal system adequate for persecution

Homosexuality is illegal under federal law; homosexual practices are punishable by prison sentences of up to 14 years. In the 12 northern states that have adopted Shari’a law, adults convicted of engaging in homosexual intercourse are subject to execution by stoning, although no such sentences were imposed during the year. Because of widespread taboos against homosexuality, very few persons were openly homosexual. – 2008 Human Rights Report: Nigeria, US Department of State

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