Are you a Christian hipster?
March 9, 2009
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We assume, of course, that Cafe visitors are, by definition, Christian hipsters. But if you are uncertain whether you belong to this group, contemplate this
The Archive
Category: The Lead
What we can learn from Reinhold Niebuhr
March 8, 2009
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Andrew J. Bacevich, in his introduction to the republished edition of Reinhold Niebuhr’s The Irony of American History, calls it “the most important book ever written on US foreign policy.” Certainly it would be hard to think of another book from the 1950s that retains, nearly sixty years later, both its compulsive readability and so much of its relevance. The elegance, strength, and charm of Niebuhr’s writing invite quotation at every turn. And behind the prophetic style lie wisdom, Christian charity, and a profound understanding of both history and the ways of human beings, individually as well as in groups
Tails I win, Heads you lose
March 8, 2009
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One would ordinarily have thought our way of understanding other people’s mental states, say, whether someone did something intentionally or unintentionally, should be somehow independent of morality. What our research is showing is that instead our initial moral judgments are actually changing our very understanding of whether the person did it on purpose or not on purpose.
Meditating on the bishop-elect of Northern Michigan
March 8, 2009
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Ruth Gledhill reports on the bishop-elect of Northern Michigan praising his ability to meditate as a needed skill for the office of bishop in that
Giving up technology for Lent
March 8, 2009
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Christians are annually asked to refrain from eating meat on Fridays and to pray more regularly during Lent, but the church has apparently gotten hip to the hold that technology has on its brethren. The diocese of Modena-Nonantola in Italy in particular is calling for text-messaging-free Fridays as a way for the faithful to at least temporarily rid themselves of reminders of “material wealth,” but the church is also calling for such digital abstinence in the name of human rights.
Vatican backs Brazilian bishop
March 8, 2009
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A senior Vatican cleric has defended the excommunication in Brazil of the mother and doctors of a young girl who had an abortion with their help. The nine-year-old had conceived twins after alleged abuse by her stepfather.
Peter Singer on affluence and ethics
March 8, 2009
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Suppose you see a small child drowning in a pond. If you save him you will ruin your expensive suit. Do you save him? Of course you do. Now think about the world’s extremely poor children who are going to die unless you give enough to a charity designed to help them, such as Unicef or Oxfam. Do you save them? Not often enough.
The kindness of a remorseful stranger
March 7, 2009
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A mysterious stranger with a conscience left a cashier’s check for $3,255 at Dallas’ Episcopal Church of the Resurrection, explaining in a note that he was trying to atone for crimes of his past. Two other times this year, the financially strapped church has had scatterings of $20 bills turn up unexplained in the vestibule, apparently stuffed through a gap in locked front doors.
A TEC visit to Southern Sudan: Part II
March 7, 2009
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What dawned on me during the retreat was that these men shoulder the awesome responsibility of rebuilding Sudan after 21 years of horrible war. In the southern part of Sudan, where most are based, the Episcopal Church of Sudan (ECS) is the largest non-governmental organization in the country. In some areas, 90+ per cent of the population belong to the ECS.
Manifest Christianity takes a back seat to the Great Commandment
March 7, 2009
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So I thought to myself, “Well if that’s not really the beginning of the church’s story what did Jesus really say?” And that took my imagination back before the Great Commission to words that no scholar that I know of has any problem saying that Jesus actually said.
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