“I was expecting conversation, but what emerged (sorry …) was closer to a visit I might have made to a Sufi wise-man. I would ask a question, like, “Do you believe in God?”, and Peter’s answer would involve saying “Yes and No”, followed by a parable, an illustration, a story, or a cryptic quotation.”
I’m a big fan of graffiti artist Banksy. He paints his politics from London to the West Bank, always progressive, always disruptive, always hopeful. HT to Peter Rollins on posting these videos from from a similarly anonymous christian anarchist (who by denying himself credit is defying the temptation to build an empire of religious fame off a good message):
Robert Wright has written a colossal read which I’m fast becoming enthralled with, called The Evolution of God. It traces the evolution of the idea of God, from animism and polytheism, to henotheism, to later monotheism, focusing in the end on the Jewish/Christian/Muslim traditions. He draws heavily from other ancient syncretistic faiths to explain the evolution of El(ohim) and Israelite henotheism to YHVH and monotheism. Its a wonderfully researched eye-opener so far, and a great introduction to the history of monotheism.
Jon Stewart rips into the general craziness of the Family Research Council’s 2009 Values Voters Summit. It made me smile.
As of late, the I’ve been really intrigued by the far Right’s (if it’s even appropriate to refer to them as conservatives) fear of Obama, and the willingness to follow the lead of pundits like Beck. In a quick read, Nate Silver argues Glenn Beck is a PoMoConservative, being that his appeal with the far Right and the indifference of the Left comes from something untapped by the likes of Rush and Hannity: Beck isn’t just conservative; he’s anti-establishment (and if history is any teacher, being anti-establishment is always attractive when you lose out and want to feel victimized by someone). It’s got some truth to it. Still, I think you can only go so far trying to dress up backwater rumor/rhetoric as educated postmodernism. I’m just intrigued by the whole concept of a small but definitely noticeable social movement being driven on such easily discredited information, seemingly by pure tribalism. Have we, as a race, always been like this? Probably.
I’m back. I’m married, getting set into the routines that come with a major change in lifestyle, and loving it.
So I’ll be getting back to blogging now. In addition, I’m attempting to move forward with my desire to write and dabble in the publishing world. I’m hoping to have at least one book proposal drafted sometime this semester, and am very much in-process working through what that is going to be. You may have noticed the new tab on my site; to get more conversation fodder out there, I am going to start podcasting soon.
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Below are a few links and pics I came across while on my short hiatus, and below that are a few pics from our wedding and following Caribbean cruise:
Ryan’s thoughts on critiquing the Church. It seems a very popular cop-out to block legitimacy of critiquing the Church with the phrase “I’m not into tearing down without offering a solution.” Typically, the speaker uses said phrase to completely ignore the truth in the critique. I loved Ryan’s thoughts on that phrase.
Greg Boyd writes to question John Piper’s amazing opinion that God sends tornados to flex His anti-gay wrath. John Piper has some great insights and has been helpful to me in personal study, but he’s also got some shockingly crazy and destructive beliefs as well. Why is the Evangelical community so hesitant to check him on it?
Derek Blaylock on what “Emergent” means to him. This was particularly interesting to me, not only because of my friendship with Derek, but because he emphasizes how Emergent compliments him as a political Conservative.
Ryan Byrd has been reflecting in a series of posts on Poets, Prophets, and Preachers. Rob Bell’s (no stranger to this topic) last session pried into answering the question, “How do we respond when people say all sorts of creatively destructive things about us?” Ryan’s bit here is a great discourse on forgiveness, boundaries, and prophetic words in awful situations.
Andrew Sullivan compiles a massive list of the odd lies of Sarah Palin in light of her sudden step down and unknown future aspirations. These fibs are all struck down with common information readily available in the public record. Palin seems like an incredibly nice person to me, but sweet people are generally not the most practiced at lying well. Such seems to be the case with the beloved hockey mom from Alaska.
Posted by taddelay 
Posted by taddelay 
Posted by taddelay 
