Good Ideas, Good Books



[via Dwindling in Unbelief, in this post]

What Do ‘The Christians’ Believe? Easter Reflections from a Non-Christian

[via Religion Dispatches]

Father Matthew on Pat Robertson, Demonization and Christ

[via A New Anglican's Journey]

After Sending A "Christ" Mas(s) Letter:

To the religious right Christmas culture warriors{read more than the title...}

[via Bene Diction Blogs On]

[via Levellers]

The Rebel Jesus and Lyrics: The Christians and the Pagans

Minority Report

How would you feel if I told you that a country was passing a law that would severely restrict the rights and freedoms of Christians? That the government of a country, which was entirely controlled by followers of another religion had decided to band together and do something about the “Christian threat”? What if they published the names of people they suspected to be Christians in the newspaper, and encouraged the public to harm them or refuse to associate with them? What if they passed a law so that if you were caught practicing your faith in your own home you could be thrown in jail for 7 years? What if they made it a law that if your neighbour found out you were a Christian they were forced to report it to the police or face 3 years in prison themselves? What if that law had a provision in it that if you were caught multiple times you could be put to death?

How would you feel? Angry? Sad? Would you be motivated to do something about it? Would you ask your member of parliament or senator to approve sanctions against the country treating your Christian brothers and sisters in such a way? What would you do?

Now stop. Because it IS really happening right now. In Uganda.

But there is one difference, which is why you probably haven’t heard about it.{continue...}

[via Bridging the Gap]

Toxic to Democracy: Conspiracy Theories, Demonization, & Scapegoating
by Chip Berlet

[via PublicEye.org]

Something or Nothing...

Suppose there is a terrible problem and there are only two options:

(A) Do nothing.
(B) Do something to make the problem worse.

All politicians choose (B) of course!...

Here's a brainstorm. Doing something to make things worse, that is equal to negative aid. If you change from doing something bad to doing nothing, that is equal to a decrease in negative aid. A decrease in negative aid is equal to an increase in positive aid. Therefore, doing nothing = positive aid. QED.

[via Aid Watch, HT: Texas In Africa]

Benign and Objective Translations?

Before I go on, there's a bit to say.

First, Hitler translates Hebrews. His is an entirely neutral and benign and objective translation too. His supreme German is dynamically equivalent to the original Greek. There's not a hint of a whiff of the horrors of holocaust in it. No propaganda. No agenda. No bias. No racism. No rhetoric. No sexism.

No? You don't believe that? {continue...}

[via Aristotle's Feminist Subject]

Sympathizing With Our Weaknesses

Hebrews 4:15-16: "For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

This passage indicates that Jesus in "all points" was tempted as we are, so I would like to make the following point. A spirit being (God) taking on physical form and human weakness (flesh) must die. This is a suicidal impulse, but a suicidal impulse with a purpose . . . to learn what it means to be human. {source}

and elsewhere

Indeed, if Jesus was truly tempted by every possible human emotion, then he must have been tempted by the thought of nullifying his existence, of laying down the guardianship of human life. In this sense, the cross might have been Jesus's relief from suffering, as well as his redemption of suffering. Jesus was able to give into thanatos finally, because through death of flesh came the birth of new spirit. Now, I'm not suggesting people go out and start killing themselves to emulate God....We are the aftermath of Christ's suicide, and no mentally ill person should feel ashamed for having had thoughts that tempted even Christ himself. {source}

[via Against Biblical Counseling]

Our Own Kingdoms

We live in a world with political and economic systems that continue to crumble. We have religious and theological ideas and structures that are insufficient to make sense of it all. Jesus knew this over 2000 years ago. It is why he came to reveal and found a Kingdom that was not dependent on the Kingdoms of the World. Humanity rejected that message and rejected that Kingdom not because they first hated God, but because that Kingdom threatened the stability of their own Kingdoms and asked everyone to give up their own self-preservation in these Kingdoms in order to pursue a different one of God's creation. Clinging to their own Kingdoms, they killed Jesus - an act which is the ultimate expression of human sin and idolatry.

If we fuse and confuse our own Kingdoms with that which Jesus came to found, and if we cling to our own Kingdoms to maintain some kind of privilege status in the world, where we will go when they crumble either through human error, or by the very wrath of God that ripped open the Temple curtain on Good Friday? {full post}

[via Notes From Off-Center]

To An Impossible Situation That Shouldn't Last Forever

I'll give the pope some credit here. He's certainly right that getting men to stop cheating on their wives en masse - as is the custom in many African ethno-linguistic groups, especially those in which having sex with a nursing mother is a cultural taboo - would certainly abate the spread of HIV. As would ending the practices of polygamy, marrying off twelve-year-old girls, and the use of rape as a weapon of war.

But the pope doesn't know what he's talking about. Only someone who's never set foot in an African hospital would claim that condom use doesn't help fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Because it does. It works. When a country increases access to information about and reduces the cost of condoms, its HIV rate goes down. This is not in dispute. It works especially well when you hand out condoms in conjunction with campaigns that encourage teenagers to abstain and husbands to be faithful to their wives. But access to condoms is a key part of the strategy.

...The reality of the situation pushes aside ideals and pontifications from on high. It forces an immediate, imperfect response to an impossible situation.

It would be great if the pope's vision of fidelity replaced the need for condom distribution in much of sub-Saharan Africa. The cost-prohibitive nature of all forms of contraception and disease-prevention mean that these programs are almost completely dependent on donor financing. That money won't last forever. There will have to be long-term, local solutions to these problems. But those kinds of cultural changes take a lifetime to implement. Given that there is no evidence that condom distribution increases promiscuity - or the HIV/AIDS seropositive rate - in sub-Saharan Africa, it's ridiculous to claim that these programs do more harm than good. And the at-risk people of Cameroon and Angola and Kenya and the Congo can't wait for norms to shift. I wonder if the pope thought of that. {full post}

[via Texas in Africa]

A Few Lessons from THE WATCHMEN

[via Levellers]

Lessons from The Ted Haggard Story

[via kingdom grace]

Not A Useful Narrative

Israel should be seen as any other nation state trying to defend itself, and should be held accountable for when they, like other nation states, over-react and cause more harm then they have to in war. In other words, the counter narrative here is not to see Hamas as some kind of "freedom fighter" going against an evil colonial regime, but to see Israel as over-reacting--perhaps understandably, but still over-reacting to terrorism. As one writer noted (lost the link) Israel has fallen into a rather dysfunctional way of responding to their enemies, and seem to have decided to respond with hatred to hate, and with killing to loss. One TMP writer compared this conflict to the Spanish Civil War where many Americans and Brits imagined (correctly) that Franco was a terrible enemy, but missed that those fighting for the Communists were hardly better. When George Orwell tried to point that out, he was shunned by those who wanted to see those battling Franco as good.

Not comparing Israel to either side, actually, but merely noting that in this particular war, good versus evil is not a useful narrative, and, I believe, stops us from getting to any kind of genuine solution. {full post}

[via Streak's Blog]

To Love Those Who Fail To Love

Compassion. Love. Thanksgiving. Unity.

Sometimes I wonder if they are just holiday buzz words with no real meaning in our lives. What would happen if we dared to show true hospitality and kindness to those around us? To not draw lines, hold grudges, or point fingers. To not debate the humanity of the Other as if they were not right there listening in. But to truly love others regardless of differences and to the thankful for the opportunity to do so. To stop talking about these seasonal concepts and actually do them.

I’m trying to figure it out. To cut through the hallmarky bs and be real. Half the time I catch myself simply being selfish and stupid and wonder what the hell am I doing. I’d love to find that unity, but most of the time I’m just overwhelmed by the ongoing failure to love. So I’m working on seeking that unity by being thankful for the diversity - to love those who fail to love. But I’m finding it hard to be thankful for things that don’t benefit me. Sad isn’t it. But I’m trying.

So happy holidays, and thankfulness, and love, and peace and all that stuff.

[via one hand clapping]

Consumerism and middle ground

[via The Link Between]

"Is The Meaning Lost?"

Halloween? Reformation? Which is it?

[vika Kevin Powell]

Lowered Standards

There is a great similarity between the Monarchists of post-Revolutionary France, and the conservatives in America in 2008, who intend to vote for Third Party Candidates. The Monarchists were holding out for a theoretical, potential future return of the Monarchy. Third-Party voters are holding out for the theoretical, potential true-conservative candidate. It is possible that, had they not obeyed the Pope, had the French continued to abstain from voting or running for office, one day the Monarchy would have been brought back to France. There is also a remote possibility that Third Party voters may, one day, bring about the nomination, in America, of a true conservative. And yet, and here is the point Pope Leo XIII made, Catholics are bound to live in the concrete reality in which God places them today. While not perfect, the good that would be accomplished by the French Catholics and the American conservatives, is at risk of not being done because of the pursuit of theoretical, potential, utopian possibility of perfection.

[via Taliban Rising]

Self-Interest and Sacrifice in The Dark Knight

[via C. Orthodoxy]