December 2011

  • A Humble Beginning

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    My Christmas Message Christmas isn’t just some story about family.  It isn’t about shopping or gift-giving.  It isn’t about all the hoopla.  And even “putting Christ back into Christmas” is to make Christmas something it isn’t.  It is way more than that. Have a very Merry Christmas!

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  • Coach Stands Against Bad Tradition

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    Jim Mora, Jr. is the new football coach at UCLA.  He doesn’t yet get to take charge, but in his first week there as an observer, he found the seniors engaging in a nearly 30 year-old tradition of skipping practice.  Mora’s response? “I’m not about making threats, and I’ll keep that between the players and…

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  • Posteriors, Hypocrisy, and Sexist Politics

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    There’s something about serial hypocrisy that just doesn’t taste right.  This is particularly the case when what is being said is 1) mean spirited and 2) not something you’d say about your own Mama.  Personally, I come from the school that says you probably should steer clear of calling someone’s Mama something you wouldn’t want…

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  • A Second Wedding

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    Last night I presided over a reaffirmation of marriage for an amazing couple.  Bill and Amy have been married for 20 years, and as they described to me, almost all of it has been wonderful.  But some of it was incredibly rough.  So this was  a really big deal. I was moved by their devotion to one…

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  • (Dis)order and Witness

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    Since the Occupy protests began, I’ve been struggling with what is so objectionable to so many people about protest.  Perhaps I am as pinko as my former rector, Matt+ says I am, but I’ve never found protest in itself to be ugly.  Between my own limited experience and the research I’ve done, criticisms of protests of…

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  • Imposed Equilibrium

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    Being a journalist has got to be hard.  Nasty emails and public trashing because, heaven forbid, you write a piece that doesn’t come off as some lukewarm non-story of two babbling idiots yelling at each other: particularly when your area of coverage is DC or the state capitols where those red-faced blowhards are your regular…

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  • Telling Secrets: “…Another World Is Possible.”

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    Elizabeth Kaeton preached the quintessential Advent 4 sermon–about Occupy Wall Street.  Amazing! This has me moved to see a simple idea.  Head on over, read it, and then reflect over that picture of Bishop Packard for a moment.  When you are done, come back and ask yourself the following question: What if, in the midst…

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