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How We Balance Life and Death On One Word
The Supreme Court has let us off the hook again. I don’t really think we’re cruel people. But the evidence again proves me wrong. The Supreme Court, in its 8-1 decision in Kansas v. Carr did not rule on a landmark Death Penalty case. It is only landmark for those three persons on death row who…
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It May Have Happened Sort of Like This
Trying to Explain the Nature of the Anglican Communion to Someone Who Should Know Better As most of you already know, the primates of the Anglican Communion met last week in Canterbury. Now, it was kind of a — What’s a primate? It is the bishop chosen to represent the Anglican Church of a given…
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Some Further Thoughts on Politics, Primates, and Problems
Everybody thinks it is complicated. On Sunday when I announced that we would cover some of the recent primates’ meeting in our Basic Anglicanism class, one of our parishioners leaned over and said: There’s nothing basic about that. That’s Advanced Anglicanism. I couldn’t agree more! The problem is that it is splashed all over the papers…
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Fear and Loathing in San Francisco
The Christmas story is an immigrant’s story San Francisco’s Chinatown was designed to look older than the oldest parts of China. Why? Fear of immigrants. [bctt tweet=”We are always immigrants. All of us. Forever.” nofollow=”yes”] More than a century ago, blatant, nefarious racism against the Chinese was normal. But disaster made the racism even worse.…
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The Question of the Moment
For supporters of Donald Trump: Is radical candor so important to you that you are willing to support someone whose words are so ugly, divisive, and completely destructive? For everyone else: Can you see how important candor and open communication is that many people will answer this question with “yes”?
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Anecdotes Are Not Reality
We love anecdotes. They say profound things about our lives and how they are lived. And we are full of them. Just ask someone about politics or religion and see what you get. In my world, so many use anecdotes to speak for where the church needs to go in the future. This has led…
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Rob Bell on Politics and Guns: “We don’t do despair”
In a series of episodes on The RobCast called simply “Politics and Guns,” Rob Bell deals with many of the issues surrounding the politics of guns in the United States. He begins with perhaps the most important starting place: politics. [bctt tweet=”‘Don’t pretend that nothing can be done.’” nofollow=”yes”] Through the arc of the series, Bell…
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The Public Id
The problem with demagogues is never their action. By the time they have the power to act, it is much too late to stop them. The problem is their speech. It intoxicates and infuriates. It draws all the moths to its fiery substance and burns us with its hatred. [bctt tweet=”‘The danger is in the…