AH, THAT CONSUMERISM SPIRIT: Lawrence Jones of the Christian Post writes:
There’s a war on Christmas and Christians are drawing up the battlelines.
Christian groups who feel that Christmas is slowly disappearing from the public square have launched a campaign against retailers who ban "Christmas" references from their holiday advertising.
Liberty Counsel, a conservative Christian legal group, this [...]
Archive for November, 2008
It’s that time of year: Christians urged to boycott retailers banning Christmas
Posted in Noted with Interest on November 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Atheist Advertising
Posted in Noted with Interest on November 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Strange message: Advertisement appearing on buses in Washington D.C.
Wildfire destroys Episcopal Monastery in California
Posted in Noted with Interest on November 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Chris Woodyard in USA Today:
LOS ANGELES — The raging wildfire that destroyed more than 100 plush homes in the hills above Santa Barbara, Calif., also claimed a hilltop oasis for thousands over the years, an Episcopalian monastery.
About 25 guests and the seven monks who lived and worked at the Mount Calvary Monastery and Retreat [...]
The Four Departing Dioceses by the Numbers
Posted in Noted with Interest on November 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Mark Harris at Preludium tells us:
In all likelihood the bishop, and a majority of clergy and lay delegates to the Diocese of Fort Worth convention will vote to leave the Episcopal Church, align temporarily with the Province of the Southern Cone and wait upon the right time to become part of a new improved [...]
Bishop Jack Iker’s Address to the Convention
Posted in Noted with Interest on November 15, 2008 | 3 Comments »
The Bishop’s Address NOVEMBER 15, 2008
“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:2)
As we all know, this 26th annual meeting of our Diocesan Convention is anything but “business as usual.” Through a long process of spiritual discernment and prayer over the past year [...]
Fort Worth is done deal
Posted in Noted with Interest on November 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Katie Sherrod at Desert’s Child has the early report:
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, meeting in its 26th Annual Convention, does hereby accept the provision made by the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, and the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth does hereby immediately enter into membership with the Anglican Province [...]
Fascinating 2004 Interview of Obama on His Faith
Posted in Noted with Interest on November 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
This 2004 interview with then State Senator Obama by Cathleen Falsani of the Chicago Sun Times is well worth reading:
OBAMA:
So, I’m rooted in the Christian tradition. I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected [...]
The Birth of Christianity: A Jewish Story
Posted in Noted with Interest on November 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
If you will be in Houston: The Jewish Herald-Voice is reporting:
Houston Museum of Natural Science’s coming exhibition, “The Birth of Christianity: A Jewish Story,” will open Dec. 12. According to an article in the museum’s HMNS News magazine, the exhibition tells the story of Judaism in Israel during the last two centuries before the [...]
Religion and Politics Big Time
Posted in Noted with Interest on November 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
It is fascinating. Religion is a big component of how we vote.
With the nation’s longest election campaign ever finally completed, and Barack Obama emerging as a 53% to 46% victor over Sen. John McCain, a new election analysis survey by The Barna Group provides the details of how people of faith voted in 2008.
Welcome [...]
Atheist Christmas Cards
Posted in Noted with Interest, tagged atheist, christian, christmas on November 13, 2008 | 1 Comment »
The Order of St. Nick’s has a series of Atheist and secular Christmas cards for sale. It is sure to please like minded people, offend fundamentalists and show the majority of Christians that you don’t get it; evolution is not evidence against the existence of God or the incarnation.
Go ahead and send me [...]
Josephus on the Essenes
Posted in Noted with Interest on November 12, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Interesting article in Biblical Archaeology Review:
Josephus’s commentaries on the laws and characteristics of the Essene community have been invaluable to scholars studying ancient Jewish laws and customs. They have also been the subject of much debate, particularly as they pertain to the Dead Sea Scrolls. Researchers have relied heavily on Josephus’s works as [...]
KKK Lives On
Posted in Noted with Interest on November 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Grandmère Mimi at Wounded Bird reminds us of things we need to be reminded of:
A Tulsa, Okla., woman who traveled to Louisiana to join the Ku Klux Klan was shot to death by the leader of the group’s Bogalusa chapter Sunday after she tried to back out of initiation rites at a remote, sandbar [...]
California’s Proposition 8 myths
Posted in Noted with Interest on November 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Nate Silver has an interesting take at 538:
Certainly, the No on 8 folks might have done a better job of outreach to California’s black and Latino communities. But the notion that Prop 8 passed because of the Obama turnout surge is silly. Exit polls suggest that first-time voters — the vast majority of whom [...]
Taking Atheism for a Ride
Posted in Noted with Interest on November 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
John Kelly has an amusing take on the latest atheists ad campaign in the Washington Post:
If you sometimes find yourself praying for a seat on a crowded Metrobus, some atheists have a message for you: Don’t bother.
John Kelly – Taking Atheism for a Ride Around Town – washingtonpost.com
Where the hell was God?
Posted in Noted with Interest on November 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Read the whole article in the Times, edited extracts from Rowan’s Rule: The Biography of the Archbishop by Rupert Shortt:
On September 11, 2001, Rowan Williams was due to address 22 spiritual directors from across the US in a church-owned building next to Holy Trinity, Wall Street [New York], on “the shape of a holy [...]
Catholic Foundation to honor Marianne Staubach
Posted in Noted with Interest on November 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
. . . with the 2009 Award for Charitable Acts at the Foundation’s annual award dinner on Feb. 12, 2009
DALLAS – Marianne Staubach’s commitment to serving others through a number of charitable causes and her countless hours of hands-on community service are just a few reasons why Mrs. Staubach [...]
Diocese of Quincy splits from Episcopal Church
Posted in Noted with Interest on November 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
AP reports:
QUINCY, Illinois – A third conservative diocese is splitting from the liberal Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of the Anglican Communion, in a long-running dispute over the Bible, gay relationships and other issues.
The Diocese of Quincy voted to leave the Episcopal Church during an annual meeting that ends Saturday.
It joins dioceses in [...]
Perspective on Obama from Jon Meacham
Posted in Noted with Interest on November 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
In theology and philosophy Obama mentioned Nietzsche, Niebuhr and Tillich — writers consistent with his acknowledgment that while life is bleak, it is not hopeless.
Jon Meacham, from a New York Times essay on the favorite books on Barack Obama and John McCain
Jon Meacham, the Editor of Newsweek, is one of my favorite modern [...]
Dave Barry on Obama Win
Posted in Noted with Interest on November 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Dave Barry has an amusing column via the Miami Herald:
Barack Obama is our next president, which is very bad because he is a naive untested wealth-spreading terrorist-befriending ultraliberal socialist communist who will suddenly reveal his secret Muslim identity by riding to his inauguration on a camel shouting ”Death to Israel!” (I mean Obama [...]
For Christians in particular
Posted in Noted with Interest on November 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Andrew Sullivan puts it bluntly:
Michael Gerson manages to write a column about George W. Bush’s humane side without noting that this president subjected, by lawless fiat, countless individuals to torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, tortured at least two dozen individuals to death, and launched a war where hundreds of thousands of innocents [...]
