History
« Previous Entries Saturday, May 10th, 2008Mother’s Day
I think a yearly reminder of the original intent of Mother’s Day is always a good thing. A reminder that as women and mothers we can work together for peace, justice, and equality.
Mother’s Day Proclamation - 1870
by Julia Ward Howe
Arise then…women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of […]
Should Christians Apologize?
Over at the Justice and Compassion blog Pam Hogeweide posted her thoughts on the Seeds of Compassion event. While I continue to be amazed at the resistance in the Christian community to even talking about compassion with others, I was intrigued by a sub-conversation that arose in the comments to that post. One […]
Wednesday, May 7th, 2008Religion Fit for Public Consumption
I was reading about the history of Christianity in America the other day and I came across an interesting phrase. The author was addressing the ongoing need in our nation for there to exist “a religion fit for public consumption.” Such a religion of course serves not only to unify people but to […]
Thursday, April 3rd, 2008Activists in Hindsight
The lone rebel standing up to the PLA in Tienanmen Square on June 4, 1989. This picture has achieved iconic status. Posters of it cover the walls of many a college dorm room. Just the briefest of references to it inspires people to take a stand against oppression. (incidentally most Chinese university […]
Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008Authority, Truth, and Propaganda
The headlines the past few days have been filled with reports out of Pakistan and the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. I don’t even pretend to understand the intricacies of the politics of the whole thing and I fully admit to ignorance about the Pakistan situation in general. I read what I can, but […]
Tuesday, November 27th, 2007The History of Cooking
I recently caught part of a documentary on the history of cooking classes (yes, I was watching the Food Network). I was struck by how the story behind something as basic as cooking revealed gender inequalities. Essentially in pre-WW2 America, cooking was seen as woman’s work. There was nothing glamorous or special about preparing food, […]
Friday, October 19th, 2007Book Review - Inspiration and Incarnation
I just finished reading a book that I highly recommend for others to read. Not because I agreed with everything in it or because it is necessarily spiritually transformative, but because it presents a constructive, faith affirming approach to a topic that is generally written about in destructive ways.
A few months ago […]
Conquistadors and Peace
When I was in Santa Fe last week, we spent one afternoon doing the tourist thing. As we wandered around the city, we paid a visit to the Cathedral. Apparently the most famous relic in the Cathedral is a statue of Mary. I was a bit puzzled when I saw the sign […]
Tuesday, September 25th, 2007[Grid::Blog::Horizon2107]
I wanted add my thoughts to the Gridblog started by Bob Carlton on “what does the year 2107 look like from your vantage point.” What to imagine? Should I be cynical or utopian? Will we be suffering from the environmental devastation of our planet or will we be on the road to sustainable […]
Tuesday, September 25th, 2007Rejection, Redemption, and Roots
The topic for this month’s SynchroBlog is Christianity and Paganism. I had a hard time narrowing down what I wanted to say about the topic because I’ve been struggling recently with the paradigms for how one interacts with other belief systems. So I decided to just write about that struggle and give my […]
Monday, August 20th, 2007Varuna, Paganism, and Numbers 5
As I recently read Richard Foltz’s Spirituality in the Land of the Noble: How Iran Shaped the World’s Religions I came upon a paragraph that gave me pause. It was a short paragraph in the introductory section on the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) influence on the ancient Near-East, but it connected me to themes I have […]
Sunday, August 19th, 2007Historical Point of View
“Many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.” - Obi-Wan Kenobi
I have that quote on the water bottle that I carry around everywhere. It summarizes what I’ve been learning over the last 5 years or so and is a good reminder as to how I should be […]