Every gun that it made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its [...]
Entries Tagged as ‘anabaptism’
April 27, 2009
The Suburban Christian…
This post is an assignment for class. The first half will be key assertions Albert Hsu makes in the book The Suburban Christian: Finding Spiritual Vitality in the Land of Plenty. The second half will be my interaction with the book along with some thoughts about how this connects to my context.
Suburbia–Paradise or Wasteland?
“…suburbs are [...]
April 20, 2009
On market-driven Christianity and biblical tea parties…
The frequent association of the church with status, wealth and force is inappropriate for followers of Jesus and damages our witness. We are committed to exploring ways of being good news to the poor, powerless and persecuted, aware that such discipleship may attract opposition, resulting in suffering and sometimes ultimately martyrdom.
Spirituality and economics are inter-connected. [...]
March 16, 2009
The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture…
In The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture, Shane Hipps advances a thesis first put forth by Marshall McLuhan–media is the message. Hipps builds a convincing case for the way media functions as a cultural architect conditioning both the way we perceive reality/faith and the way we practice. The book offers a convincing proof of this [...]
March 10, 2009
The Great Emergence…
This post on Phyllis Tickle’s book, The Great Emergence, is an assignment for my Eastern Mennonite Seminary course–The Good News, Culture and Anabaptism. For Steve and those in the class, the first section is a survey of the book. My own critical engagement comes in the second half. You can skip to that by going [...]
February 24, 2009
Ash Wednesday…
“The LORD knows how we were made; he remembers that we are dust.” Psalm 103:14
The Hebrew scriptures provide various examples of “sackcloth and ashes” being a sign of grief and sorrow…repentance and humility. I did not grow up in a tradition that practiced the imposition of ashes (or talked about Lent that much). My experience [...]
February 17, 2009
A dialogue on abortion and the politics of Jesus…
With the permission of my conversation partner, I am inserting all the emails we exchanged in sequence. My intent in my blog post from February 15 (EMS class assignment to engage with Stuart Murray, Post-Christendom) was never to misrepresent in any way V.’s perspective. In the interest of open dialogue with the common goal of [...]
February 15, 2009
On faith and politics in Post-Christendom…
A movement that proclaimed grace and practiced justice, a faith that had at its center a crucified man as the hope of human and cosmic transformation, could not have been converted to a religious civilization like any other without serious damage to its very essence.
-Vinoth Ramachandra, Gods that Fail: Modern Idolatry and Christian Mission
Perhaps the [...]
February 9, 2009
Incarnation: Towards an embodied spirituality…
…the church lives in the world as a new society to bring to civil government a vision for a new redemptive order. It cannot do this in a triumphalist way, but in modesty and humility, aware of its own need for repentance.
Duane Friesen, Artists, Citizens, Philosophers
We are not at all just an accidental anomaly, [...]
January 27, 2009
The Good News, Culture and Anabaptism…
Third Eye Blind – Non Dairy Creamer (new studio version!)
Steve opened our class last evening with this video. Here are some of the questions we considered as we reflected on the song, the lyrics–our culture and how the Good News (of Jesus Christ) intersects:
Who is the person singing this song? Is [...]
