God's Politics Blog » Brian McLaren http://blog.sojo.net A Blog by Jim Wallis and Friends Fri, 19 Mar 2010 21:00:13 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Bearing Witness Against Cyber-Smears in the Immigration Debate http://blog.sojo.net/2010/03/04/bearing-witness-against-cyber-smears-in-the-immigration-debate/ http://blog.sojo.net/2010/03/04/bearing-witness-against-cyber-smears-in-the-immigration-debate/#comments Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:15:10 +0000 Brian McLaren http://blog.sojo.net/?p=16487 Isn’t there something in the Bible about not bearing false witness? How is it then, whether in relation to the president’s religious affiliation, the health-care debate, and now the immigration debate as well, so many Christians do so by hitting…

]]> http://blog.sojo.net/2010/03/04/bearing-witness-against-cyber-smears-in-the-immigration-debate/feed/ 55 Is it Really Better — Even Financially — to Give than to Receive? http://blog.sojo.net/2010/03/04/is-it-better-even-financially-to-give-than-to-receive/ http://blog.sojo.net/2010/03/04/is-it-better-even-financially-to-give-than-to-receive/#comments Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:00:22 +0000 Brian McLaren http://blog.sojo.net/?p=16452 banner-Finding-Your-Way-in-the-New-Economy

100304_051214_arrests_0053Whatever your political affiliation and opinions on health-care reform (really, just put them aside for a moment), I hope you’ll consider the questions Jim raised in his important blog post on war, health care, poverty, and debt.

Our current situation reminds me…

]]> http://blog.sojo.net/2010/03/04/is-it-better-even-financially-to-give-than-to-receive/feed/ 15 Beyond a Predictable Script: Dialogue with Comments on My Israel/Palestine Posts http://blog.sojo.net/2010/02/08/beyond-a-predictable-script-dialogue-with-comments-on-my-israelpalestine-posts/ http://blog.sojo.net/2010/02/08/beyond-a-predictable-script-dialogue-with-comments-on-my-israelpalestine-posts/#comments Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:00:36 +0000 Brian McLaren http://blog.sojo.net/?p=15741 It’s one thing to go to the “Holy Land” and see where Jesus worked and walked in the past. It’s another thing to combine that with seeing where the spirit of Jesus is working and walking in the present, teaching…

]]> http://blog.sojo.net/2010/02/08/beyond-a-predictable-script-dialogue-with-comments-on-my-israelpalestine-posts/feed/ 33 Family Research Council: Homosexual Behavior Should Be Criminalized in America http://blog.sojo.net/2010/02/04/frc-homosexual-behavior-should-be-criminalized-in-america/ http://blog.sojo.net/2010/02/04/frc-homosexual-behavior-should-be-criminalized-in-america/#comments Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:00:36 +0000 Brian McLaren http://blog.sojo.net/?p=15684 What kind of place will gay people have in our society? The debate rages on–in the military as well as the church. Chris Matthews recently hosted an extended interchange on the subject between Aubrey Sarvis, a gay former military sharpshooter,…

]]> http://blog.sojo.net/2010/02/04/frc-homosexual-behavior-should-be-criminalized-in-america/feed/ 81 Israeli Peacemakers’ Challenge to Americans http://blog.sojo.net/2010/02/01/israeli-peacemakers-challenge-to-americans/ http://blog.sojo.net/2010/02/01/israeli-peacemakers-challenge-to-americans/#comments Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:00:28 +0000 Brian McLaren http://blog.sojo.net/?p=15508 100201_090529-3451-palestineWe have spoken with many Palestinians in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem so far in our pilgrimage, both Christian and Muslim. Their voices are seldom heard in our corporate media, so it has made sense to meet, listen…

]]> http://blog.sojo.net/2010/02/01/israeli-peacemakers-challenge-to-americans/feed/ 27 Israel and Palestine: People Aren’t the Enemy http://blog.sojo.net/2010/01/29/israel-and-palestine-people-arent-the-enemy/ http://blog.sojo.net/2010/01/29/israel-and-palestine-people-arent-the-enemy/#comments Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:00:38 +0000 Brian McLaren http://blog.sojo.net/?p=15474 Friday night we were the guests of a synagogue in West Jerusalem. It was beautiful to see the room full of Jewish families honoring God in song, reading, silence, and prayer. It was clear they intended nobody any harm; they…

]]> http://blog.sojo.net/2010/01/29/israel-and-palestine-people-arent-the-enemy/feed/ 42 Americans Listening to Palestinians Listening to Israelis http://blog.sojo.net/2010/01/28/americans-listening-to-palestinians-listening-to-israelis/ http://blog.sojo.net/2010/01/28/americans-listening-to-palestinians-listening-to-israelis/#comments Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:30:02 +0000 Brian McLaren http://blog.sojo.net/?p=15389 What a day it was. Halfway through, many in our group of twenty felt that we couldn’t take much more. We’d heard heart-shattering stories of Palestinians being arrested without cause, tortured, humiliated, re-arrested, re-tortured … told quietly and calmly by…

]]> http://blog.sojo.net/2010/01/28/americans-listening-to-palestinians-listening-to-israelis/feed/ 6 Five Observations from Bethlehem http://blog.sojo.net/2010/01/26/five-observations-from-bethlehem/ http://blog.sojo.net/2010/01/26/five-observations-from-bethlehem/#comments Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:30:08 +0000 Brian McLaren http://blog.sojo.net/?p=15331 091221-bethlehemWe arrived in Bethlehem with our wonderful group of pilgrims. Folks are getting acquainted, and in a few minutes, our journey begins. We’ll be meeting with and learning from peacemakers — some of whom are Muslim, some Christian, some Jewish…

]]> http://blog.sojo.net/2010/01/26/five-observations-from-bethlehem/feed/ 30 Terrorism and ‘the Primitive Brain’ http://blog.sojo.net/2010/01/12/terrorism-and-the-primitive-brain/ http://blog.sojo.net/2010/01/12/terrorism-and-the-primitive-brain/#comments Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:00:55 +0000 Brian McLaren http://blog.sojo.net/?p=14747 100112-phrenologyParker Palmer, in a beautiful and important essay called “The Broken-Open Heart: Living with Faith and Hope in the Tragic Gap,” speaks of our need to overcome “the primitive brain”:

No one who aspires to become fully human can let the primitive…

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Jim Wallis is right in his new book, Rediscovering Values: On Wall Street, Main Street, and Your Street—A Moral Compass for the New Economy: the right question during this recession isn’t “When will it end?” but rather “What will we…

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]]> http://blog.sojo.net/2009/12/18/obamas-brand-of-american-exceptionalism/feed/ 27 Obama’s Nobel Speech, Violence, and Nonviolence: Who’s Naïve? Who’s Realistic? http://blog.sojo.net/2009/12/17/obamas-nobel-speech-violence-and-nonviolence-naivete-and-realism/ http://blog.sojo.net/2009/12/17/obamas-nobel-speech-violence-and-nonviolence-naivete-and-realism/#comments Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:30:59 +0000 Brian McLaren http://blog.sojo.net/?p=14373 The president’s campaign speech in Philadelphia on race and his speech earlier this year to the Muslim world from Egypt were, in my mind, two of the most important presidential speeches of my lifetime. I had tears streaming down my…

]]> http://blog.sojo.net/2009/12/17/obamas-nobel-speech-violence-and-nonviolence-naivete-and-realism/feed/ 46 ‘The Three Most Important Issues’?: What the Manhattan Declaration Gets Wrong http://blog.sojo.net/2009/11/25/the-three-most-important-issues-what-the-manhattan-declaration-gets-wrong/ http://blog.sojo.net/2009/11/25/the-three-most-important-issues-what-the-manhattan-declaration-gets-wrong/#comments Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:00:47 +0000 Brian McLaren http://blog.sojo.net/?p=13687 As I said in my previous post, I can find things to applaud in the recent Manhattan Declaration along with things to dispute. But I don’t think Chuck Colson got it quite right when he spoke about the statement to the…

]]> http://blog.sojo.net/2009/11/25/the-three-most-important-issues-what-the-manhattan-declaration-gets-wrong/feed/ 43 Affirming the Footnotes: What the Manhattan Declaration Gets Right http://blog.sojo.net/2009/11/24/affirming-the-footnotes-what-the-manhattan-declaration-gets-right/ http://blog.sojo.net/2009/11/24/affirming-the-footnotes-what-the-manhattan-declaration-gets-right/#comments Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:20:24 +0000 Brian McLaren http://blog.sojo.net/?p=13684 Although there are several points I find troubling, inaccurate, or misleading in the recent Manhattan Declaration, and although I noticed the relative homogeneity of age, race, and gender of its signors, I want to focus on a section of the…

]]> http://blog.sojo.net/2009/11/24/affirming-the-footnotes-what-the-manhattan-declaration-gets-right/feed/ 57 Conservative Progressives? http://blog.sojo.net/2009/11/16/conservative-progressives/ http://blog.sojo.net/2009/11/16/conservative-progressives/#comments Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:30:34 +0000 Brian McLaren http://blog.sojo.net/?p=13420 It’s been said that conservatives are people who honor the tombs of dead progressives. If  that’s true, then within the Democratic movement, even with its progressive reputation, there could be a wing of conservative progressives, those who remember the good…

]]> http://blog.sojo.net/2009/11/16/conservative-progressives/feed/ 34 An Evangelical Trojan Horse in the Democratic Party? http://blog.sojo.net/2009/11/12/does-the-evangelical-movement-belong-in-the-democratic-party/ http://blog.sojo.net/2009/11/12/does-the-evangelical-movement-belong-in-the-democratic-party/#comments Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:00:45 +0000 Brian McLaren http://blog.sojo.net/?p=13351 A recent Daily Kos post asks this question: Does the Evangelical movement belong in the Democratic Party?

Of course, many Evangelicals — probably most — can answer that question without a moment’s thought: absolutely not. The Republican Party is still the…

]]> http://blog.sojo.net/2009/11/12/does-the-evangelical-movement-belong-in-the-democratic-party/feed/ 62 Video: Jon Stewart Interviews Jewish American and Palestinian Nonviolence Advocates http://blog.sojo.net/2009/10/30/video-jewish-american-and-palestinian-nonviolence-advocates-talk-with-jon-stewart/ http://blog.sojo.net/2009/10/30/video-jewish-american-and-palestinian-nonviolence-advocates-talk-with-jon-stewart/#comments Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:00:32 +0000 Brian McLaren http://blog.sojo.net/?p=12942 091030-anna-balzer-mustafa-barghouti]]> http://blog.sojo.net/2009/10/30/video-jewish-american-and-palestinian-nonviolence-advocates-talk-with-jon-stewart/feed/ 8 A Prayer for the Earth http://blog.sojo.net/2009/10/27/a-prayer-for-the-earth/ http://blog.sojo.net/2009/10/27/a-prayer-for-the-earth/#comments Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:30:25 +0000 Brian McLaren http://blog.sojo.net/?p=12849 Tim Costello of World Vision Australia and I have been working behind the scenes to compose a prayer that could be used by individuals and groups leading up to the Copenhagen gathering on climate change Dec. 6. Click here to read…

]]> http://blog.sojo.net/2009/10/27/a-prayer-for-the-earth/feed/ 6 Dear President Obama (An Open Letter on Afghanistan) http://blog.sojo.net/2009/10/22/dear-president-obama-an-open-letter-on-afghanistan/ http://blog.sojo.net/2009/10/22/dear-president-obama-an-open-letter-on-afghanistan/#comments Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:30:09 +0000 Brian McLaren http://blog.sojo.net/?p=12738 I am a loyal supporter of your presidency. I worked hard in the campaign and have never been as proud of my country as I was when we elected you.

I’m writing to ask you to find another way ahead in…

]]> http://blog.sojo.net/2009/10/22/dear-president-obama-an-open-letter-on-afghanistan/feed/ 51 Have You Thought About Nuclear Weapons Today? http://blog.sojo.net/2009/10/21/have-you-thought-about-nuclear-weapons-today/ http://blog.sojo.net/2009/10/21/have-you-thought-about-nuclear-weapons-today/#comments Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:00:05 +0000 Brian McLaren http://blog.sojo.net/?p=12699 The day one is detonated, it will be the only thing anyone will think about … which is why we need to apply the biblical vision of “turning swords into plowshares” to nuclear weapons. Here’s some important information on the…

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