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Archive for the Culture Watch Category
I am not a movie buff by any standard, but somehow I suspect I am not the only one who was more than a little surprised at the reception of the latest war movie at Sunday’s Oscars. The voice of…
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Tags: boot camp, casualties, christopher hedges, conscience, discourse, epidemic, expert witness, freedom, Iraq, lie, market, Media, Oscars, peace, principle, riverside church, service, serving, soldier, Story, Suicide, suicides, testimony, the hurt locker, truth commission, veteran community, Veterans, War, war is a force that gives us meaning, war movie, youtube
Hollywood isn’t real life, but when real life (mine and the lives of the actors) and Hollywood converge it is great fodder for thinking and conversation. Peter and I can’t stop talking about a recent date night movie, Up in…
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Tags: appearance, assumptions, balancing act, Bible, body language, business, business woman, choice, Christ, Christian, colleague, conversations, crisis, dressing for success, equal pay day, ethnic, female, Gender, george clooney, God, hollywood, imbd, leaders, leadership, management position, marriage, Mary, men and women, midlife crisis, mom, mother, movie, movies, parenting, pastor, pastoral, paycheck, Peter, power dynamics, queen esther, Ruth, ryan bingham, Scripture, serving, stereotype, stereotypes, successful women, travel, vera farmiga, Women, Work
Elizabeth Gilbert’s 2006 mega-best-seller Eat, Pray, Love is a rambling memoir-travelogue in which Gilbert leaves her husband, is dumped by her lover, travels to Italy, India, and Indonesia studying food and spirituality, and ends up in bed with a Brazilian she calls…
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Tags: 1 corinthians 7, America, Asia, Bible, book, Books, Brazil, celibacy, choice, Christian, Christianity, christianity today, church, condemnation, corinth, Corinthians, creation, critics, culture, Ephesians, Family, female, food, hebrew, hebrew scripture, hell, History, human, husband, husband and wife, Immigrant, immigrants, India, interview, Jesus, Jew, Jewish, leaders, male, marriage, Memoir, Migrants, mother, New York Times, Paul, Peter, pray, priest, Pro-family, relationship, Religious, Rome, Scripture, sociology, spirit, theologian, tradition, values, wedding at cana, wife, wisdom, Women
So I finally got around to reading Dan Brown’s latest book, The Lost Symbol . My point here isn’t to comment about the book – it was entertaining, I wasn’t expecting more. What I found intriguing through are the ways he…
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Tags: allegiance, apostles, Bible, bible history, biblical, biblical scholars, book, c s lewis, Christ, Christian, Christianity, church, churches, da vinci code, dan brown, Emerging, Evangelical, evangelical tradition, Evangelicals, faith, Global, God, heresy, History, justice, Mary, mary magdalene, opinion, Orthodox, Orthodoxy, patriarchy, perspective, Politics, postmodern, prostitute, scholarship, school, Story, sunday school, symbol, system, the lost symbol, tradition, truth, unity, Women
Question: How would America’s largest mainstream Christian radio stations respond to issues of social justice for the poorest of poor, climate change, and nonviolence? Hold that response in your mind as you listen to an Australian equivalent in this interview.…
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As far as African American history books go, Heroes in Black History is unique. First of all, it was written by a white couple whose passion for their subject matter leaps off the page. Second, the book places the spiritual lives…
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Tags: Africa, African Americans, America, Black, Black History Month, Books, Christianity, church, conversion, Election, ethnic group, Evangelical, faith, George Washington, History, history of african americans, holy spirit, interview, Jesus, John Perkins, Martin Luther King Jr., Movement, Multiethnic, murder, Prayer, Privilege, Race, racial, Racism, reconciliation, Religion, Slavery, Stories, sunday school, White, white supremacist
Tags: archbishop of canterbury, biblical, Christ, Christian, Christians, church, Conservative, disciple, disciples, food, Gospel, heaven, Jesus, jesus freak, Liberal, Liberals, mark oestreicher, Paul, Poor, relationship, relationship with god, Religion, rowan williams, sara miles, scapegoats, sin, St. Paul, tradition
Joe Biden appeared on the Sunday morning talk shows last week to defend the Obama administration from Dick Cheney’s disgraceful attacks, which appear to suggest his earlier bloodlust has not yet been satisfied, despite everything his time in the White…
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Tags: afghan, Afghanistan, bad guys, brokenness, conscience, culpability, culture, deaths, Dick Cheney, diplomacy, enemy, Film, good guys, Joe Biden, lament, Lent, martin scorsese, metaphor, shutter island, Taliban, talk show, Terror, terrorist, Violence, War
Here’s an idea for Lent that will do more good than giving up desserts: Read a book about contemporary sub-Saharan Africa. It’s not a penance, though it can hurt. And seeing how much of the rest of the world lives…
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Tags: Africa, African, athol fugard, Books, border, Burundi, colonial africa, dave eggers, hotel rwanda, ishmael beah, journalist, Lent, Memoir, movie, Nigeria, penance, perspective, peter godwin, philip gourevitch, post colonial, Rwanda, shadow of the sun, sierra leone, soldier, South Africa, sub saharan africa, Sudan, tracy kidder, tsotsi, Uganda, War, war dance, yellow sun, Zimbabwe
[continued from part 1]
At times I felt your “Can we find a better way of viewing the future?” chapter overlooks folks from denominational traditions like mine, whose systematic theologies solve much of the glaring hopelessness in others — no “secret”…
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Tags: authority, Bible, Christ, Christianity, constitutions, divine right of kings, doctrinal statements, Egypt, Emergent, Evangelicals, Gospel, heaven, hell, human, Human Rights, inalienable rights, interview, Jesus, Judaism, Kingdom of God, metaphor, Orthodox, Parable, paradigm, Paul, popes, protestant, Religious, romans, Rome, Scripture, Story, theologian
Tags: authority, Bible, Christ, Christianity, constitutions, divine right of kings, doctrinal statements, Egypt, Emergent, Evangelicals, Gospel, human, Human Rights, inalienable rights, interview, Jesus, Judaism, Kingdom of God, metaphor, Orthodox, Parable, paradigm, Paul, popes, protestant, Religious, romans, Rome, Scripture, Story, theologian
More Than Equals , co-authored by Chris Rice and the late Spencer Perkins, is considered one of the pivotal books in the Christian racial reconciliation movement that found its greatest momentum in the early and mid-1990s. My husband and I used…
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Tags: activist, Apostle Paul, authority, beloved community, Black History Month, black rage, Blacks, Books, building bridges, Christian, Christianity, Civil Rights, Civil Rights Movement, Community, compassion, courage, Cross-cultural, curtiss paul deyoung, Divided by Faith, equality, Evangelicals, Harlem, healing, History, holistic, inclusion, individualism, inequality, injustice, injustices, interracial, John Perkins, Ku Klux Klan, Martin Luther King Jr., montgomery bus boycott, multiracial, neighborhood, New Orleans, People of Color, power, prejudice, principle, prophet, Prophetic, Race, race relations, Racial Reconciliation, Racism, racist, reconciliation, redemption, Religion, rodney king, social justice, Urban, White, White Privilege
Tags: anarchist, Christian, church, compassion, denomination, faith, insurrection, Jesus, life of jesus, marcus borg, Movement, Paul, philip gulley, priorities, quakers, Religion, Religious, religious institutions, sociology, trinity institute, values, witness
One of the reasons the St. Francis quip, “Preach the gospel always, if necessary use words,” is so often quoted is because it pokes fun at Christians’ propensity to think sharing our faith is primarily about words. And for good…
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Tags: aerosol, art, beauty, Bible, Canada, church, graffiti, mediah, metropolitan united church, Prayer, Religion, Religious, symbol, united church of canada, Video, wall, witness, wondercafe, Worship, yahweh, Youth
Is nothing sacred anymore?
With the exception of one Super Bowl in the ’80s, I’ve generally looked at Super Bowl Sunday as an excuse to eat chips and watch the commercials. During the regular season, football commercials tend to bore me.…
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Tags: Abortion, advertising, CBS, Christian, female, Football, male, Philippines, Pro-life, sally jenkins, Super Bowl, tim tebow, washington post, Women
Tags: activist, assassin, civil war, community organizer, disappearance, documentary, El Salvador, Election, Film, harassment, jamie moffett, Kidnapped, Latin America, martin sheen, martyr, Ordinary Radicals, Oscar Romero, Religion, School of the Americas, Video, World Bank

Most of my recent posts pointing out how greed misled us recently in the Great Recession have been met with criticism of being anti-capitalism and anti-American. I have shared true stories of greedy hospitals, of greedy bankers, of greedy golfers and…
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Tags: altruism, America, american dream, ayn rand, Capitalism, constitution, economy, fountainhead, government, greed, horatio alger, human nature, individualism, jim wallis, john gault, justice, literature, middle class, novelists, Poor, Poverty, profits, prophets, ragged dick, rags to riches, rags to riches stories, Rand, recession, rich, selfishness, sociologists, Stories, United States, values, War, Welfare, Work, worldview, writer
Since 1994, musician David Bazan (former front man of Pedro the Lion and Headphones) has put sharp questions about faith, justice, and his Pentecostal-evangelical upbringing front and center in his songs…

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Tags: agnosticism, candor, Christ, Christian, Christianity, culture, david bazan, Evangelical, evangelical subculture, faith journey, front man, interview, Jesus, journey, light and the glory, love your neighbor, mother, Music, natural revelation, pedro the lion, Pentecostal, revisionist histories, subculture, Video
We love a redemption story.
The profound appeal of rags-to-riches-to-rags-to-riches or the fall-from-grace-followed-by-a-spectacular-comeback is about as ingrained in our American psyche (and soul) as rooting for the underdog, generosity to those in distress, and second chances.
When I walked into the movie…
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Tags: addict, addiction, alcoholism, America, beauty, budgets, Despair, Film, journalist, movie, Music, pray, profession, redemption, truth
Tags: absolutism, Books, comparative religion, conflict, critical thought, debate, Ethics, God, heart, interview, jacob needleman, love, Materialism, myth, nature of god, philosophy, power, purpose of life, relativism, Religion, science, science and religion, teaching, toxicity, tradition
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