From SI.com:

Padres general manager Jed Hoyer will go to Chicago to become Theo Epstein’s top executive there once Epstein’s trade to the Cubs is finalized, sources said.

Hoyer will become the Cubs GM, with Padres VP Josh Byrnes being elevated to replace Hoyer as GM in San Diego, a possibility first reported by SI.com on Tuesday.

Epstein is expected to be named president once he is officially a Cub. There are hints the Red Sox and Cubs are making progress in compensation talks, but people familiar with the talks say no trade is finalized yet. CSN Chicago reported a deal would likely be consummated today with an announcement likely tomorrow. Epstein’s Cubs deal is worth $18.5 million over five years.

Hoyer has always been close to Epstein, and while some may be surprised he’d move to take a lateral job, he goes to a team in a bigger market with bigger expectations. Hoyer and Epstein teamed up to win two World Series titles in Boston. Byrnes, who also had a hand in those championships, was previously GM of the Diamondbacks. He will once again be a GM for owner Jeff Moorad, only this time in San Diego.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/baseball/mlb/10/20/jed.hoyer.cubs/index.html#ixzz1bMfqJu2B

Herman Cain, a Christian, recently spoke about abortion and it can be seen on a YouTube video. Barack Obama, a Christian, has said he is against abortion personally but defends our Constitution and our laws.

My observation: Cain, a Christian, and evidently a libertarian, surrenders to Caesar what he has the option to fight against (legalized abortion). He says a woman has a choice; he says it isn’t the government’s business to tell people what to do. A libertarian not able to find his way to laws that enact his moral views.

My observation: Obama, a Christian, surrenders to Caesar what he has the option to fight against (legalized abortion). He says the law supports a woman’s right to choose; he says it’s his business to support what the government enacts even when he doesn’t agree. A liberal not able to find his way to laws that enact his moral views.

There’s a better way.

Well, I won’t even venture into the field of politics without admitting that I find this stuff interesting but nowhere near as important as many folks do. But, still, I think Herman Cain’s ability to rival old-line politician Mitt Romney is making for some interesting political discussions, not the least of which for me is his ability to say what the thinks succinctly and seemingly without political jargon. Though his avoidance of the jargon is his politics.

Daniel Drezner gets after Cain’s lack of foreign policy:

It took me a couple of hours of reading, cogitation, and regurgitation to critique Mitt Romney’s foreign policy positions.  As you’ll note, I didn’t think it was perfect, or even all tat good in places.  But, I had to think about it, mull over the content… you know, think.

Now, I desperately want to be an equal opportunity blogger, and at this point Herman Cain appears to be the co-frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination.  Sure, I’ve had my fun with him in the past, and he has no shortage of foreign policy gaffes, but I figured that impromptu utterances during debates are only one part of a candidate’s overall policy vision.  The thoughts that are written down, they imply some foreithough.  So I thought I’d go over to Cain’s campaign website and spend an equal amount of time to analyze his foreign policy thinking.

I found…. a total of five paragraphs on “national security.”  That’s it.  No white papers, fact sheets, bullet points, or list of advisors.  So you gotta think that these are going to be the most awesome and mind-blowing foreign policy paragraphs ever!!!

But Michael Tomasky thinks Cain might be Romney’s biggest nightmare: [Read more...]

This review is by our blog friend and regular commenter, Diane Reynolds, and is a sneak preview of a book coming out November 1: Theological Education Underground, 1937-1940 (Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Vol. 15), ed. by Victoria J. Barnett. Dietrich Bonhoeffer has become a singular saint among many today, and I hope it leads to many reading his brilliant studies Life Together and Prayerbook of the Bible (Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Vol. 5) and Discipleship (Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Vol. 4). I have been reading Bonhoeffer since about 1974, when I first read what was then called The Cost of Discipleship, but I also have found his Life Together to be a treasure trove of wisdom — derived in the most difficult of circumstances, life in hiding from Hitler. Now to Diane’s fine introduction to various publications during those difficult times of Bonhoeffer’s life:

The years 1937 to 1940 marked a critical period in the life of pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. During this time, he conducted his illegal seminary under increasingly dangerous circumstances in Nazi Germany, wrote two of his most famous books—Discipleship and Life Together—and decided to reject a secure haven in the United States to return to Germany on the eve of World War II. His departure after only a month in the U.S. catapulted him towards active resistance—and hence execution—as part of the July 20, 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler.

These years are chronicled in Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Theological Education Underground:1937-1940, volume 15 of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works English edition series (DBWE), to be released by Fortress Press on November 1.  This book, the fourth-to-last of the 16 volumes (plus index) to be translated from German, chronicles Bonhoeffer’s struggles to respond to the horrors of Nazism and offers a riveting “fly on the wall” view of one individual’s wrestling with issues of conscience and discernment.

What do you think drives the current fascination with Bonhoeffer? What does Bonhoeffer mean to you?

In his notes on “sin,” in this volume, Bonhoeffer ponders issues that will preoccupy him for the rest of his life: “Because the essence of sin is to obtain praise for itself and to judge over good and evil, sin can never recognize its own sinfulness. … sin is a judgment of God, who calls sin that which people call good, namely, one’s own righteousness.” Do you agree with this definition?  Can one’s own will to righteousness—our desire to preserve our own purity—be sinful? Does God ever call us out to serve him by abandoning our purity?

Although Bonhoeffer became a pacifist during his year at Union Theological Seminary in 1930-31, from 1937-40 he was working out—and living out– the theology that would lead to the difficult decision to participate in an assassination attempt against Hitler.  True to form, Bonhoeffer was unflinching in not rationalizing his participation in this plot as somehow holy. For this Sermon on the Mount Christian, even killing someone as evil as Hitler potentially violated Christ’s witness. Bonhoeffer recognized that he was caught in a bind, but felt he could not be a Christian without acting in what he called a “this-worldly” way—and he hoped, but was never certain, that God would forgive him for his deed. Is this the definition of courage? Or did he wrongly abandon his pacifism? [Read more...]