By Cathleen Falsani: St Francis comes to us as a man of rigorous compassion and relentless mercy to the marginalized. He comes to us as an example of poverty and expression of humility. If you have not read his Little Flowers, do so; if you’d like a shorter excerpt, I recommend Jon Sweeney’s Francis of Assisi: The Essential Writings. Will Pope Francis set a new way of reform for the Catholic Church? Ian Morgan Cron, an Episcopal priest and author of the... Read more
Luke 19.28-44 The Things that Make for Peace At the same time I was finishing up seminary, my best friend was winding up his studies at law school. When I was starting out at my first church, he was beginning his law career. After clerking for an appeals court judge for a year, he got chosen to clerk for the Supreme Court, for Justice Scalia, a job which first required he to pass an extensive FBI background check. Because I was his... Read more
Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.... Read more
Pope Francis and Archbishop Justin Welby are new kinds of leaders. Pope Francis: VATICAN CITY (Catholic Online) – On March 21, 2013, theVatican issued the following notice: “On Holy Thursday, 28 March, the Holy Father Francis will celebrate the Chrism Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in the morning and then, at 5:30pm in the afternoon, will go to celebrate the Mass of the Lord’s Supper at the Casal del Marmo youth detention center instead of the Basilica of St. John Lateran,... Read more
I like “make or break” discussions because they reveal what is considered to be deep and enduring. So I liked to see that C. Michael Patton set out eight issues that are not make or break issues. I have clipped the discussion so you can go to the site to read the whole discussion. Here is a list of what I believe to be eight issues that do not make or break our faith: 1. Young Earth Creationism … The problem... Read more
Vote for me at The American Jesus. Carl Ruby: “G.K. Chesterton, a gifted English writer who died in 1936 observed, “We do not need to get good laws to restrain bad people. We need to get good people to restrain us from bad laws.” Chesterton’s statement is at least partially true of today’s debate over immigration reform. While I would contend that laws to protect us from criminals and felons are necessary, I think it is also true that this... Read more
From USAToday: A new diet book — one that promotes fasting two days a week by drastically cutting calories and then eating normally the other five days — is catching on with dieters, but it already has its British author unexpectedly on the defensive. The FastDiet: Lose Weight, Stay Healthy and Live Longer With the Simple Secret of Intermittent Fasting (Atria Books, $24), by British physician Michael Mosley and writer Mimi Spencer, is No. 46 on USA TODAY’s Best-Selling Books list.... Read more
Ronald Sider had lunch with Robert Putnam, American sociologist, and Putnam asked him an important question: Is our economic inequality a sin? What do you think and why? Putnam is appalled at the radical lack of equality of opportunity in the U.S. today, and he wanted to know if evangelical preachers would dare to say what his pastor said when he was a teenager. Putnam told me that back then, in the midst of Martin Luther King’s great campaign against... Read more
Explorers and Guardians, by John Frye. With about 300 others, I attended the “Creation in Scripture” seminar hosted by Cornerstone University: Talking Points featuring Dr. John Walton, Dr. David Turner, Dr. Michael Wittmer, and Dr. John Hilber. I applaud Dr. Joseph Stowell, Cornerstone University and Grand Rapids Theological Seminary for bringing this relevant and controversial topic out into open discussion in this area of the woods (West Michigan). The high caliber of presentations were matched by the irenic and respectful... Read more
A short story about prayer by none other than the cynical Mark Twain reminds us that prayer has consequences or implications, and those consequences or implications perhaps need to be kept in mind when we ponder our petitions. You may know Mark Twain’s mono-eyed “The War Prayer,” but if you don’t here’s a full version online. The short story is simple: folks have gathered to church to pray for their sons who have been called into war, they pray for... Read more
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