Today the Blogopticon highlights a new blog from Kathy Tuan-MacLean.  Kathy and I have been in a writing group together for the past 5 years, and she has been a friend for 7 years.  She’s a wise and deeply authentic woman.  A selection: Often mothers experience tremendous guilt around these changes, thinking they’ve become unspiritual, godless, prayerless and faithless. As a Chinese-American performance junkie, my faith BK often revolved around an activist faith, where I pursued God and encouraged students... Read more

Yes, the Blogopticon has only just sprung into existence, meaning it has not had much opportunity to establish a proper and felicitous identity and rhythm.  I should probably link to some fantastic blog entry somewhere. But I’m not going to.  I’ve gotten to know Michael Patton a little bit; he runs Reclaiming the Mind Ministries, which operates The Theology Program, which has given excellent education to thousands after thousands of people who would not otherwise be able to receive a... Read more

One Christian’s perspective on the day’s news: 1.  Sojourners presents a special online forum on the issue of health-care reform, in which sixteen Christian leaders of various stripes share their thoughts on the moral dimensions of health-care reform and the contentious debate surrounding it.  Sojourners is at its best when it hosts conversations such as these, which represent the diversity of opinions within the Christian churches. A few contributions deserve special comment.  It rather irks when Jim Wallis speaks for... Read more

Today the Blogopticon was delighted with this profound, lovely and relatively brief (and therefore practical) pray from Samuel Johnson, shared at one of my favorite smaller blogs, Goannatree.  The blogger notes that she says this prayer for herself on the first day as a doctoral student at the University of Saint Andrews: Almighty God, in whose hands are all the powers of man; who givest understanding, and takest it away; who as it seemeth good unto Thee, enlightenest the thoughts... Read more

First the funny, and let me tell you, this one is funny: And now the inspiration, a piece from Rob Bell: Read more

Fascinating story behind yesterday morning’s announcement by Barack Obama, Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy that Iran has been constructing a second, secret nuclear facility near the holy city of Qom.  Apparently the United States has known about this for years.  The timeline, as best I can make it out, runs something like this.  Iran began building this second nuclear enrichment facility in 2005.  At least one source says that we have known about it “for years,” though I think there... Read more

One Christian’s perspective on the day’s news: 1.  CHRISTIAN POLITICAL ADVOCACY.  The Christianity Today website has begun a weekly roundup of what evangelical political groups, from across the political spectrum, have said and done over the past week.  It’s an excellent new feature and I expect to use it often.  Though it’s not a summary of news and commentary from an evangelical perspective, which this blog seeks to provide (among other things), it tells us how political advocacy groups are... Read more

Part I: Introduction and Historical Context The Reformation is often said to have begun when the Augustinian canon known as Martin Luther posted his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Schlosskirche or Castle Church of Wittenberg on the 31st of October, 1517.  Yet the scope of the theses was actually quite limited.  The full name of what Luther wrote is Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences.  He was furious when his parishioners claimed no need to... Read more

This is the second installment of the Blogopticon, which highlights one of the best entries available on Christian blogs today.  (If you’re not familiar with the idea behind the name, do a little research on the pantopicon, a method of imprisoning people that features prominently in the writings of Michel Foucault.)  The Blogopticon sees all.  Today its gaze fell upon the Red Letter Believers blog, and since it’s a short entry I’ll quote it in full: We are a lonely... Read more