South to Space

Last updated on: July 13, 2012 at 1:49 am By Fred Clark

The stars look very different today … “South Central Rain,” R.E.M. “South City Midnight Lady,” The Doobie Brothers “South Ferry Road,” The Hooters “Southern Anthem,” Iron & Wine “Southern Front Porch Whistler,” Terry Taylor “Southern Kind of Life,” Kasey Chambers “Southside,” Moby “Southtown Girls,” The Hold Steady “Sowing the Seeds of Love,” Danni Carlos “Sowing the Seeds of Love,” Tears for Fears “Space,” Charlie Sexton “Space City,” Drive-By Truckers “Space Oddity,” David Bowie “Space Oddity,” Emilie Simon “Space Oddity,” Natalie... Read more

Speak up for your alma mater

Last updated on: July 12, 2012 at 1:50 pm By Fred Clark

So these days my older daughter gets more mail than anyone else in the house. She’ll be a high school senior in September and colleges are bidding for her attention and/or her tuition dollars. That makes for a lot of mail. She doesn’t yet have a strict criteria for sorting through the stacks of letters and brochures. We’re trying to be as openly supportive as possible without putting parental fingers on the scale. Mostly, anyway. The Slacktivixen has occasional lapses... Read more

The righteous man and the wicked city: ‘Abraham Pleads for Sodom’

Last updated on: July 12, 2012 at 10:33 am By Fred Clark

The New International Version of the Bible adds these little section headings at the start of each chapter or pericope. At the start of Genesis 19, for example, it adds the heading “Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed.” That’s a familiar story, even for people who haven’t read the Bible. The names of those cities endure as the proverbial superlatives of wickedness and the worst examples of whatever it is anyone wants to condemn. But I want to talk about the story... Read more

Regarding shoes and the kind of world I want to live in

Last updated on: July 11, 2012 at 11:57 pm By Fred Clark

“Could Those Who Make Your Shoes Afford Them?” asks Miguel De La Torre at Ethics Daily. I get to buy hiking shoes because the poor of the earth make them for me at slave wages. My riches are directly connected to their poverty. That will get some people’s hackles up. They’ll respond defensively, as though De La Torre is suggesting that this connection must be simple and causal — as though he is saying that their poverty must be a... Read more

Flaccid ‘Fortnight for Freedom’ fizzles for fathers

Last updated on: July 11, 2012 at 2:14 pm By Fred Clark

The “Fortnight for Freedom” was a flop. This was supposed to be a game-changer — the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ big display of political might. But instead it exposed the bishops as inept campaigners and as generals without an army. I thought they’d be better at this sort of thing. They had some formidable assets to work with. For weeks ahead of time, Fortnight events were publicized and promoted in every diocese and every parish across the country. And... Read more

‘Hi, I’m looking for a Christian book …’

Last updated on: July 11, 2012 at 11:37 am By Fred Clark

Ring. “LifeWay Christian Bookstore, how may I help you?” “Hi, I’m looking for a Christian book.” “Well, you’ve called the right place. What’s the title? I’ll see if I can find it for you.” “It’s called The Brothers Karamazov.” “The Brothers …?” “Karamazov. With a ‘K.’ It’s by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.” “Well, let’s see. I’m not familiar with that title, but let me check the computer. How do you …” “D-O-S-T-O-Y-E-V-S-K-Y. Sometimes it’s with an ‘I’ at the end. Sometimes without... Read more

Smart people saying smart things

Last updated on: July 10, 2012 at 11:30 pm By Fred Clark

Sr. Joan Chittister: 2012 Baccalaureate address at Stanford University The great leaders of history have always been those who refused to barter their ideal for the sake of their personal interests and who rebelled against the lies of their times. If you want to be a real leader, if you want to give a new kind of leadership, you cannot live to get the approval of a system, you must live to save the soul of it. “As long as... Read more

‘Christian bookstores’ and the unsustainable bubble of the evangelical subculture

Last updated on: July 10, 2012 at 4:46 pm By Fred Clark

Some evangelical “gatekeepers” imagine they can still control the boundaries of their subculture and thereby can continue to control the lives and souls and thoughts and imaginations of those within it. Or, if you prefer to put the most charitable spin on it, these gatekeepers imagine they can still guard the boundaries of that subculture and thereby protect the lives, souls, thoughts and imaginations of those within. That used to work. It doesn’t anymore. The gatekeepers are still ferociously guarding... Read more

George Will is running out the clock on climate change

Last updated on: July 10, 2012 at 12:34 pm By Fred Clark

George Will is 71 years old. He’s simply running out the clock. Yes, he’s utterly and ridiculously wrong about climate change, but he’s been denying it for so long that his denial of it has become an essential part of his identity — how he perceives himself, how others perceive him, and how he perceives others’ perception of him. So this would not be an easy thing to correct. He could try to correct it, but that would involve effort,... Read more

Golden Rule jokes and porpoise costumes

Last updated on: July 10, 2012 at 2:35 am By Fred Clark

James McGrath and Hemant Mehta both point us to this cartoon, from Zach Weiner’s wonderful Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. I’ll bite. I’m a big fan of SMBC comics, but I think this one gets a bit muddled. I don’t think fellow in this cartoon poses any real problem for the Golden Rule. Yeah, OK, if you insist on a lawyerly reading of one particular formulation of it, then there’s a potential problem here. But that problem comes from a (funny)... Read more