. Job seekers: Let us know where you are and what you’re looking for. Everybody: Skim through and see if you know something, or know someone, or know someone who knows someone, who might help out one of our job seekers. My latest thing is hitting all the local chamber of commerce sites, making lists of area businesses, then hitting their websites for any postings. But then, of course, I’m unemployed, so obviously whatever I’m doing isn’t working and you... Read more
It is, admittedly, a bit odd for me as a Baptist to be such a fan of a papal encyclical. But my enthusiasm for Laborem Exercens is in spite of, not because of, its claim to ecclesiastical authority. I admire it because it presents a thoughtful and principled argument based on and distilled from non-sectarian reasoning. Look again at the moral reasoning John Paul II employs there in his discussion of the priority of labor: We must emphasize and give... Read more
We must first of all recall a principle that has always been taught by the Church: the principle of the priority of labor over capital. This principle directly concerns the process of production: in this process labor is always a primary efficient cause, while capital, the whole collection of means of production, remains a mere instrument or instrumental cause. … This gigantic and powerful instrument-the whole collection of means of production that in a sense are considered synonymous with “capital”... Read more
I somehow missed a couple of albums despite both being right up my alley and coming from two of my favorite voices anywhere. Patty Griffin is a brilliant songwriter, capable of crafting a lyric and setting it to a melody that cuts to the heart. She’s written a host of songs that can burrow under your skin by introducing you to fully human characters, then convincing you to love them as much as Griffin seems to — from “Sweet Lorraine”... Read more
Ecclesiastes 9:11-12 Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favour to the skilful; but time and chance happen to them all. For no one can anticipate the time of disaster. Like fish taken in a cruel net, and like birds caught in a snare, so mortals are snared at a time of calamity, when it suddenly... Read more
Or, in the language Joe Carter used in First Things, this book title is a disreputable, “meaningless neologism” that is “never used outside liberal blogs and websites.” As I discussed in the previous few posts, my main history with the dominionists has been with the ultra-Calvinists of the “theonomist” or “reconstructionist” branches of dominion theology. It’s only been in the past few years that I’ve learned more about the Pentecostal branch of C. Peter Wagner’s New Apostolic Reformation. Before that,... Read more
While still not a mainstream ideology, dominion theology did claim one notable convert back in the 1980s. Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition, host of The 700 Club, and sometime Republican candidate for president, embraced the term for many years, becoming among the first of many influential Pentecostal leaders to begin adapting the theonomists’ dominion theology to fit into their non-Calvinist, charismatic form of spirituality. Robertson eventually backed away from using the language of “dominion” to describe his own... Read more
My first up-close and personal encounter with the dominionists came back during the days I was working for Ron Sider, the Mennonite theologian and activist best known as author of the book Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger. That book, first published in 1977, lays out the massive biblical case for economic justice and radical generosity. The core of the book is an argument for what Sider calls a “graduated tithe” — a way of committing to and structuring... Read more
I’ve started collecting disingenuous qualifiers. That’s my term for those little throat-clearing phrases we tend to say that are always followed by the conjunction “but,” after which whatever is said next directly contradicts the preceding phrase. I’m not exactly sure what I’m collecting these for, I just find them interesting. I think the disingenuous qualifier is a revealing verbal tic. It’s an idiomatic quirk that can tell us something about ourselves, about our perception of others, and about how we... Read more
All for the love of molding young minds … Since we reached the end of the alphabet last week, and since it’s the beginning of September, I figured this week I’d try a thematic list to see what our iTunes libraries hold as far as school-related songs. “ABC,” Jackson 5 “Birth, School, Work, Death,” The Godfathers “Campus,” Vampire Weekend “Don’t Stand So Close to Me,” The Police “Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometimes,” Beck “Headmasters of Mine,” Jeffrey Gaines “I Don’t Like... Read more
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