Tonight is the summer alumni debate of my philosophical debating group, and I’ve had an awkward time every time someone has asked me what we’re planning to debate. You see, our topic for the night is “R: Heighten the Contradictions,” which tends to throw people for a loop if they were expecting “R: Elect Obama” “R: Repeal the Death Penalty” or something like that. By the end of rationality camp, one of the things that stuck with me was how... Read more
In July 2012, Patheos sent me a copy of Logan Mehl-Laituri’s memoir Reborn on the Fourth of July: The Challenge of Faith, Patriotism & Conscience to review, and thus was sparked a wide- ranging (unusually book-heavy, even for me) discussion of just war, martyrdom, the courage of enemies, and whether Hamlet is the worst person in Hamlet. I’ve collected all those loosely linked posts here. Can Lethal Resistance be Loving? – The initial book review, discussing Laituri’s decision to become a conscientious... Read more
— 1 — Just a housekeeping reminder: This coming week, I’ll be talking about Company for our Sondheim watch-along party and having some guest posts/featured comments/etc. So check it out on Netflix and let me know if you’d like to link up. — 2 — Last week’s links were all Olympic-themed, and I’ve got one more to add in that vein: Flowing Data has links to all of the NYT‘s best visualizations of track and field history at the Olympics. One of my favorites: looking... Read more
Yes, in context, the line has the opposite sentiment to most of the people quoting it. Yvain asked, in good faith, a detailed question about Natural Law theology, but his comment is buried in the wilds of the comment policy discussion, where tempers are rising. So I want to pull it out and give it its own thread, and also take the opportunity to do some of the wacky experimental comment moderation I was talking about yesterday. Here’s how it’s... Read more
Thanks all for the mostly good behavior on the two preceding posts on queer issues. I know I’ve got a fairly diverse audience, and it can be hard to negotiate different frames of reference without misinterpreting or even just taking offense at the wrong thing (and thereby missing the insult your sparring partner spent a while crafting!). After looking at comment thread in the last post, Adam Lee was pretty put off by what he termed the “cesspool of anti-gay... Read more
For your own good at that. This isn’t a hypothetical question. There are plenty of examples where we think this kind of intervention is acceptable or even necessary. In decreasing order of urgency: an abusive spouse, two people who bring out the worst in each other, a couple that’s stayed together out of inertia, the person you’re with at the beginning of a romantic comedy, etc. But no matter how urgent the need for this conversation, most of us would recognize that this is a... Read more
Back before I went off to awesome, wacky summer camp (a few more things to come on that, by the way), I was writing a series of posts on martyrdom, pacifism, drone strikes and other problems of offering resistance. And it turns out, looking over some of the posts I missed, I wasn’t the only Patheos blogger wondering whether you can praise courage regardless of what exactly the person you’re admiring is steeling herself to do. I was talking about drone strikes... Read more
What a get! I just found out from my RSS reader that Melissa of Permission to Live is moving to Patheos. She grew up in a very Quiverful/Patriarchal strain of Christianity and has told the story of her journey in a very brave and beautiful way. Here’s an excerpt from her “Why I blog” tab: I find it ironic when I get input from readers and other people within the Christian home school community on how my parents were so extreme.... Read more
— 1 — Tis the season for interesting Olympics stories! Though, since I’m not that interested in sports, most of my clips are a little peripheral to the actual standings. I’ll lead off with my favorite: the Atlantic‘s discussion of how people set up the mikes for the events. Let’s take archery. “After hearing the coverage in Barcelona at the ’92 Olympics, there were things that were missing. The easy things were there. The thud and the impact of the... Read more
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Finding the right amount of unpleasantness
There’s some very helpful feedback on the recent commenting/housekeeping/debate tactics post. I’m going to highlight and briefly respond to a few people, and then hopefully we can get back to content-y posts to practice constructively commenting on! Emily wrote: I’m really wrestling with at what point I need to walk away from even reading comments here. The tone and mix of commenters has really changed a lot recently, and frankly, I think Adam’s right. I’m glad you’re writing in a... Read more