Moneychangers Part 5 ~ Q & A with Ben Zoba

April 9, 2015 By Wendy Murray

This post concludes the five-part podcast series titled Moneychangers, in which we have explored with civic activist, Ben Zoba, the inherent flaws of the current money system, its spiritual implications, and ways to move toward a new paradigm. As mentioned in previous podcasts, Ben does not presume to be an expert on the intricacies of these matters, though he has researched them extensively. He speaks smartly and with the passion of a man under conviction, believing that what is at stake... Read more

Moneychangers Part 4 ~ Beginning points toward a better way

February 23, 2015 By Wendy Murray

A Conversation with Ben Zoba about Money, Part 4 In this installment — the fourth with Ben Zoba about the failures of the current money system — we discuss some models of how others have explored and successfully appropriated a new paradigm for financial exchange. He highlights, for example, the Wir credit exchange, in Switzerland, which has experienced great success; Ellen Brown‘s work, which explores a public banking system (through the government) over against the current private banking system; Thomas Greco‘s paradigm of... Read more

Moneychangers ~ Part 3: The psychological effect of money scarcity

February 5, 2015 By Wendy Murray

In this third installment of our conversation with local farmer and community activist, Ben Zoba, he explores the hidden psychological impact of people trying to flourish in an environment of monetary scarcity. Building upon the points discussed in Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, Ben makes the case that the manufactured scarcity of money creates a social environment that indirectly sets citizens against one another as each contends for limited funds to build their lives and aspire toward... Read more

Moneychangers Part 2 ~ What is the Federal Reserve and how is it hurting families?

January 26, 2015 By Wendy Murray

A conversation with Ben Zoba, Part 2 of 5 In this second of five installments of my conversation with farmer and community activist, Ben Zoba, he discusses the irregularities associated with the formation of the Federal Reserve Bank in 1913 — which is run by a contingent of private bankers who wield sole control over the ebb and flow of economies worldwide. Ben sees this control, and its debilitating effects on citizens, as a singular attack on fundamental institutions, most... Read more

Moneychangers Part 1 ~ Is it time to rethink how we “do” money”?

January 19, 2015 By Wendy Murray

A conversation with Ben Zoba, Part 1 of 5 The post-holiday season stands as a stark reminder to a majority of Americans of the raw force of being in debt and the panic that is often associated with that. In this series of five podcasts, in conversation with Benjamin Zoba, I will be exploring the unsettled, sometimes hostile relationship between persons and their money. Ben is an organic farmer and community activist in a small town north of Boston who, in... Read more

Who Is the Real Francis of Assisi? A New Book Hasn’t Found Him

October 14, 2014 By Wendy Murray

A Review of When Francis Saved the Church, by Jon Sweeney (This review is part of the Patheos Book Club.) by Wendy Murray When I was living in Assisi, Italy to work on my book about the life of Saint Francis of Assisi — titled A Mended and a Broken Heart — a friar and scholar with whom I regularly consulted exhorted me with a statement I have never forgotten: He said, “Francis is an ocean–don’t say we caught... Read more

C.S. Lewis on Suffering, Let’s Do Lunch ~ a New Book

April 2, 2014 By Wendy Murray

Alistair McGrath’s new book If I Had Lunch with C.S.Lewis is a short volume with a lively tea-and-biscuit feel that explores Lewis’s ideas on subjects related to the struggle and beauty of faith. The book’s casual presentation could be helpful to some, but I stumbled over it. The issues addressed in Lewis’s arsenal of thought are not tea-and-biscuit fare. When Lewis himself broached such matters– heaven, education or suffering, it typically involved book-length discussions and years of evolving thought. I am... Read more

Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Lost Love

February 5, 2014 By Wendy Murray

By Wendy Murray Yesterday, February 4, what would have been Dietrich Bonhoeffer‘s 108 birthday. A Lutheran pastor and theologian, Bonhoeffer was executed by hanging, age 39, in a Nazi concentration camp in 1945. He and small-but-fierce contingent of devoted Protestants actively resisted the Nazi encroachment in both church and state. They founded the Confessing Church movement to mount active resistance to government-sponsored efforts to nazify German Protestantism. His writings have influenced subsequent generations who struggle... Read more

MLK’s Christian Call and Why It Matters

January 20, 2014 By Wendy Murray

By Wendy Murray Today is Martin Luther King,.Day, which also marks the release of a new book highlighting King, his legacy and the Christian faith that animated it. Birmingham Revolution (IVP) by Edward Gilbreath, offers an intimate exploration of how King’s faith informed his vocation during the challenging issues of his time. I worked with Ed for several years where we both served as editors at Christianity Today magazine. We cut our teeth together learning the important role of religious reporting and writing. Ed recently took time to... Read more

3 Meaningful Truths to Embrace Wildly This Year

December 31, 2013 By Wendy Murray

By Wendy Murray 1. Don’t Interrupt Talk ought to be sacred because it is so light, so tenuous, so trivial, if you will; so frail and easy to destroy. Cutting short its life is worse than murder; it’s infanticide. It’s like killing a baby that’s trying to come to life. It can never be restored to life … . A good light conversation can never be put together again when it’s broken to pieces; because you can’t get back all... Read more