It is a cold, windy and overcast February day, and my destination is the Old Steeple Church in Aquebogue, NY, approximately 100 miles due east of New York City. I am traveling to speak with the pastor Reverend Dr. Ledyard S. Baxter, 65, or Rev Led as his current congregation named him six years ago. [...]
Posts under ‘Uncategorized’
The Puzzling Concept of Justice
Cross-posted from Radical Religion. “Justice language” is, in my experience, the greatest stumbling block in an otherwise rich and productive dialogue between socially-engaged Christians and Buddhists. It should not be so, but last night’s Presidential announcement of the death of Osama Bin Laden shows us precisely why this stumbling block exists. Last night, Obama announced [...]
Quest of the Historical Malcolm X
Cross-posted from my newly-formed and post-Union blog Radical Religion. Irene Monroe has a good take on Manning Marable’s new biography of Malcolm X up at her Huffington Post blog. I will leave her comments for you to read, but please do. She is an excellent writer with a much-needed perspective on race and sexuality in [...]
The Revolution Has Been Televised
Contrary to the old saying, the Revolution has indeed been televised. Al Jazeera, despite Mubarak’s shut-down of both new and old media, has carried live coverage of a peaceful revolution in Egypt. This is a great day. Twenty-one years ago today, Nelson Mandela was freed from Victor Verser Prison: this too was televised. The media [...]
Wearing Christ On Your Sleeve
Much seriousness is traipsing the front pages of newspapers and our minds these days: floods, food shortages and price hikes, and political-social unrest in Egypt and bordering states. It’s right that our hearts and minds focus on these heavy matters. But it really leaves little time for the less consequential to inhabit our thoughts. That’s [...]
W&C finds Religion in the News… no really.
This seminarian is no different from anyone else. These have been disturbing, nonsensical days that I can hardly begin to make meaning of one way or the other. When I don’t understand–especially when phrases from the middle ages pop up in present political rhetoric–I look to the wiser ones that have gone before me. So [...]
The Middle Class Dilemma: More or Enough?
Two seemingly unrelated stories led off NPR’s Morning Edition today. One was the story of an Arizona family who decided not just to live within their means, but to live within their needs. The other, more vexing story, was about an obscure bit of financial jargon: “Quantitative Easing.” For all you normal people out there, [...]
Abraham Atari
I used to be really good at being God. At least, that’s how I thought of it when I played Sim City in my younger days. I’d plot out the land with high density forests, flowing streams that poured down mountains, and rolling hills that would fall into the ocean border on one end of [...]
Guest Writer Pia Chaudhari: On “Good Grief”
Guest writer Pia Chaudhari is a Ph.D. candidate at Union in Psychiatry and Religion. In response to the New York Times Op-Ed of August 14, 2010 titled ‘Good Grief ‘by Allen Francis, I wish to share my relief in Dr. Francis’ defense of the sacred rituals of mourning and the process of grief and its [...]
Guest Writer: Charlie Becker Hornes “I Might Be ‘Fat’ Today, But God Knows I’m Happy”
Charlie Becker Hornes, M.Div. ’10 writes in response to the comments posted to the YouTube video about Glenn Beck. I have taken some pretty good punches this week on YouTube directly and indirectly regarding our Union’s response to Glenn Beck video: • “I think that first chick missed the part about gluttony maybe? Kinda hypocritical.” [...]
