Comments for The Wheat and the Chaff

Comment on Guest Writer Tom Helling on Rev. Dr. Ledyard S. Baxter: A Lifetime Commitment to Fairness and Truth by Patricia Mcdonald

Patricia Mcdonald — Fri, 13 May 2011 16:37:20 +0000

Thank you for writing about this amazing minister. I met him about 8 years ago when he was the pastor in my church. He helped me through a difficult time and inspired me to realize my true calling in ministry and social work.

Comment on Guest Writer Tom Helling on Rev. Dr. Ledyard S. Baxter: A Lifetime Commitment to Fairness and Truth by Claudia Dreifus

Claudia Dreifus — Thu, 12 May 2011 13:21:42 +0000

What a terrific story and thank you to Tom Helling for telling it.

Comment on Guest Writer Pia Chaudhari: Remedying a Poverty of Love by Arnal Dayaratna

Arnal Dayaratna — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 03:12:31 +0000

Pia, This is an extraordinary reflection on love and the attendant possibilities for freedom and complete self-expression it enables. Thanks for lifting this inspiring clip into something even more significant and moving than it might allow upon an initial reading/viewing. It’s as if you gave the text a gift by way of your poetic and richly nuanced reflections on the need and desire for love and the way it confers power to break down oppressive patterns of thought and behavior, or “captivity, despair and broken-heartedness,” as you say.

Comment on Wearing Christ On Your Sleeve by Peter Herman

Peter Herman — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 17:37:55 +0000

The aesthetics of most items on the website are certainly not to my taste. What I find more troubling, however, is the persistently muscular and masculinized descriptions of Christ and God. There are 105 different versions of dog tags inscribed with crosses and scriptural messages, most of which are thematically arranged around “Strength” and the “Armor of God”. I’ll leave the scripture on one side and military insignia on the other tags be for the time being: suffice it to say that there are some.

The Warrior God is not an image that I think can bring the peace of sister- and brotherhood. Rather the combative vision of Christ presented by C28 envisions a pax romana type of basileia by subjugation. No great mystery that one of their supported charities is Campus Crusade for Christ.

We need a Christian message which can converse with the religious beliefs of the rest of the world, not a warrior-conqueror message which shuts off dialogue before it starts.

Comment on Wearing Christ On Your Sleeve by Rob L

Rob L — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 03:15:43 +0000

Tahnks Preston. I sent you this link because W&C is concerned with religion in the media, and I heard about this clothing company via an article in the Guardian. Why is the Guardian writing stories about Christian clothing chains in the San Fernando valley? But it did get me thinking.

It should be an obvious claim that the ‘logo-isation’ of clothing has turned it into a commercial medium; when you wear a Nike t-shirt, you’re a walking advertisement for Nike. This has made clothing into a medium of proclamation in a manner which makes it assimilable to the Christian practice of proclamation. And here is where I have a beef. While not an original claim, it is one that constantly needs to be re-iterated, that modes of proclamation that are not practices can end up functioning as substitutes for proclamation. One no longer feels the need to proclaim charity in action because I have a t-shirt that says I love people. One no longer needs to pro-claim justice (i.e. to claim justice for those in need) because I wear a wristband, or have a tattoo, etc. This substitutionary function only becomes possible when the actual practice of Christian disciplines is no longer essential to what is means to be Christian. In other words, it’s a symptom of the reduction of religion to a mere identity marker, for which a t-shirt is a more efficient instrument (because, y’know, doing things takes time and effort). And that’s my problem with ‘Christian’ clothing/bands/insert-cultural-commodity, because they are short cuts, substitutes for doing the hard work of living the way of Jesus. It’s always easier to have someone else do it for you, and label yourself as an associate. Virtue by association, if you will. End of rant.

Comment on God Is Gay by AA Bronson

AA Bronson — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 23:06:00 +0000

Dear Peter,

Well written, and cuts to the quick. Thanks so much.

Comment on God Is Gay by Mike

Mike — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 15:13:30 +0000

Thank you Peter.

Comment on God Is Gay by Tweets that mention God Is Gay – The Wheat and the Chaff -- Topsy.com

Tweets that mention God Is Gay – The Wheat and the Chaff -- Topsy.com — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 15:34:48 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by R Henderson-Espinoza and Meiarztimim Eednarb, Peter Herman. Peter Herman said: God Is Gay http://bit.ly/am3iNc via @AddToAny [...]

Comment on The Middle Class Dilemma: More or Enough? by Doug Sloan

Doug Sloan — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 16:25:16 +0000

…and where in this discussion is there any mention of there being too many people in the world? It took the human race until approximately 1850 to reach a population of 1 billion. In less than 200 years, another 6 billion people have been added – this growth is unsustainable.

To fix it, not only do we need universal self-imposed birth control, it must be accompanied by a reinforcing ethos and an economic model based on a stable or shrinking population.

Comment on You Don’t Look Like Rosa Parks by Preston Davis

Preston Davis — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 14:12:37 +0000

“Of course you can build the Islamic Center, Just not here!” So where? There, somewhere. It reminds me of the Spanish forms of “there”: ahí (a specific place), allí (more distant), or allá (considerably vague in reference). The islamaphobia pronounced in our culture would continue to prefer an Islamic Center allí and allá. Somewhere else and nowhere else. What kind of people do we become when we continue to push opposing points of view, cultures and religion out of sight and out of mind?