Finding a better story 3

In the last post in the series, I posted some general observations about the cultural context in which the Genesis 1 creation was composed. I contend that the Biblical creation story, as well as other parts of the primordial history (Genesis 1-11) were written to challenge the literary-symbolic world of the Ancient Near East, in [...]

The opposite of “liberal”

The opposite of “liberal” is not “conservative”. It’s “authoritarian”.
Likewise, the opposite of “conservative” is “radical”.
Continued opposition of the terms “liberal” and “conservative” in the public discourse is likely a carryover from 19th century British politics, where the major parties were the Liberal and Conservative parties, but what we call political “liberalism” and “conservatism” in the [...]

The Bush II and Obama administrations and the transition from American hegemony to the “Post-American world”

This past weekend the Common Root conference was held in Minneapolis. Tom and Christine Sine of Mustard Seed Associates led the first plenary session, and my friend Jordan Peacock wrote the following as a summary statement of one of their points:
The Pax Americana is not necessarily the strongest ‘empire’. It stands together with global capitalism, [...]

Missio Dei in need of help

Missio Dei is a Christian community on the West Bank of Minneapolis, in the vein of what could be called “neo-monasticism”. The community seeks to live out the way of Jesus according to the principles of simplicity, prayer, and hospitality in an ethnically diverse part of Minneapolis, the most densely populated square mile between Chicago [...]

Rewriting “Anarchy” page

As you may have noticed, the tab at the top of my blog that read “Anarchy” has been changed to “Christ-archy”. That is because since I started this blog my thinking has evolved somewhat, and I desire to change the content of some of the articles to which those tabs link to reflect that evolution. [...]

The Bible and “plain meaning”

I have been involved in two discussions (using the term very lightly) lately, one on this blog and one in another, where I have been accused of over-intellectualizing, getting too into scholarship, and not taking the “plain meaning” of scripture.
I’m not going to mince words. This is an absurd charge to make. It is only [...]

Finding a better story 2

Since I have this unfortunate tendency to start a series and then never finish it, I’m not going to make any promises about how long this will go, how many installments it will have, or even if it will be all that coherent. However, I went back and re-read my “Finding a better story” entry [...]

Romans 13:4 and irony

Romans 13 is often invoked (usually somewhat unthinkingly) as an objection to my ideas about Christian political engagement. The argument goes, as best as I can reproduce it here very simply, that Paul says we should submit to authority, the government is here for our own good, and we owe them certain things by virtue [...]

Chomsky quote on the prophets

“The people who were honored in the Bible were the false prophets. It was the ones we call the prophets who were jailed and driven into the desert.”
–Noam Chomsky

The “stimulus” and economic assumptions

What seems to get lost in all this shuffle about whether or not the Senate will pass Obama’s economic stimulus package, in what form, and what compromises will have to be made with the House, is that there is absolutely no debate about what form the economy should take. It is simply taken for granted [...]