Reclaiming The F Word

The Fruit of the Spirit?

"And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love - and they'll know we are Christians by our love." - One of the first songs I remember singing at Mass when I was a kid. 

I wonder if this song ever made it into the hymn book Sarah Palin grew up singing out of as she was growing up in that small Alaskan town. I wonder if her pastor is embarrassed. I know that, as a Christian, I was mortified on Wednesday night. And things didn't improve much yesterday as her partner on this ticket took the stage. 

Continue reading "The Fruit of the Spirit?" »

Well, actually, pretty much nothing was happening "here" for the past week or so except some sitting in the sun enjoying a little bit of vacation as summer came too quickly to an end. But boy o boy was there a lot happening out "there." 

Let's start with the wonderful: 

Even as his friends and family gather to celebrate his life and mourn his death today, John Schreiber, bishop of the Southeast Michigan Synod of the ELCA, is being remembered by his hometown press as a "visionary" who "championed racial equality and social justice."

So he was. And so he did.

I want to honor John's memory today by remembering why he was committed to these things --- and why he dared to risk and to speak and to act for the sake of them.

Continue reading "In Memoriam - John Schreiber" »

The home page of the Southeast Michigan Synod today announced:

Bishop John H. K. Schreiber died Saturday, August 16th. Please keep his wife, Rev. Colleen Kampke, and their children, Paul and Claire, in your prayers. 

Rest eternal grant John, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine on him. 

No more details are available at this time.

John was elected bishop at a special synod assembly in November 2005. He was 44 years old at the time of his election.

Continue reading "A Sad Day" »

One of our local religion writers here in Chicago - a columnist for the Sun-Times - has just published a new book. It has a decidedly familiar ring to it, for all of us Lut'erns out there, although the author isn't, I don't think. It's titled Sin Boldly: A Field Guide For Grace. I haven't read it yet but plan to. Amazon.com, for what it's worth, is pairing her book up with an Anne Lamott book - one of the few "Christian" readers I regularly really enjoy, mostly because she's just so flippin' real but also because nobody gets "left behind" in her Christian universe.

   

Continue reading "Sin Boldly and Other Summer Reads" »

Posted at 09:42 AM in Books, Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Technorati Tags: cathleen falsani, anne lamott, sin boldly

 

- Melissa Etheridge, What Happens Tomorrow? 

What happened tonight was a rockin' awesome three hour concert at the Chicago Theater. Unbelievable.

Now this is what I'm talking about. 

My post on The Audacity To Laugh was featured on the Faithful Democrats website earlier this week. Readers commented that I was maybe making a mistake by not taking the McCain campaign's underhanded, malicious, and all out nasty tactics seriously enough. One of the other writers at FD spelled out the evidence that McCain really IS trying to paint Obama as the Anti-Christ in scary detail. I responded that, even if that's true and the McCain campaign is serious, it just won't help to turn all self-righteous. Nobody likes a prude.

Well, it turns out that, by refusing to get his boxers in a bunch, Obama has allowed McCain's junior high-school advertising campaign to backfire.

Continue reading "LOL" »

So how do you explain "The One" ad the McCain campaign is running in which they make fun of Obama for being a pretend messiah? (Well, that's the best way to put it. At worst they accuse him of being a false messiah i.e., the anti-Christ. But I don't believe there's enough theological sophistication or biblical knowledge at work in that campaign to even be aware of this possible interpretation.)

Here's how I think it went down: An old, battle-scared, desperate staff let a group of emo college kids, wracked by cynicism and high on Red Bull, have the production studio for a night. 

And, if the truth be told, what emerged is a pretty funny - in a David Letterman kind of way - shtick. The honorable Mr. Heston as Moses parting the Red Sea?!? I laughed out loud, a snorting i'm-glad-i-wasn't-drinking-milk-out-of-a-carton-in-my-junior-high-school-cafeteria kind of laugh. 

Continue reading "The Audacity To Laugh" »

Posted at 11:18 PM in Politics, Religion, Television | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Technorati Tags: mccain attack ads, obama and brittany, obama as moses

It won't surprise those of you who are familiar with First Things to know: I'm not exactly a big fan. But Thomas Hibbs' recent review of The Dark Knight, posted on that website, is worth a read. His analysis of what makes this a postmodern film - with premodern leanings - is especially interesting. Here's a very short excerpt:

If in certain prominent instances in this film, the hopes of the audience for these [three key] characters are dashed, the film does not succumb to The Joker’s vision. It is not nihilistic; it is instead about the lingering and seemingly ineradicable longing for justice and goodness that pervades the film. As Batman put it in the original film, “Gotham is not beyond redemption.”

I saw this film on opening day and am headed to the IMAX theater on Navy Pier to see it again this week. If you haven't gone yet, go. 

First of all, it's just a darn good movie. In other words, it makes you forget you're watching a movie. You're actually living the story, which in this case is pretty freakin' intense.

But it's also about as meaty, from a theological point of view, as any film I've ever seen. It'll give you stuff to talk about for weeks. What is human nature? Where does evil come from? What it the purpose of life? IS there a purpose? 

I know a lot of people who are nervous to go see it because it looks violent and scary --- or think it'll be dumb because it's a "comic book" movie. I feel sorry for the last group because, well, comic books are cool. But I get where the first group is coming from. It is violent and it is scary.

Go anyway. Just take a pair of eschatological lens with you. Good wins in the end --- but it is a fragile victory.

Let me know what you think of it.

Even as Anglicans gathered in Lambeth these days try to bury issues that embarrass and divide them, Roman Catholics seem intent on digging them up. 

Approaching the final phase of declaring Cardinal John Henry Newman a saint, the Vatican has ordered his remains removed from the grave he shares with his long time, live-in, best "friend," Father Ambrose St John, and reinterred in a less --- umm --- unorthodox location.  

According to Jonathan Wynne-Jones, reporter for the UK paper, The Telegraph:

Continue reading "A Skeleton In The Closet?" »

Something's Happening Here

Well, actually, pretty much nothing was happening "here" for the past week or so except some sitting in the sun enjoying a little bit of vacation as summer came too quickly to an end. But boy o boy was there a lot happening out "there." 

Let's start with the wonderful: 

In Memoriam - John Schreiber

Even as his friends and family gather to celebrate his life and mourn his death today, John Schreiber, bishop of the Southeast Michigan Synod of the ELCA, is being remembered by his hometown press as a "visionary" who "championed racial equality and social justice."

So he was. And so he did.

I want to honor John's memory today by remembering why he was committed to these things --- and why he dared to risk and to speak and to act for the sake of them.

Continue reading "In Memoriam - John Schreiber" »

The home page of the Southeast Michigan Synod today announced:

Bishop John H. K. Schreiber died Saturday, August 16th. Please keep his wife, Rev. Colleen Kampke, and their children, Paul and Claire, in your prayers. 

Rest eternal grant John, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine on him. 

No more details are available at this time.

John was elected bishop at a special synod assembly in November 2005. He was 44 years old at the time of his election.

Continue reading "A Sad Day" »

One of our local religion writers here in Chicago - a columnist for the Sun-Times - has just published a new book. It has a decidedly familiar ring to it, for all of us Lut'erns out there, although the author isn't, I don't think. It's titled Sin Boldly: A Field Guide For Grace. I haven't read it yet but plan to. Amazon.com, for what it's worth, is pairing her book up with an Anne Lamott book - one of the few "Christian" readers I regularly really enjoy, mostly because she's just so flippin' real but also because nobody gets "left behind" in her Christian universe.

   

Continue reading "Sin Boldly and Other Summer Reads" »

Posted at 09:42 AM in Books, Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Technorati Tags: cathleen falsani, anne lamott, sin boldly

 

- Melissa Etheridge, What Happens Tomorrow? 

What happened tonight was a rockin' awesome three hour concert at the Chicago Theater. Unbelievable.

Now this is what I'm talking about. 

My post on The Audacity To Laugh was featured on the Faithful Democrats website earlier this week. Readers commented that I was maybe making a mistake by not taking the McCain campaign's underhanded, malicious, and all out nasty tactics seriously enough. One of the other writers at FD spelled out the evidence that McCain really IS trying to paint Obama as the Anti-Christ in scary detail. I responded that, even if that's true and the McCain campaign is serious, it just won't help to turn all self-righteous. Nobody likes a prude.

Well, it turns out that, by refusing to get his boxers in a bunch, Obama has allowed McCain's junior high-school advertising campaign to backfire.

Continue reading "LOL" »

So how do you explain "The One" ad the McCain campaign is running in which they make fun of Obama for being a pretend messiah? (Well, that's the best way to put it. At worst they accuse him of being a false messiah i.e., the anti-Christ. But I don't believe there's enough theological sophistication or biblical knowledge at work in that campaign to even be aware of this possible interpretation.)

Here's how I think it went down: An old, battle-scared, desperate staff let a group of emo college kids, wracked by cynicism and high on Red Bull, have the production studio for a night. 

And, if the truth be told, what emerged is a pretty funny - in a David Letterman kind of way - shtick. The honorable Mr. Heston as Moses parting the Red Sea?!? I laughed out loud, a snorting i'm-glad-i-wasn't-drinking-milk-out-of-a-carton-in-my-junior-high-school-cafeteria kind of laugh. 

Continue reading "The Audacity To Laugh" »

Posted at 11:18 PM in Politics, Religion, Television | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Technorati Tags: mccain attack ads, obama and brittany, obama as moses

It won't surprise those of you who are familiar with First Things to know: I'm not exactly a big fan. But Thomas Hibbs' recent review of The Dark Knight, posted on that website, is worth a read. His analysis of what makes this a postmodern film - with premodern leanings - is especially interesting. Here's a very short excerpt:

If in certain prominent instances in this film, the hopes of the audience for these [three key] characters are dashed, the film does not succumb to The Joker’s vision. It is not nihilistic; it is instead about the lingering and seemingly ineradicable longing for justice and goodness that pervades the film. As Batman put it in the original film, “Gotham is not beyond redemption.”

I saw this film on opening day and am headed to the IMAX theater on Navy Pier to see it again this week. If you haven't gone yet, go. 

First of all, it's just a darn good movie. In other words, it makes you forget you're watching a movie. You're actually living the story, which in this case is pretty freakin' intense.

But it's also about as meaty, from a theological point of view, as any film I've ever seen. It'll give you stuff to talk about for weeks. What is human nature? Where does evil come from? What it the purpose of life? IS there a purpose? 

I know a lot of people who are nervous to go see it because it looks violent and scary --- or think it'll be dumb because it's a "comic book" movie. I feel sorry for the last group because, well, comic books are cool. But I get where the first group is coming from. It is violent and it is scary.

Go anyway. Just take a pair of eschatological lens with you. Good wins in the end --- but it is a fragile victory.

Let me know what you think of it.

Even as Anglicans gathered in Lambeth these days try to bury issues that embarrass and divide them, Roman Catholics seem intent on digging them up. 

Approaching the final phase of declaring Cardinal John Henry Newman a saint, the Vatican has ordered his remains removed from the grave he shares with his long time, live-in, best "friend," Father Ambrose St John, and reinterred in a less --- umm --- unorthodox location.  

According to Jonathan Wynne-Jones, reporter for the UK paper, The Telegraph:

Continue reading "A Skeleton In The Closet?" »

A Sad Day

The home page of the Southeast Michigan Synod today announced:

Bishop John H. K. Schreiber died Saturday, August 16th. Please keep his wife, Rev. Colleen Kampke, and their children, Paul and Claire, in your prayers. 

Rest eternal grant John, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine on him. 

No more details are available at this time.

John was elected bishop at a special synod assembly in November 2005. He was 44 years old at the time of his election.

Continue reading "A Sad Day" »

One of our local religion writers here in Chicago - a columnist for the Sun-Times - has just published a new book. It has a decidedly familiar ring to it, for all of us Lut'erns out there, although the author isn't, I don't think. It's titled Sin Boldly: A Field Guide For Grace. I haven't read it yet but plan to. Amazon.com, for what it's worth, is pairing her book up with an Anne Lamott book - one of the few "Christian" readers I regularly really enjoy, mostly because she's just so flippin' real but also because nobody gets "left behind" in her Christian universe.

   

Continue reading "Sin Boldly and Other Summer Reads" »

Posted at 09:42 AM in Books, Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Technorati Tags: cathleen falsani, anne lamott, sin boldly

 

- Melissa Etheridge, What Happens Tomorrow? 

What happened tonight was a rockin' awesome three hour concert at the Chicago Theater. Unbelievable.

Now this is what I'm talking about. 

My post on The Audacity To Laugh was featured on the Faithful Democrats website earlier this week. Readers commented that I was maybe making a mistake by not taking the McCain campaign's underhanded, malicious, and all out nasty tactics seriously enough. One of the other writers at FD spelled out the evidence that McCain really IS trying to paint Obama as the Anti-Christ in scary detail. I responded that, even if that's true and the McCain campaign is serious, it just won't help to turn all self-righteous. Nobody likes a prude.

Well, it turns out that, by refusing to get his boxers in a bunch, Obama has allowed McCain's junior high-school advertising campaign to backfire.

Continue reading "LOL" »

So how do you explain "The One" ad the McCain campaign is running in which they make fun of Obama for being a pretend messiah? (Well, that's the best way to put it. At worst they accuse him of being a false messiah i.e., the anti-Christ. But I don't believe there's enough theological sophistication or biblical knowledge at work in that campaign to even be aware of this possible interpretation.)

Here's how I think it went down: An old, battle-scared, desperate staff let a group of emo college kids, wracked by cynicism and high on Red Bull, have the production studio for a night. 

And, if the truth be told, what emerged is a pretty funny - in a David Letterman kind of way - shtick. The honorable Mr. Heston as Moses parting the Red Sea?!? I laughed out loud, a snorting i'm-glad-i-wasn't-drinking-milk-out-of-a-carton-in-my-junior-high-school-cafeteria kind of laugh. 

Continue reading "The Audacity To Laugh" »

Posted at 11:18 PM in Politics, Religion, Television | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Technorati Tags: mccain attack ads, obama and brittany, obama as moses

It won't surprise those of you who are familiar with First Things to know: I'm not exactly a big fan. But Thomas Hibbs' recent review of The Dark Knight, posted on that website, is worth a read. His analysis of what makes this a postmodern film - with premodern leanings - is especially interesting. Here's a very short excerpt:

If in certain prominent instances in this film, the hopes of the audience for these [three key] characters are dashed, the film does not succumb to The Joker’s vision. It is not nihilistic; it is instead about the lingering and seemingly ineradicable longing for justice and goodness that pervades the film. As Batman put it in the original film, “Gotham is not beyond redemption.”

I saw this film on opening day and am headed to the IMAX theater on Navy Pier to see it again this week. If you haven't gone yet, go. 

First of all, it's just a darn good movie. In other words, it makes you forget you're watching a movie. You're actually living the story, which in this case is pretty freakin' intense.

But it's also about as meaty, from a theological point of view, as any film I've ever seen. It'll give you stuff to talk about for weeks. What is human nature? Where does evil come from? What it the purpose of life? IS there a purpose? 

I know a lot of people who are nervous to go see it because it looks violent and scary --- or think it'll be dumb because it's a "comic book" movie. I feel sorry for the last group because, well, comic books are cool. But I get where the first group is coming from. It is violent and it is scary.

Go anyway. Just take a pair of eschatological lens with you. Good wins in the end --- but it is a fragile victory.

Let me know what you think of it.

Even as Anglicans gathered in Lambeth these days try to bury issues that embarrass and divide them, Roman Catholics seem intent on digging them up. 

Approaching the final phase of declaring Cardinal John Henry Newman a saint, the Vatican has ordered his remains removed from the grave he shares with his long time, live-in, best "friend," Father Ambrose St John, and reinterred in a less --- umm --- unorthodox location.  

According to Jonathan Wynne-Jones, reporter for the UK paper, The Telegraph:

Continue reading "A Skeleton In The Closet?" »

Sin Boldly and Other Summer Reads

One of our local religion writers here in Chicago - a columnist for the Sun-Times - has just published a new book. It has a decidedly familiar ring to it, for all of us Lut'erns out there, although the author isn't, I don't think. It's titled Sin Boldly: A Field Guide For Grace. I haven't read it yet but plan to. Amazon.com, for what it's worth, is pairing her book up with an Anne Lamott book - one of the few "Christian" readers I regularly really enjoy, mostly because she's just so flippin' real but also because nobody gets "left behind" in her Christian universe.

   

Continue reading "Sin Boldly and Other Summer Reads" »

Posted at 09:42 AM in Books, Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Technorati Tags: cathleen falsani, anne lamott, sin boldly

 

- Melissa Etheridge, What Happens Tomorrow? 

What happened tonight was a rockin' awesome three hour concert at the Chicago Theater. Unbelievable.

Now this is what I'm talking about. 

My post on The Audacity To Laugh was featured on the Faithful Democrats website earlier this week. Readers commented that I was maybe making a mistake by not taking the McCain campaign's underhanded, malicious, and all out nasty tactics seriously enough. One of the other writers at FD spelled out the evidence that McCain really IS trying to paint Obama as the Anti-Christ in scary detail. I responded that, even if that's true and the McCain campaign is serious, it just won't help to turn all self-righteous. Nobody likes a prude.

Well, it turns out that, by refusing to get his boxers in a bunch, Obama has allowed McCain's junior high-school advertising campaign to backfire.

Continue reading "LOL" »

So how do you explain "The One" ad the McCain campaign is running in which they make fun of Obama for being a pretend messiah? (Well, that's the best way to put it. At worst they accuse him of being a false messiah i.e., the anti-Christ. But I don't believe there's enough theological sophistication or biblical knowledge at work in that campaign to even be aware of this possible interpretation.)

Here's how I think it went down: An old, battle-scared, desperate staff let a group of emo college kids, wracked by cynicism and high on Red Bull, have the production studio for a night. 

And, if the truth be told, what emerged is a pretty funny - in a David Letterman kind of way - shtick. The honorable Mr. Heston as Moses parting the Red Sea?!? I laughed out loud, a snorting i'm-glad-i-wasn't-drinking-milk-out-of-a-carton-in-my-junior-high-school-cafeteria kind of laugh. 

Continue reading "The Audacity To Laugh" »

Posted at 11:18 PM in Politics, Religion, Television | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Technorati Tags: mccain attack ads, obama and brittany, obama as moses

It won't surprise those of you who are familiar with First Things to know: I'm not exactly a big fan. But Thomas Hibbs' recent review of The Dark Knight, posted on that website, is worth a read. His analysis of what makes this a postmodern film - with premodern leanings - is especially interesting. Here's a very short excerpt:

If in certain prominent instances in this film, the hopes of the audience for these [three key] characters are dashed, the film does not succumb to The Joker’s vision. It is not nihilistic; it is instead about the lingering and seemingly ineradicable longing for justice and goodness that pervades the film. As Batman put it in the original film, “Gotham is not beyond redemption.”

I saw this film on opening day and am headed to the IMAX theater on Navy Pier to see it again this week. If you haven't gone yet, go. 

First of all, it's just a darn good movie. In other words, it makes you forget you're watching a movie. You're actually living the story, which in this case is pretty freakin' intense.

But it's also about as meaty, from a theological point of view, as any film I've ever seen. It'll give you stuff to talk about for weeks. What is human nature? Where does evil come from? What it the purpose of life? IS there a purpose? 

I know a lot of people who are nervous to go see it because it looks violent and scary --- or think it'll be dumb because it's a "comic book" movie. I feel sorry for the last group because, well, comic books are cool. But I get where the first group is coming from. It is violent and it is scary.

Go anyway. Just take a pair of eschatological lens with you. Good wins in the end --- but it is a fragile victory.

Let me know what you think of it.

Even as Anglicans gathered in Lambeth these days try to bury issues that embarrass and divide them, Roman Catholics seem intent on digging them up. 

Approaching the final phase of declaring Cardinal John Henry Newman a saint, the Vatican has ordered his remains removed from the grave he shares with his long time, live-in, best "friend," Father Ambrose St John, and reinterred in a less --- umm --- unorthodox location.  

According to Jonathan Wynne-Jones, reporter for the UK paper, The Telegraph:

Continue reading "A Skeleton In The Closet?" »

If Not Now, When?

 

- Melissa Etheridge, What Happens Tomorrow? 

What happened tonight was a rockin' awesome three hour concert at the Chicago Theater. Unbelievable.

LOL

Now this is what I'm talking about. 

My post on The Audacity To Laugh was featured on the Faithful Democrats website earlier this week. Readers commented that I was maybe making a mistake by not taking the McCain campaign's underhanded, malicious, and all out nasty tactics seriously enough. One of the other writers at FD spelled out the evidence that McCain really IS trying to paint Obama as the Anti-Christ in scary detail. I responded that, even if that's true and the McCain campaign is serious, it just won't help to turn all self-righteous. Nobody likes a prude.

Well, it turns out that, by refusing to get his boxers in a bunch, Obama has allowed McCain's junior high-school advertising campaign to backfire.

Continue reading "LOL" »

So how do you explain "The One" ad the McCain campaign is running in which they make fun of Obama for being a pretend messiah? (Well, that's the best way to put it. At worst they accuse him of being a false messiah i.e., the anti-Christ. But I don't believe there's enough theological sophistication or biblical knowledge at work in that campaign to even be aware of this possible interpretation.)

Here's how I think it went down: An old, battle-scared, desperate staff let a group of emo college kids, wracked by cynicism and high on Red Bull, have the production studio for a night. 

And, if the truth be told, what emerged is a pretty funny - in a David Letterman kind of way - shtick. The honorable Mr. Heston as Moses parting the Red Sea?!? I laughed out loud, a snorting i'm-glad-i-wasn't-drinking-milk-out-of-a-carton-in-my-junior-high-school-cafeteria kind of laugh. 

Continue reading "The Audacity To Laugh" »

Posted at 11:18 PM in Politics, Religion, Television | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Technorati Tags: mccain attack ads, obama and brittany, obama as moses

It won't surprise those of you who are familiar with First Things to know: I'm not exactly a big fan. But Thomas Hibbs' recent review of The Dark Knight, posted on that website, is worth a read. His analysis of what makes this a postmodern film - with premodern leanings - is especially interesting. Here's a very short excerpt:

If in certain prominent instances in this film, the hopes of the audience for these [three key] characters are dashed, the film does not succumb to The Joker’s vision. It is not nihilistic; it is instead about the lingering and seemingly ineradicable longing for justice and goodness that pervades the film. As Batman put it in the original film, “Gotham is not beyond redemption.”

I saw this film on opening day and am headed to the IMAX theater on Navy Pier to see it again this week. If you haven't gone yet, go. 

First of all, it's just a darn good movie. In other words, it makes you forget you're watching a movie. You're actually living the story, which in this case is pretty freakin' intense.

But it's also about as meaty, from a theological point of view, as any film I've ever seen. It'll give you stuff to talk about for weeks. What is human nature? Where does evil come from? What it the purpose of life? IS there a purpose? 

I know a lot of people who are nervous to go see it because it looks violent and scary --- or think it'll be dumb because it's a "comic book" movie. I feel sorry for the last group because, well, comic books are cool. But I get where the first group is coming from. It is violent and it is scary.

Go anyway. Just take a pair of eschatological lens with you. Good wins in the end --- but it is a fragile victory.

Let me know what you think of it.

Even as Anglicans gathered in Lambeth these days try to bury issues that embarrass and divide them, Roman Catholics seem intent on digging them up. 

Approaching the final phase of declaring Cardinal John Henry Newman a saint, the Vatican has ordered his remains removed from the grave he shares with his long time, live-in, best "friend," Father Ambrose St John, and reinterred in a less --- umm --- unorthodox location.  

According to Jonathan Wynne-Jones, reporter for the UK paper, The Telegraph:

Continue reading "A Skeleton In The Closet?" »

The Audacity To Laugh

So how do you explain "The One" ad the McCain campaign is running in which they make fun of Obama for being a pretend messiah? (Well, that's the best way to put it. At worst they accuse him of being a false messiah i.e., the anti-Christ. But I don't believe there's enough theological sophistication or biblical knowledge at work in that campaign to even be aware of this possible interpretation.)

Here's how I think it went down: An old, battle-scared, desperate staff let a group of emo college kids, wracked by cynicism and high on Red Bull, have the production studio for a night. 

And, if the truth be told, what emerged is a pretty funny - in a David Letterman kind of way - shtick. The honorable Mr. Heston as Moses parting the Red Sea?!? I laughed out loud, a snorting i'm-glad-i-wasn't-drinking-milk-out-of-a-carton-in-my-junior-high-school-cafeteria kind of laugh. 

Continue reading "The Audacity To Laugh" »

Posted at 11:18 PM in Politics, Religion, Television | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Technorati Tags: mccain attack ads, obama and brittany, obama as moses

It won't surprise those of you who are familiar with First Things to know: I'm not exactly a big fan. But Thomas Hibbs' recent review of The Dark Knight, posted on that website, is worth a read. His analysis of what makes this a postmodern film - with premodern leanings - is especially interesting. Here's a very short excerpt:

If in certain prominent instances in this film, the hopes of the audience for these [three key] characters are dashed, the film does not succumb to The Joker’s vision. It is not nihilistic; it is instead about the lingering and seemingly ineradicable longing for justice and goodness that pervades the film. As Batman put it in the original film, “Gotham is not beyond redemption.”

I saw this film on opening day and am headed to the IMAX theater on Navy Pier to see it again this week. If you haven't gone yet, go. 

First of all, it's just a darn good movie. In other words, it makes you forget you're watching a movie. You're actually living the story, which in this case is pretty freakin' intense.

But it's also about as meaty, from a theological point of view, as any film I've ever seen. It'll give you stuff to talk about for weeks. What is human nature? Where does evil come from? What it the purpose of life? IS there a purpose? 

I know a lot of people who are nervous to go see it because it looks violent and scary --- or think it'll be dumb because it's a "comic book" movie. I feel sorry for the last group because, well, comic books are cool. But I get where the first group is coming from. It is violent and it is scary.

Go anyway. Just take a pair of eschatological lens with you. Good wins in the end --- but it is a fragile victory.

Let me know what you think of it.

Even as Anglicans gathered in Lambeth these days try to bury issues that embarrass and divide them, Roman Catholics seem intent on digging them up. 

Approaching the final phase of declaring Cardinal John Henry Newman a saint, the Vatican has ordered his remains removed from the grave he shares with his long time, live-in, best "friend," Father Ambrose St John, and reinterred in a less --- umm --- unorthodox location.  

According to Jonathan Wynne-Jones, reporter for the UK paper, The Telegraph:

Continue reading "A Skeleton In The Closet?" »

A Fragile Victory

It won't surprise those of you who are familiar with First Things to know: I'm not exactly a big fan. But Thomas Hibbs' recent review of The Dark Knight, posted on that website, is worth a read. His analysis of what makes this a postmodern film - with premodern leanings - is especially interesting. Here's a very short excerpt:

If in certain prominent instances in this film, the hopes of the audience for these [three key] characters are dashed, the film does not succumb to The Joker’s vision. It is not nihilistic; it is instead about the lingering and seemingly ineradicable longing for justice and goodness that pervades the film. As Batman put it in the original film, “Gotham is not beyond redemption.”

I saw this film on opening day and am headed to the IMAX theater on Navy Pier to see it again this week. If you haven't gone yet, go. 

First of all, it's just a darn good movie. In other words, it makes you forget you're watching a movie. You're actually living the story, which in this case is pretty freakin' intense.

But it's also about as meaty, from a theological point of view, as any film I've ever seen. It'll give you stuff to talk about for weeks. What is human nature? Where does evil come from? What it the purpose of life? IS there a purpose? 

I know a lot of people who are nervous to go see it because it looks violent and scary --- or think it'll be dumb because it's a "comic book" movie. I feel sorry for the last group because, well, comic books are cool. But I get where the first group is coming from. It is violent and it is scary.

Go anyway. Just take a pair of eschatological lens with you. Good wins in the end --- but it is a fragile victory.

Let me know what you think of it.

A Skeleton In The Closet?

Even as Anglicans gathered in Lambeth these days try to bury issues that embarrass and divide them, Roman Catholics seem intent on digging them up. 

Approaching the final phase of declaring Cardinal John Henry Newman a saint, the Vatican has ordered his remains removed from the grave he shares with his long time, live-in, best "friend," Father Ambrose St John, and reinterred in a less --- umm --- unorthodox location.  

According to Jonathan Wynne-Jones, reporter for the UK paper, The Telegraph:

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