Even the Devils Believe

As Lee notes here, the conversation about Stanley Hauerwas touched off by Ben’s repost of an inflammatory Hauerwas quote on the 4th continues. It has got me back to reading apologies of Hauerwas’ work, which leaves me a bit frustrated — there is only so much I can take of hearing the majority of American [...]

If the previous post on Hauerwas wasn’t enough for you for controversial politics-and-religion talk, check out this post by Christopher. As someone who has complained a fair bit about the growing “Christian left” or “religious left” political movement, I appreciated it:
What is most troubling to me is the sense that the concerns of LGBT persons [...]

I must say, I loved Jim West’s bombastic response to this Stanley Hauerwas quote:
I assume most of you are here because you think you are Christians, but it is not all clear to me that the Christianity that has made you Christians is Christianity. For example: How many of you worship in a church with [...]

Non-Controversial Church Opens for Potential Presidential Candidates (Audio link — don’t open it at work unless that’s ok in your workplace!)
I love it.

My friend Jane has posted a fantastic quote from Howard Zinn that I wanted to share as the general election race heats up. I’m pulling in an extra paragraph from the original article at The Progressive here:
I’m not taking some ultra-left position that elections are totally insignificant, and that we should refuse to vote to [...]

Richard John Neuhaus is bringing out his usual, tired objections over the California court decision legalizing gay marriage:
In an act of raw judicial power, and by a one-vote margin, the California Supreme Court has declared that there is, in California law, a constitutional right for same-sex couples to enter into what the state will recognize [...]

In the last four months, my state has exonerated three former death row inmates — that’s not a commutation of their sentences but outright exonerations. The state could no longer make a meaningful case against them in court. Charges against the third, Bo Jones, will be dropped today. The case has fallen apart [...]

I just finished reading Reinhold Niebuhr’s classic work, Moral Man & Immoral Society. I’m not quite sure how to react to it, though I’ve relied on some of Niebuhr’s insights fairly heavily over the years. More than anything, Niebuhr tries in this book to problematize the quest for perfect justice within any political [...]

I’ve mentioned before that one thing that worries me about the nascent “religious left” and clergy endorsements from that movement is the ability of religious communities, especially Christian churches, to maintain a distinct moral witness apart from our political action. I know some folks think I’m being a bit too puritanical about that.
The Jeremiah [...]

I’ve been debating whether to post anything about the Eliot Spitzer debacle which has dominated the news. I’ve been all the more conflicted because of my upcoming post on judging the actions and motives of politicians. (Expect that post after Easter, as I won’t be blogging about politics or public theology during Holy Week.)
Thankfully, [...]