Themes

• Amazing GraceAutumn ConceptBlueBlackExcelFalling LeavesIsland After SunsetPlatinumTwenty TenVidiyalWordPress ClassicWordPress Default

Tags

barack_obama beauty climate_change death_penalty earth faith follow_jesus forgiveness god grace human_dignity human_rights humility interrogation iraq jesus justice love movie peace politics poverty prayer revenge rule_of_law stoney terrorism torture united_church_of_christ war

• Recently Written

  • illegal to love your neighbor in arizona?
  • easter sunrise 2010
  • full moon at dusk
  • merry christmas!
  • check out my updated recommendations page
  • heaven can wait
  • a spring delight
  • the furious longing of god
  • turning the page on torture
  • easter sunrise

• Recent Comments

  • data recovery: As someone said the people who get to go to heaven are the ones who get right with God. But if we make...
  • Vicky Silvers: I am an editor for Christian.com which is a social network dedicated to the christian community. As I...
  • a Believer’s Journal: invitation of the state’s clergy and other leaders in the immigration reform...
  • Georgy N: Hi, I am Georgy from India and I own a christian blog at turnbacktogod.com I came across your blog today...
  • Sharyn: my nephew Chris suffered a horrific brain injury on the job. He was conscious upon arrival at the hospital...

• Admin

  • Log in
  • Wordpress
  • XHTML

Subscribe

love and war

Posted on February 25, 2007 | Filed Under arts and culture, beauty, war

We were visited by a major winter storm in Iowa this weekend, and our Saturday and Sunday plans (which were many!) were cancelled. We enjoyed some good down time, a fire in the fireplace, and we watched two movies, two among the list of movies we have been wanting to preview. The two movies could not have been more different!

The one was about beauty: the beauty of love, of loyalty, of humility, of service, of human creativity, of the smallest details of the natural world. The other was about ugliness: the ugliness of war, the ugliness it does to …

no war with iran!

Posted on February 15, 2007 | Filed Under war

From a statement signed by more than one hundred Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religious leaders urging a diplomatic, rather than a military, strategy to contain Iran’s nuclear ambitions:

As Christian, Muslim and Jewish religious leaders, we are deeply concerned about the nuclear weapons danger in Iran, in the Middle East, and around the world. The teachings of the Abrahamic tradition command us to keep human life sacred and to act as stewards of creation. We consider all weapons of mass destruction — whether nuclear, biological or chemical — immoral and unacceptable for use in any circumstances. In pursuit of that principle, …

“warring for control of the american soul”

Posted on February 14, 2007 | Filed Under spirituality, the natural world

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., quoted from an interview with Mark Jacobson:

There is an ancient struggle between two separate philosophies, warring for control of the American soul. The first was set forth by John Winthrop in 1630, when he made the most important speech in American history, ‘A Model of Christian Charity,’ on the deck of the sloop Arbella, as the Puritans approached the New World. He said this land is being given to us by God not to satisfy carnal opportunities, or expand self-interest, but rather to create a shining city on a hill. This is the American ideal, …

a new look

Posted on February 11, 2007 | Filed Under general

You may have noticed. My blog has a new look!

Actually the blog has several new looks, and you may choose which look you like the best. Find the heading “Themes” in the sidebar and click on any one of the theme names — “Falling Leaves” or “Island After Sunset” or Misty Look” to change the appearance of the blog. My current favorite is “Island After Sunset.”

ehren watada: true patriot or dangerous subversive?

Posted on February 7, 2007 | Filed Under war

Ehren Watada is a lieutentant in the United States Army. He refused to deploy to Iraq with his unit, claiming that the war in Iraq is illegal. He is currently being tried by a military court on charges of abandoning his unit and of conduct unbecoming an officer.

Is he a good man, a brave man, a conscientious citizen for refusing to “go along” with an action that he considers illegal and immoral, even when such a refusal subjects him to censure and dismissal from his job?

Or is he a disgrace, an opportunist, a dangerous threat to the chain of …

not crusaders for jesus, but followers of jesus

Posted on February 2, 2007 | Filed Under grace, tolerance

From an editorial by John Buchanan in the February 6, 2007 edition of The Christian Century …

I was representing my denomination on a visit to Croatia, not long after the shooting between Croats, Serbs, and Bosnians had stopped. The Croats are mostly Roman Catholic; the Serbs, Orthodox; and the Bosnians, Muslim. The conflict was about more than religion, but religion added fuel to the fire …

We … met Peter Kuzmic, an American who calls himself a Calvinist Pentecostal and who presides over the Evangelical Theological Seminary is Osijek and also holds a chair in world missions at Gordon-Conwell Theological …