“Heaven have mercy on us all - Presbyterians and Pagans alike - for we are all somehow dreadfully cracked about the head, and sadly need mending.” Herman Melville I’ve never been mistaken for an expert practitioner of what we might call “balance,” but I believe it exists and that it is a quality to be …
On being neighborly (Who do I have to love and how much?) Part 1 of 5ish
We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men. Herman Melville Neighborly: Characteristic of a good neighbor, especially helpful, friendly, kind, obliging, helpful, hospitable, civil, generous… Right up there with “The Lord is my shepherd” is “Love your neighbor as yourself” as Top Ten Bible quotes. My musing about …
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What Jesus Thought About Universal Victim Blaming (Part 2 of 5)
As you can see this is the second piece of a five-part essay. If you’d rather read it all at once, you can find it in barneywiget.com Mother Teresa told of a time when she spoke at a conference on world hunger in Bombay. "I was supposed to go to that meeting and I lost the …
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Letters To A Young Evangelical, by Tony Campolo
Recommending just about any Campolo book is a minefield. I heard a pastor introduce him as their guest speaker that day say, “You might not agree with everything he says, but this man deserves to be heard.” My old friends – especially the most politically conservative ones – might well either write me off or …
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Outer Circle Churches (Part 3 of 6ish)
[As you can see, this is a multi-post theme and if you might find it helpful to begin at the beginning.] An Outer Circle Church views the poor as people and don’t care that much about how they got that way. “Of all the preposterous things nothing exceeds the criticisms of the habits of the …
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