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Weekly Meanderings

Weekly Meanderings

Last updated on: September 11, 2010 at 11:35 am by Scot McKnight

Weekly Meanderings 2010-09-11T11:35:07-05:00 Scot McKnight

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

We love ya, Mayor Daley!

On this day, Sept 11, many innocently lost their lives because of the barbaric, cold-blooded actions of others. Today we pause to remember those who died, their families who will never be the same again, those who were there and those whose lives were impacted by that tragic day. We pray, too, for terrorists around the world that they will come to their senses and learn that the righteousness of God can never be accomplished by the anger of humans.

Our move to Patheos involves some digging around in the sources at Patheos, including pieces like this by David Crumm: “After hundreds of interviews in 9,000 miles, one thing is clear: Americans pray. Americans read the Bible and other scriptures. Every day, Americans continue to ask the three timeless religious questions, usually voiced as: Why should I climb out of bed in the morning? How will I make it through another stressful day? And, at the end of the day, what did I accomplish that truly mattered? These are echoes of the ancient religious questions: Why are we here? How shall we live? And, what are the enduring consequences of good and evil? The future of religion? No question, it’s a timeless lifeline for millions in America and billions around the world. But, will our recognizable denominations survive? That depends on our ability to connect the timeless treasures of our traditions with the dire daily needs of today.”

Chad Holtz on Big Tent Methodists. Speaking of big tent, who does Dragon Con? LaVonne is suggesting politicians were special T-shirts.

Jim Martin on marriage. That’s the Christian question, thank you. Andy asks questions of Hauerwas, and with him one never quite knows what the answer will be. Teachers too!

Transitions: Nancy Beach has expanded her ministries to … Don Johnson’s post is about economic transitions (in churches).

Tony finished Kenda Deans’ book … links are all here.

Art Boulet turns the argument around to say that literal Genesis 1 means geocentrism, too. Rob turns this one around, too. Patrick and the Catholics and Ireland and well, lots of turning here.

One of our students, Abby, is in France studying this year. You can follow her. And, parents, if you have a daughter or son who wants to study abroad, this could be what it would be like.

Speaking of blogs, here’s everything you wanted to know about blogs (and much more). (HT: TW)

Meanderings in the News

1. Tim Crane, on the difference between science and religion, in an essay that is long and winding: “This point gets to the heart of the difference between science and religion. Religion is an attempt to make sense of the world, but it does not try and do this in the way science does. Science makes sense of the world by showing how things conform to its hypotheses. The characteristic mode of scientific explanation is showing how events fit into a general pattern. Religion, on the other hand, attempts to make sense of the world by seeing a kind of meaning or significance in things. This kind of significance does not need laws or generalizations, but just the sense that the everyday world we experience is not all there is, and that behind it all is the mystery of God’s presence. The believer is already convinced that God is present in everything, even if they cannot explain this or support it with evidence. But it makes sense of their life by suffusing it with meaning.”

2. Paul Conrad, a famous political cartoonist: “Armed with superb drawing skills and a finely honed sense of moral indignation, Mr. Conrad took aim at pomposity, injustice and corruption. He had been merciless to President Lyndon B. Johnson during the Vietnam War in the 1960s, but after Nixon’s election in 1968, Mr. Conrad became utterly scathing.”

3. Here we go again, tenure re-re-re-re-reviewed by Christopher Shea: “The higher-ed jeremiads of the last generation came mainly from the right. But this time, it’s the tenured radicals — or at least the tenured liberals — who are leading the charge.”

4. Now from the right side of the room, Michael Barone: “Imagine that you have a product whose price tag for decades has risen faster than inflation. But people keep buying it because they’re told that it will make them wealthier in the long run. Then, suddenly, they find it doesn’t. Prices fall sharply, bankruptcies ensue, great institutions disappear. Sound like the housing market? Yes, but it also sounds like what Glenn Reynolds, creator of instapundit.com, writing in the Washington Examiner, has called “the higher education bubble.”

While we’re at it, some public schools are now being run by teachers (of all things). And some of what passes as received wisdom about learning needs change.

5. Texas food joint: ” Her secret ingredient, she says, is love. In a nation filled with food-joint gems, The Hotel, as locals simply call it, stands out as one of the best. In my travels as a CNN journalist, it’s the best dang food joint I’ve stumbled upon in Texas. It’s well worth getting off the beaten path and taking the 1½-hour drive from Houston. And unlike fancy city restaurants, you won’t go broke here. Lunch costs $8.50. Sunday, the all-you-can-eat buffet is $9. Christmas is the only day of the year the restaurant is closed. The ambiance is almost as good as the food.”

6. Frank Rich, at NYTimes, on the Middle East “war” fiasco: “Bacevich also wrote that “common decency demands that we reflect on all that has occurred in bringing us to this moment.” Americans’ common future demands it too. The war’s corrosive effect on the home front is no less egregious than its undermining of our image and national security interests abroad. As the Pentagon rebrands Operation Iraqi Freedom as Operation New Dawn — a “name suggesting a skin cream or dishwashing liquid,” Bacevich aptly writes — the whitewashing of our recent history is well under way. The price will be to keep repeating it.”

7. Number Twelve’s my man. (Make that Number Eleven.)

8. The left lean against Obama does surprise. Jacob Weisberg chides Obama to be more Obama: “Barack Obama’s redecoration of the Oval Office includes a nice personal touch: a carpet ringed with favorite quotations from Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, both Presidents Roosevelt, and Martin Luther King Jr. The King quote, in particular, has become a kind of emblem for him: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” For all the carping about his every move, the only big problem with the Obama Presidency is the gap between what’s written on his rug, and what’s buried under it—the distance between the President’s veneration of moral leadership past and his failure, so far, to exhibit much of it himself.”

9. I’ve heard of The Fellowship, but this article tells the story. (HT: AC)

10. Richard Daley announces he’s retiring, and I will miss him: “Simply put, it’s time,” said Daley, 68. “Time for me, it’s time for Chicago to move on.”

11. The decline of rabbinical greatness in the USA. The incline of scholarship, including studies on beer drinking in the ancient world of Judaism.

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