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I have vanished this week for a simple reason. My family is hiding up in the Smoky Mountains in a location so remote that we have no telephone and the nearest computer dial-up service is so slow that posting to the blog has been impossible. So I am sending this to the ever-patient Doug via email. It was interesting that I could post from Turkey and Greece easier than from this corner of North Carolina.
Scott Goldstein of the Richmond Times-Dispatch wrote a concise and energetic story on Monday about the 10th anniversary of a devastating fire at St. James’s Episcopal Church in Richmond (which I attend).
In my experience, the warmest gestures of inclusion usually come from people who spend little time talking about how inclusive they are. When a person flashes inclusivity like a badge, especially in comparison to those noninclusive extremists over there, it’s a safe bet an ideological mugging is imminent.
Please pause for a moment for a short test to use with the copy desk in your newsroom (or the newsroom nearest you).
In a video game called Waco Resurrection, a player steps into the mind of the would-be messiah David Koresh and gains energy from — well, of course, from Bibles that rain from the sky and spray bullets. The same Bibles can transform federal agents into Branch Davidians.
I’ve been on the road again this week, only this time headed west to Phoenix to speak at the annual North American Christian Convention. This means I’ve been struggling to catch up with some news events that I wanted to get onto the blog for discussion.
The Washington Times’ Julia Duin (a friend of this blog) reported Wednesday on Vatican official Joseph Ratzinger’s tough six-point memo regarding Catholic politicians who defy church teaching on abortion and euthanasia. Drawing from a story in the Italian newspaper L’Espresso, Duin reports that Ratzinger called for a stronger discipline than indicated by Washington Cardinal Theodore McCarrick:
Picture this: an altar; an earth-shattering sound system; people of all ages “jamming to the groove”; and an Episcopal bishop rapping and feeling the beat.
As first reported in the Dubuque Tribune Herald and given greater exposure by The Washington Post, John Kerry has elaborated on his long-stated personal opposition to abortion in contrast with his perfectly prochoice voting record.
