parables of a prodigal world

A lot of commentary on Obama, the election, and all that good stuff this week from the Christian blogosphere (or that little slice of it on which I keep an eye). Here were some of my favorites: Brother Maynard lambastes the idea that Obama's election is a sign of the Left Behind-esque "end times." Greg Boyd hits the nail on the head: all politics aside, it was a good day . Steve Simpson's Open Letter to the Democratic Party was a good one over at Burnside. Greg Arthur has some nice Election Reflections over at Emerging Nazarenes, as does Jonathan Brink over at Missio Dei. Michael Spencer offers some characteristically poignant Congratulations and Prayers to/for Obama over at iMonk. My favorite, though, was Eugene Cho's call for healing over at Beauty and Depravity. Good Stuff. OK, no more election stuff. I promise. Let's move on/forward. Grace and Peace, Raffi

It occurred to me that someone can pretty accurately gauge their Christ-likeness by (honestly) looking at the breadth of their love. How wide is the circle for which you are willing to work, sacrifice, expend time and energy? How wide is the circle for which you (honestly) would give your life? In other words, how wide is your Circle of Love? While I'm sure there are exceptions, the wider out your answer, the closer you are to genuine humanity, to Christ-likeness. I think it plays out, roughly, like this: Some brief caveats regarding the chart. The inner circles are assumed to be contained within the outer circles. E.g., if the limits of your love reach the "Ethnic/Racial Group" level, then I'm assuming you also love your family and your self within that. Also, you might be able to interchange the "Racial/Ethnic Group" and "Nation" levels depending on the racial/ethnic group and nation to which you belong. And finally, I'm well aware that there...

In honor of yesterday's historic election, I'm re-posting this piece from early in the days of the campaign. Hopefully, it might resonate anew as we look forward to the next four years. Over the last few posts, I've talked about how little the issue of electing the next president has to do with our vocation and mission as disciples of the Living Lord of the World. But I've also mentioned that I'm going to be voting for Barack Obama. I've engaged in discussion with some who are angry or confused as to how I can bring myself to support a candidate whose views on certain issues are so different from my own. Once again, the short answer is that I don't believe my support of a particular presidential candidate has much, if anything, to do with what I am called to do or not do vis-a-vis my conviction on particular issues. But I do think it is incumbent (no pun intended) upon me to explain why I am supporting a particular candidate for president, in this case Obama...

Some of the voices I most respect in the blogosphere have started to use Twitter recently. Some for quite some time now. Some of the voices I most respect in the blogosphere have not, and I'd be surprised if they ever did. So I'm debating the issue. Here are the 5 pros and cons I've come up with so far. 5 Reasons I Don't Twitter (Twit?, Tweet?) 1. My God! Who has the time!! I don't know about you, but blogging already takes up a nice, big slice of my time, and the question of whether it's worth is always something I'm re-assessing. The whole Twitter thing just seems over-the-top, unless you're online for a living, which I'm not. 2. I'd rather not collude with a sound-bite world. Relay your thoughts in 140 characters or less? I mean, how low are we gonna go? Condensing thoughts into digestible pieces is often necessary, but I'm a huge proponent of pointing out the dangers of taking that concept too far. Twitter doesn't seem to help tha...

The Problem... The Solution...? John 19:5 "And Jesus came out, wearing a crown of thorns and a purple robe." If you have ears, then hear. Grace and Peace, Raffi