parables of a prodigal world

Addressing the nation for the last time as President Thursday night, George W. Bush identified September 11, 2001, as the defining moment of his eight years in office. The lesson of that awful day, he suggested, was that "good and evil are present in this world, and between the two of them there can be no compromise. Murdering the innocent to advance an ideology is wrong every time, everywhere. Freeing people from oppression and despair is eternally right." Americans can never afford to grow complacent, and, above all, must "maintain our moral clarity," he said. Maybe I'm too immersed in a generous-orthodoxy world. Maybe the anticipation of one of the great symbols of such an orthodoxy in my lifetime has slanted my thinking. But, to me, words like this are no longer simply sad, rigid, old-fashioned, "conservative," or impractical... ...they're idiotic. I don't use that word in a mean-spirited sense. I use it in this sense... ...Idiocy in the s...

Speaking of Faith and Ethnicity ... From the New York Times blog : Here is a video from a recent immigrant-suppression sweep by Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Maricopa County, Ariz. It’s painful to watch – two of the victims are young children who have been forcibly separated from their mother, who was turned over to federal immigration authorities. Immigrant advocates say the sheriff is terrorizing Latino communities with raids like these, and using police-state tactics to stifle criticism. The man on the video who tries to shut the camera down is a member of Sheriff Arpaio’s “posse.” About one minute into the video, you’ll see and hear the children whose mother was taken from them on the spot. The lack of a comprehensive solution to the flow of migration in our country has bred an environment of fear and insecurity in immigrant communities, particularly in border states. To find out more about self-proclaimed “America’s Toughest Sherriff” Joe Arpaio and his anti-immigrant antics, check out ...

I am writing this, with much fear and trembling, for the January Synchroblog on the subject of "Faith and Ethnicity." Faith. Ethnicity. Faith and Ethnicity. Big topics. HUGE. What do I do when faced with big topics and a small space to address them? I tell stories. This one's a long story, mind you, but still radically condensed from how it could be told. It is not meant to be a final word on faith and ethnicity. It might not even be a word on faith-and-ethnicity. It is simply a story that incorporates the themes of faith, ethnicity, but also brokenness, love, redemption and some other miscellaneous topics. It is a true story. It is an unfinished story. I share it with you, like I said, in fear and trembling...and faith. My wife and I recently went into an Armenian-owned shop and we got to speaking to the owner about the various Armenian private schools in the city. The owner gave us her opinion as to which school was the best. The basis for her opinion was as follows: “...

This is an actual review of Rhonda Byrne's mega-best-selling The Secret from Amazon.com's customer reviews page . So powerful, it caused me to immediately run out and buy a dozen copies of the book. Prepare youself. The tears will stream down your face, and you will never read another book review the same way again... Please allow me to share with you how "The Secret" changed my life and in a very real and substantive way allowed me to overcome a severe crisis in my personal life. It is well known that the premise of "The Secret" is the science of attracting the things in life that you desire and need and in removing from your life those things that you don't want. Before finding this book, I knew nothing of these principles, the process of positive visualization, and had actually engaged in reckless behaviors to the point of endangering my own life and wellbeing. At age 36, I found myself in a medium security prison serving 3-5 years for destruction ...