Mind & Soul www.coebrownacademy.com

Recent blogs dealing with certain aspects of the life issue brought to mind the opposite side of the coin; a topic not discussed much but, as the saying goes, is as inevitable as taxes. Death is almost a taboo topic. Many faiths tell us of there being a certain clarity after death, albeit not always a happy revelation. Yet we seem afraid to talk about it or probe and learn.

www-i5.informatik.rwth-aachen.de

One part of the issue is determining what is dying. One question (there are others) to ask is: Are mind and soul one or two distinct things. Do mind and soul stay together after death or do they separate permanently at the time of death? Eckhart Tolle in his excellent book ‘The Power of Now’ talks of the saying of Descartes as a great fallacy. That is, the connecting of thought/mind with will/soul or considering them one and the same is…

Image courtesy of www.berkeley.law.edu

According to an article today on Missourinet, state Attorney General Chris Koster has said that now that legal challenges to the state’s “death penalty structure” have been overcome, we will “return to regularly scheduled executions.”

“My guess is that for the near future,” said Koster. “We will see one execution probably every month as these individuals come up in the court system.”

Is anyone else troubled by this?  Do you think that there is a moral and ethical problem here?  Or do you believe that the command to love another does not extend to convicted criminals?  Would it make a difference if you could see the people involved as individuals?  Or do their crimes outweigh their humanity?

Here is how I first learned about the death penalty.  When I was a child my father worked as a Legal Aid attorney and public defender.  He is a brilliant lawyer, with the oratorical…

Have any of you been following the recent NPR series on spirituality and the brain? Barbara Bradley Hagerty’s five-part series can be read online, and in it she describes surgical accidents and experiments with drugs that induced what seemed like deeply spiritual experiences. People said they saw and heard God, for example.  Hagerty asks the obvious question: if mystical experiences can be induced by brain changes, does that mean all mysical experiences might be the result of brain misfirings or other natural events?  I’m especially curious to know how those of you whose religions are based on revelation feel about this kind of research.  Does it make you question anything about your faith or its traditional stories or “received” messages?  Or does brain research not seem connected in any way to your understanding of religious experience?

credit: Zazzle

President Barack Obama’s Sunday Notre Dame speech — and all the controversy surrounding it — is being covered from every angle on the internet, with print media lagging behind, as usual.

More followup will continue in the next few weeks and months, particularly if the press decides to take seriously the president’s sweet remarks about encouraging adoptions and “sensible” conscience clauses. Don’t hold your breath.

Two points will do for today:

(1) Mr. Obama, it is safe to say, would not have talked about abortion at the Notre Dame graduation, had not so many individuals protested in one way or another in the run-up to last Sunday. Congratulations to all of you who signed the online petition, phoned the university, sent letters to editors, withheld ND donations, prayed, traveled to South Bend, held signs, got hauled off to jail. As the New York Times headline put it, “On Abortion, Obama is Drawn Into…

Utror Valley near Kalam http://laf.ee/wp

As a young child I remember going to Swat on summer vacation twice. It was an enchanting place with beautiful landscapes so unfamiliar to one who lived in the plains.

Swat Valley http://3.bp.blogspot.com

Saidu Sharif, Kalam, the names of the town’s were like from fairy tales. I still have those wonderful images of my childhood whenever I hear the name Swat.

Kalam www.swatvalley.com

Swat used to be different from the other regions in the north frontier of Pakistan. They used to not have the rigid view of life and religion.

Bahrain Swat racismandnationalconsciousnessnews

My wife tells me of her visit to Swat long ago (before we had met), with her family, and how they met the family of the Wali-e-Swat (the then ruler of Swat) and the love she saw among the people. She especially remembers at mealtime how all the women of the Wali’s household, servants and ladies, sat together to…

Concordia Seminary will honor faculty members who have recently published books next Tuesday, May 19, 4:00-6:00PM, in the Seminary’s Koburg Hall (map and directions).

The celebration will include the requisite fine wine, hors d’oeuvres, and lively conversation. And the writers will be present to sign books. We’re not elitist at Concordia, so we want to celebrate with anyone who’d like to raise a glass to good writing and/or good theology. Everything is free but the books.

The following writers and their books will be feted:

• Charles Arand and Robert Kolb: The Genius of Luther’s Theology (Baker)

• Charles Arand, Robert Kolb and Robert Rosin: essays in The Pastoral Luther (Eerdmans)

• Kent Burreson: editor for He Was Crucified (Concordia)

• Robert Kolb: Martin Luther: Confessor of the Faith (Oxford)

• Reed Lessing: Concordia Commentary: Amos (Concordia)

• David Maxwell: an essay in In the Shadow of the Incarnation (Notre Dame)

• Francis Rossow: Gospel Patterns in Literature (Kirk House)

• Quentin Wesselschmidt: Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Psalms 51-150 (InterVarsity)

We plan to make this an annual…

Image courtesy of www.nrcat.org

This past weekend the Post-Dispatch ran an excellent column by Leonard Pitts, Jr, entitled “Why this tolerance for torture?” It is a sharp and necessary response to a recent Pew research poll showing that those who attend church regularly are more likely to endorse torture, and reads in part:

It turns out the religiously unaffiliated are the least likely (40 percent) to support torture, but that the more you attend church, the more likely you are to condone it. Among racial/religious groups, white evangelical Protestants were far and away the most likely (62 percent) to support inflicting pain as a tool of interrogation.

You’d think people who claim connection to a higher morality would be the ones most likely to take the lonely, principled stand. But you need only look at history to see how seldom that has been the case, how frequently my people — Christians — acquiesce to expediency…

Walter Wangerin, Jr.

Last Wednesday, Concordia Seminary hosted the visit of renowned writer and preacher Walter Wangerin, Jr. as part of the Seminary’s annual “Day of Homiletical Reflection.” Among his dozens of books are the National Book Award winner The Book of the Dun Cow, and his bestseller The Book of God. His visit held special meaning for me since I was his writing student as an undergrad at Valparaiso University.

But it was significant for another reason. It was the first viewing of the short film based on Wangerin’s short story/parable, “Ragman,” directed by one of St. Louis’ best indie film-makers, Dale Ward. Since it first gained popularity in the mid-80s, the powerful story of the Ragman has had a “viral” history, even before the Web gave us the term. One can track its circulation in church newsletters, sermons, dramas, discussion groups, and online. But aside from Wangerin’s own book, Ragman and Other…

At the height of the Swine Flu panic, a curious connection began to emerge: a rhetorical line was drawn between the outbreak of flu and illegal immigrants.  An interesting article in the Minnesota Independent has outlined the connection well, and is worth the read.  And it wasn’t just professional media hysterics like Michael Savage or Glenn Beck who were leading the charge; according to the article in the Independent, a Democrat from New York, Rep. Eric Massa, began pushing to have the borders with Mexico closed.

We all remember that in the days after September 11, 2001, it became physically dangerous to be, or even to appear to be, a Muslim in this country.  Such prejudices, once publicly unleashed and given some modicum of respectability or reasonableness, become very hard to reverse.  (I would welcome comments from Muslims and Arabs in this country, or anyone else who even appears to be…

In a statement it attributed to Deacon Phil Hengen, Director of its Office of Child and Youth Protection, the St. Louis Archdiocese said Saturday that its interim leader, Bishop Robert Hermann, had taken away the priestly faculties of the Rev. Robert Osborne, former president of Vianney High School in Kirkwood.

The removal of Osborne’s “faculties” - a term meaning the authority to perform as a cleric - means the Marianist priest can no longer publicly celebrate Mass.

Hermann is the interim leader of the St. Louis Archdiocese until newly named Archbishop-elect Robert Carlson’s installation next month.

In February 2006, Osborne temporarily stepped down as president of Vianney after a lawsuit accused him of having “sexually, physically and emotionally abused” a student. Another accusation followed, and in August 2006 Vianney removed Osborne permanently for what were called “unresolved legal matters.”

Osborne has consistently denied all the accusations against him, and in October 2006, a criminal investigation of…

Marc Lourdes, Friendly Press fellow

This post is by Marc Lourdes, the Alfred Friendly Press fellow who joined the Post-Dispatch this week. He is a journalist from Malaysia and will be with us till September. He wrote this for Civil Religion:

I, like the dude in the opening scene of The Godfather, love America.

In my one month here so far, I’ve found the weather to be mild, the trees lovely, the buildings interesting and the people, for the most part, great. (There was this one particularly nasty creature on the road the other day as I was having my driving lesson, but I’ve airbrushed her out of the picture.)

Yet - and I suppose this is inevitable - I really miss home, which, for me is a little land on the other side of the world called Malaysia. Naturally, I miss my family and friends. And I really, really, really miss the food. I…

Julian icon courtesy of the Order of Julian

Julian of Norwich is one of the most famous and popular medieval mystics, as a quick Google search will attest, and today is her feast day on the Episcopal church calendar.  I often wonder how many of the people who express an interest in this fascinating woman have actually read the complete text of her work, Revelations of Divine Love (also known simply as Shewings, which is what she called it).

If you haven’t actually read her, but have only read about her, you should definitely check out a recent book entitled Love’s Trinity: A Companion to Julian of Norwich.  It includes a modern English translation by Father John-Julian and an extensive, illuminating commentary by Frederick S. Roden.  I believe that both are associated with the Order of Julian, a “monastic order of contemplative monks and nuns in the Episcopal Church” (yes, we have monks and nuns, too!).

Full…

Archbishop-elect Robert Carlson. AP

Cardinal Justin Rigali

The St. Louis Archdiocese announced Tuesday afternoon that former St. Louis archbishop, Cardinal Justin Rigali - now archbishop of Philadelphia - will celebrate the installation Mass for Archbishop-elect Robert Carlson on Wednesday, June 10.

According to the archdiocese’s press release:

The Mass of Installation will be celebrated at the Cathedral Basilica on Wednesday, June 10, 2009, at 2:00 p.m at the Cathedral Basilica. The procession into the Cathedral will begin at 1:30 p.m. Cardinals, bishops, and clergy from around the country will join us for the installation of our new archbishop. A reception will follow the Mass of Installation at Rosati-Kain High School. Both are open to the public.

Carlson’s installation will make him the official Catholic archbishop of St. Louis.

About half of all Americans have switched religions at least once, according to the most in-depth survey on the topic, released Monday. And that may still be “a conservative estimate,” says Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Pew’s new survey is based on re-contacting 2,800 people from its U.S. Religious Landscape Survey of 35,000 people, released last year. Pew estimated at the time that about 44% of Americans have changed religions. It now says between 47% and 59% have, if you count the millions who once switched but have returned to their childhood faith.

Key findings:

•The reasons people give for changing their religion — or leaving religion altogether — differ widely: 71% of Catholics and nearly 60% of Protestants who switched didn’t think their spiritual needs were being met, liked another faith more or changed their religious or moral beliefs.

•Most switched…

Isidore of Seville is the Patron Saint of the Internet. Photo courtesy of www.bc.edu

Online conversations are great, but sometimes they’re no substitute for the real thing.

So, in the spirit of real (as opposed to virtual) interaction and engagement, you might want to stop by Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Webster Groves this Sunday for our Adult Forum. The topic? “Faith Online: The Pleasures and Perils of a Religion Blog.” Yup, that’s right, a few of the contributors from Civil Religion will be showing up “live and in person” to talk about the intersection of faith and technology, and more specifically the pros and cons of being a part of what goes on in these pages.

Confirmed panelists include Tim Townsend, religion reporter for the Post-Dispatch and founder of this blog; Travis Scholl, an editor at Concordia Seminary and an ordained Lutheran minister; Khalid Shah, a small business owner and teacher who…

Photo courtesy of the Episcopal School for Ministry

A group of students and friends of the Episcopal School for Ministry gathered at Eden Seminary on April 18 for a lecture entitled “Living the Resurrection” and given by the Rev. Dr. Ralph N. McMichael, Jr., Canon for Ministry Formation in the Diocese and Dean of the School.  I’m including an account of the lecture below, but first a few words about the the Episcopal School for Ministry are in order.  ESM meets monthly on the campus of Eden Seminary in Webster Groves and is still accepting registrations for the summer term, which gets underway properly on May 15 & 16.

This is a school for anyone who understands ministry to be an integral part of life, rather than being exclusively aimed at those whose ministries play themselves out in a professional or institutional capacity.  My experience of the place is that it’s about ministry as discipleship, not ministry as…

People of faith are finally getting their act together and developing a consensus around global warming and other environmental concerns.  It’s no longer a radical-fringe idea that people, individually and collectively, have a moral duty to do all we can to stop destroying our environment.  With all the Earth Day talk going on this week, it might seem like the whole country is on board.  Which is a good thing, right?

But there’s a new twist:  what about when companies try to sell stuff by using Earth Day itself as a marketing tool?  Maybe you’re too sophisticated to fall for that, but what about when the pitch is aimed at preschoolers?

This is the concern behind a recent piece in the Huffington Post, “Marketing Earth Day (and Other Stuff) to Children,” by Susan Linn and Josh Golin of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.  (Sounds quixotic, doesn’t it?  I don’t mean to…

Last year, around the time of Earth Day (April 22), I posted an essay from Concordia Seminary theologian Chuck Arand on the connections between Christian theology and the environment.

Now he’s started his own blog on the subject: Together with All Creatures.

The title quotes from Martin Luther’s Small Catechism: “I believe that God has made me together with all creatures…” As Dr. Arand sees it, this means that we share a common beginning, a common life, and a common future with all of creation.

Just passing it along for those of you who, like me, care about this stuff, i.e. the “stuff” of this earth.

I know all the local sizzle is on the new Archbishop steak. But I can’t help but pass along this Easter-inspired sprint around the globe by a New York Times guest columnist who goes by the one-word name Bono. Above is one choice quote in a column packed full.

Here’s another…

Christianity, it turns out, has a rhythm - and it crescendos this time of year. The rumba of Carnival gives way to the slow march of Lent, then to the staccato hymnals of the Easter parade. From revelry to reverie. After 40 days in the desert, sort of …

Near the end he begins to describe our global crisis as an overheated economic Carnival that has now left us in the Lent of recession. Which actually gives me hope. Because it’s Lent that makes Easter taste so sweet.

Or as the old preacher’s formula goes: “Friday’s here. But Sunday’s coming…”

…

St. Louis Archbishop-elect Robert Carlson addresses the media Tuesday morning.

Some things you didn’t know about St. Louis Archbishop-elect Robert Carlson, whose appointment was announced this morning by the Vatican:

1. By the time he was 16-years-old he’d lived in 13 different houses.
2. He traveled to St. Louis for 1999’s papal visit, but couldn’t get tickets to Pope John Paul II’s Mass at the Cathedral Basilica.
3. Former St. Louis Archbishop John May got him tickets to the 1987 World Series between the Cardinals and the Twins when Carlson was an auxiliary bishop of St. Paul-Minneapolis.
4. He’s interested and involved in ecumenical efforts.
5. As of today, he’s a Cardinals fan. “I know exactly which side of my bread is buttered,” he told the Post-Dispatch after his first press conference. “Though I may have to go to confession for having booed them in the past when they’ve come up to Minnesota.”