“People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone.”
~Audrey Hepburn~

This election season has given rise to language that has been especially vitriol. And I am not taking about the conversation between the candidates, but between groups of neighbors, colleagues, church members, friends, family and acquaintances.

The presidential candidates during the most recent debate noted the heated climate, each candidate arguing whether their leadership in their respective parties has been enough to bring about civil dialogue amongst their supporters. 

Yesterday, while eating my bagel at The St. Louis Bread Company, I overheard the conversation between two men. I won’t say who they are supporting for U.S president — that is beside the point I am making here –  but they called those who were against their chosen candidate racist and hate mongers. Since the country is nearly divided on the issues and presidential candidates, I wondered if these men realized that they just wrote-off…

Senator Barack Obama (AP photo)

I was on the website for Sojourners magazine when I saw this article about an effigy of Barack Obama having been found hanging from a tree at George Fox University. The story has also been covered by The Oregonian and other news outlets.

Maybe it doesn’t matter that it happened at a Christian university, since we don’t know and might never know who did it. Maybe it was students there, maybe it was outsiders trying to stir up a ruckus. (*See note below.)

But surely the choice of an avowedly Christian campus as the setting for this despicable stunt was intentional, if only to add to the shock value.

I’ve already seen some comments that suggest this is no big deal, that people really need to chill out and recognize that there’s a big difference between hanging a cardboard cutout from a tree and harming a real live human being. But…

A major and an unusual event took place earlier today uniting people from ALL major religions of the world. Look at this list of diverse nations that agreed on that one thing: US (Western Christianity), Russia (Eastern Christianity), China (Buddhism/atheism), India (Hinduism), Pakistan (Islam), and Israel (Judaism). Any lucky guesses what brought the disparate parties together?

Sorry ladies and gentlemen. I am not talking about prospects of world peace, abolition of poverty or God revealing Himself to all humanity. I am talking about little flying things that go by the ‘cute’ name of bomblets.

I know this is not a political blog but the list of those countries, covering all major world belief systems, uniting behind anything makes religion somehow come to my mind.

Some of you may know by now that earlier on Wednesday, 111 nations have approved in Dublin a treaty banning the use, manufacturing, distribution, and selling of cluster bombs. These…

I recently ran across this historical reminder from theologian Jürgen Moltmann’s classic The Crucified God, and it struck a chord in light of current events:

The early Christians had constantly to defend themselves against the charge of irreligiositas and sacrilegium. In so far as they refused to make the obligatory sacrifices to the gods of the Roman state they drew on themselves the charge of ‘atheism’. This was not meant merely as an abusive description of Christians, but was a formal accusation which resulted in exclusion from society as ‘enemies of the human race’. Justin readily admitted his Christian atheism, which consisted of a denial of the gods of the state, and with regard to these ’so-called gods’ confessed himself to be an ‘atheist.’

The pseudo-criminal charge of atheism was part and parcel of the sporadic persecution of the early church in Roman society, resulting in martyrdom for even the “atheist” Justin Martyr.

Reading this…

A reader (Centrist) commented on my first posting asking 2 questions. I answered the first question last week. The second question was as follows:

“… why do Muslims vote Democrat. The Democrats support abortion on demand and gay marriage, two things that the Muslim religion is so opposed to.”

I do not know how accurate it is to generalize in absolute terms that Muslims vote Democrat. But judging from my immediate circles, I would say a lot of them vote that way. I am aware of at least few Muslims that are hard-core republicans who are active in the party, and are fund raising for it. I admit, they are in the minority among the Muslims I know. As for those Muslims who vote Democrat, they do it for predominantly the same reasons that non-Muslim vote Democrat.

Social justice and collective social responsibility has been a pillar concept of the Muslim community since the birth…