Tensegrities

Does it make more sense for me to “call” Rev. Wright on some of his more bizarre statements, or is it perhaps more important — and appropriate — for me, as a white feminist, to point to the ways in which Hillary Clinton is using race in this election? I think the latter, and Betsy Reed does an eloquent job of pointing out why.

I’m excited! A book that I edited along with Peter Horsfield and Adán Medrano has just come out in a Spanish-language edition, from the Universidad Iberoamerica Press. The book is Medios y Creencias: Perspectivas Culturales del Cristianismo en el Entorno Mediático, and Juan Carlos Henriquez and Elvira Maldonado were instrumental in getting it out. NOW I suspect there will be some fun conversation, since the book (when it came out in English) stayed pretty much in academic libraries. This version may well do so, too, but I at least have some hope that it will garner more conversation.

Can you tell that I’ve got writing to finish? (hence the procrastination of blogging…) Thanks to AKMA for the link to SongMeanings, a site where you can contribute your own “gloss” to hundreds of songs, and read what other people make of/make with pop songs.

Why we need more time for play in our lives.

Here’s a great free handbook on how to reach young voters — and of course, much of the advice is relevant more generally, in reaching out to young people. Points like “talk about relevant issues,” “reduce the rhetoric,” “be real,” “treat them with respect,” and “just do it.” Imagine what could happen if we followed this advice in communities of faith!

Ok, I have been trying very hard not to post negative-Hillary things. But I’m so fed up with this ridiculous notion of a federal “gas tax” holiday, that I have to link to at least a few pieces. First, this Tom Friedman op-ed which appeared several places (today in the Star Tribune, but they can’t post it online). And second, this analysis of what’s really wrong with Hillary’s political posturing.

From Friedman:

Hillary Clinton has decided to line up with John McCain in pushing to suspend the federal excise tax on gasoline, 18.4 cents a gallon, for this summer’s travel season. This is not an energy policy. This is money laundering: we borrow money from China and ship it to Saudi Arabia and take a little cut for ourselves as it goes through our gas tanks. What a way to build our country.

When the summer is over, we will have increased our debt to China, increased our transfer of wealth to Saudi Arabia and increased our contribution to global warming for our kids to inherit.

No, no, no, we’ll just get the money by taxing Big Oil, says Mrs. Clinton. Even if you could do that, what a terrible way to spend precious tax dollars — burning it up on the way to the beach rather than on innovation?

The McCain-Clinton gas holiday proposal is a perfect example of what energy expert Peter Schwartz of Global Business Network describes as the true American energy policy today: “Maximize demand, minimize supply and buy the rest from the people who hate us the most.”

The MPR show Speaking of Faith has a neat page up, with a google map linked to people’s stories about being Catholic. I think it’s a wonderful way to invite people into the rich and diverse community of Catholicism.

Check out this article — I’m glad to know that team sports can still lead people to care!

It’s always nice to be reminded that Martin Luther said some of these things way back in the distant past:

“[20] Ebeling indicates that various levels of relationship constitute human identity for Luther: We are always, even right now, four things: coram Deo (in relationship to God), coram mundo (in relationship to the world, which here means the concrete physical world of existence), coram hominibus (in relationship to other people), and coram meipso (in relationship to ourselves). These relationships are all constitutive of human life. In a 1999 article, Marty Stortz describes baptism as the key sacramental indication that relationship defines the Christian life.[15] In baptism, we can see all of these relationships at work: God’s grace is present, the world is actively present in the living water, other people are witnesses and supporters, and the self is newly defined. Human life is coram.”