One of the significant (and surprising) responses to my recent comments about gun violence has come from persons concerned about abortion. Their concern went something like this: “If you are so agitated about gun violence, why are you not equally adamant about preventing the deaths of thousands of innocent children that occur through abortion?” I am grateful for the question, and in one instance it has resulted in an ongoing conversation with a colleague about abortion as a form of violence.These conversations coincided with an essay about abortion in The Christian Century, a leading journal for mainline church leaders. In “Safe, legal and rare,” the journal’s editors asserted that most Americans are “morally uncertain about abortion.” While granting that absolutists exist on either side of the divide, today — 40 years after Roe v. Wade declared abortion a right — “most people occupy an uneasy (and unspecified) middle ground: they want abortion legal in most cases or illegal in most … [Read more...]
Archives for March 2013
Can we find common ground for our Berthas and their grandchildren?
Exactly 100 years ago this month, two noteworthy items in American Presbyterian history occurred. First, Woodrow Wilson, a Presbyterian elder and son of a pastor, was sworn in as president. Second, my mother — gone now almost 17 years — was born. Well, yes, a lot more people know about the first event than the second, but I mention Mom as a way of asking how we Presbyterians are supposed to honor, care for and respect our senior citizen members while at the same time be bringing into our fold younger members with sometimes radically different needs and interests. Like her Swedish immigrant parents, Bertha Helander became a member of Park Church in Streator, Ill. Later she headed off to the University of Illinois, where, by the time she graduated, she had struck up a lifetime relationship with, of all people, a Methodist, W. H. (Bill) Tammeus. Most of Mom’s church life was spent at First Church in Woodstock, Ill., where she served as an elder (as did Dad), … [Read more...]
A Thicker Jesus: Incarnational Discipleship in a Secular Age
by Glenn Harold StassenWestminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Ky. 256 pagesREVIEWED BY RIDGEWAY ADDISONIn this book, heralded by its publisher as Glenn Stassen’s magnum opus, Stassen argues that a critically refined return to the theo-political life and teachings of Jesus as a “faithful and solid identity for faith and ethics” — or what he terms the path of “incarnational discipleship” — would help third-millennium believers make better lived sense of the origins, challenges and opportunities of “our rapidly changing and interactive age” and the high tide of secularism that is driving it. Stassen devises this “‘thicker’ Jesus” as metaphor for “incarnational discipleship.” He believes that, to authentically live as contemporary disciples, we have to reground our intents and actions and especially our lifestyles in the essentials of the biblical Jesus’ kingdom platform. Stassen identifies the components of that platform as inclusive community, reconciliatory justice and prophetic, … [Read more...]
Excerpt from roundtable interview with Julia Jones (and Booboo Stewart)
Actors in “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn-Part 2” Dallas, Texas, February 28, 2013 Written by Ronald P. Salfen Presbyterian Outlook: You graduated from Columbia University with a degree in English, right? Julia Jones: Yes. PO: You mentioned reading the “Twilight” series books before filming. Did you put on your “critical thinking hat” and say to yourself, “I would have developed this theme differently”? JJ: (laughs) To me, the books required so much of your imagination. They were fun to read, and very different from most of the books I read in school. It’s a phenomenal example of that genre, with that amazing journey that Bella and Edward take (the Kristen Stewart/Robert Pattinson roles). PO: What about the absence of a strictly “good and evil” theme? JJ: That totally shows up. I love that about the books. I think that if we look at things we don’t understand, or perceive as negative, it’s not as black and white as good and evil. There are different stories in there, … [Read more...]
The Spirit-Driven Leader: Seven Keys to Succeeding Under Pressure
by Carnegie Samuel Calian Westminster John Knox Press. Louisville, Ky. 160 Pages Reviewed by Robert K. Hudnut Carnegie Samuel Calian, president emeritus of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, has written a handbook for harried executives. Citing examples from corporations and churches, he marshals his evidence for what makes a good leader. First up is creativity. Only a spiritual framework can best release creativity. Without such a lifestyle, the leader can never be open to the creativity of others, nor can the leader be sufficiently visionary to be creative himself or herself. Second, the leader must be competent. Calian cites the example of Wendy Kopp, founder of Teach for America, whose competence was her “absolute belief that TFA can change the world.” The leader must overcome self-doubt by focusing on his or her strengths. One of those strengths must be the ability to listen. And one of the ones listened to must be God. Calian describes leadership as a calling, … [Read more...]
Film in review: “Snitch”
What dad doesn’t feel guilty about the son with his divorced wife, especially after he remarries and starts a new family? Of course, he wants everybody to be one, big, happy blended family, but it rarely works that way. More often, his son from his first wife gets the leftovers of his time and attention. And if the dad is a busy, hard-driving career man, well, that just makes it all the more difficult, doesn’t it? Dwayne (“The Rock”) Johnson plays John Matthews, a successful businessman who began as a truck driver, and has since parlayed truck ownership into a small fleet, and now presides over a bustling distribution warehouse, as well. He’s preoccupied, but pretty happy with his personal life, with his cute young wife and their adorable little daughter. But trouble looms on his horizon. His son, Jason (Rafi Gavron) is now a senior in high school, and we meet him while he’s talking to his best buddy on Skype. The buddy wants to send him a package. Jason is trying to say “No,” but his … [Read more...]
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