A Roomful of Very Damaged People
A Roomful of Very Damaged People: More of Us Should Say We’re Sorry
Wow! I just experienced the most moving story of forgiveness I think I’ve ever heard (apart from that of Calvary). It takes place in a small roomful of very damaged people. If these people can say they are sorry, can’t we forgive lesser offenses done to us? Would not our lives be more at rest if we did? And kudos must go to the interviewer, who kept probing and got this story out, perhaps despite how she hoped the interview would go. Read more
Smart Power or Wise Power?
Time magazine’s recent cover story on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and “smart power” joins a growing consensus, at home and abroad, that U.S. foreign policy has softened considerably in recent years, therefore the world really ought to once again accept American leadership. But is this shift directed toward increased cooperation for the international common good? Or is it a just kinder, gentler way for America to have its own way in the world?
Read this editorial here
Jesus, Political Wisdom, and Human Flourishing
Is President Obama’s “worldview” Christian? Forget about pointing the finger. How consistently do we ourselves see political life through the eyes of Jesus? How much of our political wisdom, to put it in the words of Colossians 2:8, depends on the basic principles of this world rather than on a philosophy based on Christ? A philosophy based on Christ giving direction to our politics, it seems to me, takes personally very seriously Jesus’ call to shalom. That is the challenge before us. Meeting it may change your political wisdom.
Read this editorial here
American Evangelicals
Many prominent Evangelicals have begun to decry publicly the rigid, sectarian fundamentalism of the religious right and to call for profoundly increased interfaith dialogue and wiser approaches to U.S.-Mideast relations.
First published in the Turkish Daily News, July 7, 2008.
Click here to read the article
Christian Zionism & Foreign Policy: Irony & Tragedy
A news article by Michele Chabin in the December 14, 2010, Christian Century has reinforced my view about the irony & tragedy of the Christian Zionist movement – now well over 100 years old, yet stronger and more influential than ever. Read more
Commanding Nature
Commanding Nature
by Charles Strohmer
The seventeenth century was an extraordinary period in Europe. Changes occurred on the Continent that shoved the entire western world into a different orbit. In a revolt against the prevailing intellectual paradigms of Aristotelianism and Scholasticism, philosophers such as Locke, Descartes, Newton, and Pascal virtually created the modern western mind. Consequently, an epistemology that had stood for centuries fell out of favor and another arose, which shapes the entire western world to this day (despite what our post-modernists are telling us).
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Olympics Take Away
Revisiting East London: On Second Thought
by Charles Strohmer
By the middle of the provocative Opening Ceremony (OC) for the Olympics two weeks ago, I was having a gut reaction and immediately blogged about it, with a provocative title itself: Nightmares in East London. For reasons too obvious to need mentioning, gut reactions should afterward be engaged by the careful thinking of others who are “in the know.” So I hoped get some insider-thoughts from the UK, and I did. If you haven’t read the conversation between “Chris” and “Charles” in that blog, you may want to do that before you go any further into this post. I’m writing this on Sunday, the last day of the Olympics.
One thing I’ve learned is not to blog about an OC in the middle of an OC! In an email from England a week into the Olympics, my friend Carrie commented that it seemed most Brits took a certain pride in confounding people all around the world about the OC, in leaving them wondering what it was all about. To her, “the view of ourselves as ‘eccentric, wacky, slightly weird but creative’ was strengthened as a result of it all.”
On a more serious note, I’ve been reminded that the OC for an Olympics sits within the bigger picture of the entire Olympics, which sits within the yet bigger picture of the host culture. I know quite a bit about this particular host culture from years of personal experience, but not having been there for a few years, I confess to some ignorance of the current ethos. What hosting the Olympics has meant on so many levels to the people of UK is what I missed by not being there.
Nightmares in East London
Opening Olympics Ceremony, Little to Applaud
by Charles Strohmer
Apparently the opening ceremony of the London Olympics is about half over. I’m taking a break from it while the countries file into the stadium. I’m watching this on NBC-TV here in the States. It’s been taped. NBC did not start showing it until 7.30pm, Eastern Time. Earlier today, to get a feel for what the ceremony was like live, I found an interesting piece on ESPN that puffed it pretty well. So with a sense of anticipation I began watching at 7.30, a couple hours ago. I hope when I’m finished here at the keyboard and get back to watching it that I find something to applaud. So far, I have found little. I certainly don’t blame the Brits. England is my home away from home, and I know many very talented artists of all types there. They certainly could have put on an event worth applause. So I guess I’ll blame the guy who’s been called the Olympics mastermind, filmmaker Danny Boyle.
But there’s blame to go around. Let’s start here in the States with Matt Lauer and Meridith Vieira, the two NBC presenters who kept interrupting the art of the ceremony to explain what was going on. Nice going guys! I don’t mind getting the odd clue about art, but don’t tell me what to think about it. Keep your experience to yourself and let me have my own. Next, still in America, we have to stop ever 7, 8, or 9 minutes “for a commercial break” that last 3-4 minutes. Another professional way to showcase the art! Let’s sell cars, hamburgers, and cokes instead. Read more
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