Why is a famous evangelical pastor defending slavery?

Reblogged from Mercy not Sacrifice:

I was recently made aware of a debate going on in the neo-reformed Gospel Coalition corner of the world that I tend to avoid. Doug Wilson, a megachurch pastor from Idaho, argued in his book Black and Tan that the abolitionist movement was wrong and the Civil War should never happened, because if Southern slave-owners had been allowed to implement the Bible's teachings on slavery, then a more humane transition would have taken place through "gospel gradualism." So a Caribbean neo-reformed pastor Thabiti Anyabwile who writes for the Gospel Coalition decided this March to engage him in charitable conversation (summarized by the Wartburg Watch…

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Don’t Believe Easter, Live It

Frankly, I don’t care if you believe Jesus was literally or metaphorically resurrected. And neither does Easter. I find it laughable we try to reduce the power of Easter to a proposition, as if the resurrection could be a prostitute for our petty debates about faith.

A better conversation would involve a discussion about whether Easter is true rather than whether it is historical. Because Easter invites us to so much more. It invites us to live as if death is not.Or perhaps more precisely, it invites us to live as if the power of death, the powers that be, the violence that reigns our world has been broken. And in a world in which death and violence surround us at all times, this takes a prophetic and profound imagination.

Rather than worry whether Jesus literally folded up his bed clothes and walked out of the grave; rather than worry whether Jesus was mystically and metaphorically with the disciples on the road to Emmaus when they broke bread together; rather than worry about our doubt or our inability to believe, perhaps it is finally time to start worrying about what Easter is all about.

Debating Easter’s historicity is a fundamental distraction that prevents Christians from engaging from the terrifying prospect of what Easter means for us.

via Don’t Believe Easter, Live It.

The scumbag brain

Reblogged from Captain's Blog:

Back when I was an undergrad engineer I had a part time job at a brewery.  No, I didn't get more beer than I knew what to do with!  But I still enjoyed the job.  It was physical and I learnt a lot about complex manufacturing systems and real world engineering.  One thing I quickly learnt was that, if you wanted to actually find out why something broke, you had to ask ‘Why’ at least five times. 

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Generation Zero co-founder Kirk A. Serpes on why it's often difficult to create positive social change. Generation Zero is a youth organization on New Zealand university campuses, campaigning for New Zealand's economy to go carbon-neutral by 2050.

Why Google's "War on Easter" is offensively Christlike

Reblogged from Mercy not Sacrifice:

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Today is Easter. It's also Cesar Chavez's birthday. Google decided to put Cesar Chavez's face on its search page today and all hell broke loose among the professional agitators who have made a career out of being offended. So now we have a "war on Easter" in addition to the "war on Christmas." Because curious Google viewers could click on the bio of a…

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CNS STORY: Salvadoran clergy hopeful for canonization of Archbishop Romero

Sunday 24 March marks 33 years since the assassination and martyrdom of Salvadoran Archbishop Óscar Romero. It’s high time that his stand for the poor is honoured at the highest levels in the Roman Catholic Church.

The canonization process for Archbishop Romero began in 1994. The case is being studied by the Vatican’s Congregation for Saints’ Causes.

Msgr. Jesus Delgado also told reporters that in 2007 he spoke with Cardinal Bergoglio, who told him that if he were the pope, the beatification and canonization of the slain archbishop would the first thing he would pursue.

In another meeting in 2010, Msgr. Delgado said Cardinal Bergoglio recalled what he said about Archbishop Romero in 2007, but added that the problem was that he would never become pope.

When Cardinal Bergoglio was elected pope, Msgr. Delgado told local media it was “a wonderful surprise,” and that he thought it was time that Archbishop Romero became a saint.

via CNS STORY: Salvadoran clergy hopeful for canonization of Archbishop Romero.

Victory at Hand for the Climate Movement? – Paul Gilding – Independent writer & advisor on sustainability

It is now realistic to imagine removing the coal, oil and gas industries from the economy in less than 20 years.  Doing so is required if we are to have an 80% or greater likelihood of preventing the climate warming past 2 degrees C, a point past where the system could spin out of control.

What we are now hearing from major international economic institutions is that this is a binary choice. Either this happens or we head for social and economic breakdown. As the World Bank argues, the latter “must not be allowed to occur”.

Timing is the key shift the world needs to make in its thinking – this is no longer about the future, it’s about now. We don’t have 20 years to decide to act; we have 20 years to complete the task. If we follow the science, then in 20 years we must have removed the coal, oil and gas industries from the economy and replaced them.  It’s simple, it’s urgent and perhaps most importantly, it’s now achievable.

via Victory at Hand for the Climate Movement? – Paul Gilding – Independent writer & advisor on sustainability..

left cheek: Robbing Widows Blind

Maybe success should look be assessed on the overall value our work gives to the world - in terms of the worker, her neighbors, the community, the world. In other words, the assessments should be tied to value and worth of the work and the worker (as they relate to the greater good of the world) as a much larger goal, rather than the explicitly limited topic of finances and how much money is generated/saved/returned. For in the former, we value people, we value work, we value life, we value knowledge, we value wisdom, we value relationships and everything that is good which we desire to share with one another. In the latter, money. When our work is tied into such a limited use, our work is of little use – it is stifled. And we, as workers and as beings, are stifled.

via left cheek: Robbing Widows Blind.

The Third World War Rages On (from oil fields to city streets and beyond) By Mickey Z.

All our grief, all our grievances, are connected.

All activism is anti-war activism now. We didn’t declare this war but we must fight it and we must win it.

The 1% and their proxy armies are waging war upon all forms of life, leaving each of us to answer—ASAP—the most fundamental of questions: Which side are you on?

I’ll see you at the barricades, comrades…

#shifthappens

via The Third World War Rages On (from oil fields to city streets and beyond) By Mickey Z..

Daily Kos: CPAC Video: Black guy escorted out by police after White guy screams at him that Race Doesn’t Matter

I disagree with the gentleman who was asked to leave, no ‘outreach’ is [ever] going to work with this broken farce of a GOP. The GOP [cannot] astroturf minorities on stage and think that will win them minority voters in the ballot box because they are still selling them same product Mitt Romney couldn’t sell with all the money in the world behind him, and even if they did, wouldn’t GOP efforts to make voting harder for those same minorities negate that? There is a reason the GOP or CPAC or any of the other wingnut outfits can’t win over anyone other than screaming white guys who cheered George W Bush on and suddenly got pissed off when President Obama was first inaugurated. The incestuous amplification of white Republicans telling white Republicans that race no longer matters only works on white Republicans, the root of the problem is that the entire GOP as a structure is rooted around demonizing everyone who isn’t white or privileged, and that by nature excludes everyone else. I mean, it’s hard to put ‘Mr. Obama is a Kenyan Trump’ on stage and then wonder why you can’t win black people.

via Daily Kos: CPAC Video: Black guy escorted out by police after White guy screams at him that Race Doesn’t Matter.

Pope Francis: New Pope Urges Church To Return To Gospel Roots | Stuff.co.nz

“When we walk without the cross, when we build without the cross and when we proclaim Christ without the cross, we are not disciples of the Lord. We are worldly,” he told the massed ranks of cardinals clad in golden vestments.

“We may be bishops, priests, cardinals, popes, all of this, but we are not disciples of the Lord,” he added.

Earlier, Pope Francis returned briefly to a Rome hostel, where he had left his bags before entering the secret conclave, and insisted on paying the bill.

via Pope Francis: New Pope Urges Church To Return To… | Stuff.co.nz.