Listen to this rhetoric coming from the Republican party re: Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor:
“White man racist nominee would be forced to withdraw. Latina woman racist should also withdraw.” – Newt Gingrich
“a reverse racist” (comparable to KKK leader David Duke) – Rush Limbaugh
“picked because she’s a woman and Hispanic, not because she was the best qualified.” – Curt Levey
“a Latino KKK without the hoods or nooses.” (on National Council of La Raza, the nation’s largest Hispanic advocacy group) – Tom Tancredo(Colo.)
These were in response to Sotomayor’s comment: Read more…
The small town of Tulia, Texas will unfortunately be back in the spotlights soon in infamy – what with the upcoming 10-yr anniversary and the pending movie directed by John Singleton and starring Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry, scheduled for release this year. It’s a convergence point – where politics, nationalism, and drugs combine to rear the ugly head of racism – in an incident where a community unfairly indicted 46 blacks for alleged cocaine distribution – w/ very little due process and with the very spotty testimony of one unrealiable witness – a corrupt bounty hunter of sorts. It’s upsetting to say the least, all the more so as some of these townsfolk claim to be religious, but it’s not my role to re-tell the story.
Any of my friends from TX got the (real) scoop on Tulia?
As per a past post I re-raise this issue where angels fear to tread; well, thank goodness no one reads my blog anyway. Professor of New Testament, Rikk Watts, here @ Regent College has given a chapel lecture titled: “Up Zion’s Hill: Imagining a New Jerusalem” – and I walk away feeling like I missed the punchline – kinda half-full / half-empty – but here’s the synopsis: Read more…
Love him or hate him – he’s important. He’s the new voice of evangelicalism, and while he may not have received the warmest reception from the chilly crowd in DC, he is going to be the next Billy Graham advising presidents and world leaders. He’s in a caliber of his own. So here I’ve transcribed the text of his invocation – it’s choppy – so feel free to correct – but what did u think of his invocation? Read more…
Here’s a classic case of job mismatch.
Since I’m on this vocatio thread and will be talking through Ecclesiastes this Sunday, how apt to have this perfect example of vocational mismatch – Joe, I implore you! Proceed no further! You are setting yourself up! We (the public) really care about u dude, and it makes our eyes itch to watch you stepping on your own verbal land mines… please stop here before you hurt yourself! See Joe the Plumber endorses the Israeli occupation. CNN writes a masterpiece of understatement and editorial satire: Read more…
It’s the end of an era.
And now with just 1 week left to clean up shop, take his box, clean out his locker – u know what I mean – here’s a list of the top 10 things Bush has to do in his last week of office:
- Take another 5 days off.
- Pick up the shoes.
- Pray that the dow won’t end too well on his last day in office (hooray! Let’s all go eat steak!)
- Finish off with some good strategerisms.
Apparently he’s in the news again, with rumors of making some kind of comeback via documentaries. While the past few years have been rough on him – some say the homosexual-bashing conservative evangelical deserved it – I don’t see what he’s trying to accomplish with a public statement – perhaps some vindication. You gotta feel bad for the guy – his life, vocation, future, promise, career, possibly family life – all destroyed. As a pastor myself I am sad for him, but at the same time I don’t know why he’s trying to get in the spotlight again – no one ever really recovers from these things. But the real question is – how did this ever even happen in the first place? Did he have any accountability or any confessor at all? Was he alone in his struggles? And how much imbalance did he have in his life to get to the point where he was using crystal meth and seeking out prostitutes? I know first-hand the hardships of pastoral ministry – but someone tell me -
how does somebody get like that?
While Rick Warren has no problem making headlines, I think Obama’s recent selection of Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration is going to propel Warren even more into the spotlight and a really important position, more than ever before. Love him or hate him – he’s going to be an important figure. Here’s why. Read more…
It seems every week there’s another piece of below-the-belt politics, whether it’s waffles, calling someone a terrorist, or the most recent $10 bill depiction replete with fried chicken, watermelon and food stamps.
While I’m not out to rant, (there’s plenty of that going around) it’s clear from all of this there are sizeable segments of the U.S. population that don’t realize it; they are racist. Whether it’s intentional or out of ignorance (“I have minority friends!”) is not for me to call out, but the real question is, how do we address it? More specifically, how do we fix it, heal it? Do we as minorities lash out / lash back? Read more…
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