The Common Good

God's Politics Blog

Mark Driscoll: Gas-Guzzlers a Mark of Masculinity

by Russ Pier­son, John Roe 05-09-2013
Mark Driscoll, Photo by James Gordon, Flickr.
Mark Driscoll, Photo by James Gordon, Flickr.

One of us was in Seattle this past weekend to speak at a meeting of biblical scholars. The subject:Evangelicals and the Environment. Seattle was stunningly beautiful, with ample sunshine, clear skies, and an occasional happy breeze. Having grown up in nearby Tacoma, seeing majestic Mount Rainier for the first time in a long while brought back memories of this silent guardian from childhood.

Alas, while it was sunny in Seattle, it was theologically cloudy in Dallas, where one of Seattle's famous residents — young, hip pastor, Mark Driscoll — was speaking at a major evangelical conference: Catalyst. By many accounts on Twitter and in the blogosphere (see Nate Pyle's blog), Driscoll said:

"I know who made the environment. He's coming back and he's going to burn it all up. So yes, I drive an SUV."

And after presenting his driving credentials, Rev. Driscoll reportedly added:

"If you drive a mini-van, you're a mini-man."

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WATCH: Would Putting Me in Prison Serve the Common Good?

by Jim Wallis 05-09-2013
Screenshot from Beyond Bars' Common Good Video
Screenshot from Beyond Bars' Common Good Video

The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world — about 1.6 million people in 2010. Mass incarceration in our country is a problem, one that too often serves to line the pockets of for-profit prisons while tearing families apart and targeting people of color disproportionately. 

Beyond Bars — a project to curb mass incarceration in the U.S. — produced the following video that puts faces to that problem. Watch the moving video below, and ask yourself the question: would putting them in prison serve the common good?

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1 in 10 Los Angeles Residents Are Undocumented

by QR Blog Editor 05-09-2013
The study estimated that 7 percent of California residents were undocumented. In Los Angeles County the number jumped to 10 percent.
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Ending Extreme Poverty in Three Charts

by QR Blog Editor 05-09-2013
The Brookings Institute recenlty released a report about the prospects of ending extreme poverty (living on less than $1.25 a day) by 2030. The study found economic progress of a country and income equality as two determining factors in reducing poverty.
+Leave a Comment | Economic Justice

WATCH: Live Webcast of Immigration Hearing

by QR Blog Editor 05-09-2013
The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing at 9:30 a.m. to discuss the Gang of 8 immigration bill (S. 744). Aides say the hearing will focus on amendments to the bill that address border security.
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U.S. Anti-Abortion Leaders Join Rome’s March for Life

by Alessandro Speciale 05-09-2013
Jeanne Monahan, new president of March for Life. RNS photo by Adelle Banks.
Jeanne Monahan, new president of March for Life. RNS photo by Adelle Banks.

American anti-abortion leaders will be in Rome on Sunday to participate in Italy’s third March for Life and lend their expertise to the nation’s small anti-abortion movement as it tries to learn from its American counterpart.

Jeanne Monahan, president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, and Lila Rose of Live Action will be among those who will march through central Rome on Sunday morning, from the Colosseum up to Castel Sant’Angelo, a few hundred meters from the Vatican.

While the annual March for Life in Washington — which celebrated its 40th anniversary in January — attracts hundreds of thousands of people and heavy media coverage, in Europe anti-abortion movements have often kept a lower profile and haven’t been able to shape social discourse as in the United States.

Polls regularly show high levels of support for abortion rights throughout Europe. A January poll by Eurispes found that 64 percent of Italians favor legalizing abortion pills.

In Italy, abortion is currently legal in hospitals up to the third month of pregnancy.

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Where Are the Christians on Burying Tsarnaev?

by G. Jeffrey MacDonald 05-09-2013
FBI image of Tamerlan Tsarnaev
FBI image of Tamerlan Tsarnaev

Soon after the Boston Marathon bombings, local Christian leaders stepped swiftly into the public eye, convening vigils and urging peaceful healing in the wake of senseless violence.

But their public voices have fallen mostly silent as noisy resistance grows to the prospect that suspected bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev could be buried in local soil.

Cemeteries and even some mosques have refused to take his body. His city, Cambridge, has urged family members to bury him elsewhere. Republican U.S. Senate candidate Gabriel Gomez and local talk radio host Dan Rae want him dumped in the ocean, like Osama bin Laden. Clergy have largely kept mum.

“The only signs of people who are showing some sort of moral conscience are those few who stand with a card near the funeral home saying [burial] is a corporal work of mercy,” said James Keenan, a moral theologian at Boston College. “To say, ‘we won’t bury him’ makes us barbaric. It takes away mercy, the trademark of Christians. … I’m talking about this because somebody should.”

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‘What Is Going On with Men?’ TEDx Speaker Urges Fellow Men to Speak Out Against Sexual Abuse

by Catherine Woodiwiss 05-08-2013
Jackson Katz speaks out on domestic violence at TEDx. Video still.

Who is missing from the slew of headlines this week on kidnappings, gender-based violence, and victims' paths to healing? The perpetrators themselves.

Which is why this TEDx video is a must-see.

“Gender violence issues have been seen as 'women’s issues' that some good men help out with,” Jackson Katz, PhD, Founder and Director at MVP Strategies, says in the video. “I have a problem with that frame, and I don’t accept it. It gives men an excuse to not pay attention."

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Stornoway: Hopeful and Honest

by Brandon Hook 05-08-2013
Photo courtesy of Stornoway
Stornoway deliver with hopeful songs about life, love, and everything in between. Photo courtesy of Stornoway

I first got wind of Stornoway back in 2011 when Izzy Westbury was president of the Oxford Union during the Michaelmas term of 2011 at Oxford University while studying abroad. The group of Oxford natives were Izzy’s favorite band at the time, and she made sure to give them a chance to play that I regretfully passed up to grab a pint with some friends.

So when the opportunity arose to see Stornoway in Washington, D.C., envelope myself in Oxford nostalgia, and enjoy some good tunes, I couldn’t pass it up.

And Stornoway delivered with hopeful, honest songs about life, love, and everything in between. Delightful is probably the best word to describe their music and the experience of seeing them live. It’s like taking a deep, refreshing breath. The British quartet mix elements of beach boys-esque pop with fleet foxes’ harmonies and a low fi, organic feel.

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U.S. Emissions Proposal Could Energize UN Climate Negotiations

by QR Blog Editor 05-08-2013
The U.S. climate change envoy proposed allowing countries to create their emissions reduction plans rather than working toward one goal.
+Leave a Comment | Creation Care