Author Anne Lamott, one of our favorite Jesus-loving subversives, recently delivered the undergraduate and interdisciplinary studies commencement address at the University of California at Berkeley.
Lamott's funny, irreverent, and yes, profound, words of wisdom for the Berkeley graduates included the following, about what she thinks the "truth of their spiritual identity" might be:
Actually, I don’t have a clue.
I do know you are not what you look like, or how much you weigh, or how you did in school, and whether you get to start a job next Monday or not. Spirit isn’t what you do, it’s … well, again, I don’t actually know. They probably taught this junior year at Goucher. But I know that you feel it best when you’re not doing much — when you’re in nature, when you’ve very quiet, or, paradoxically, listening to music....
Mrs. Doubtfire imagined as a horror film -- the best of Fred Armisan on Portlandia -- Regina Spektor visits Colbert -- stream the Bonnaroo Music Festival all weekend -- the history of video games -- living paintings from DC artist -- chaos theory and Muppets -- Bill Murray's hologram plays the banjo on David Letterman -- and friend-of-Sojourners Jason Harrod records a new version of "This Land is Your Land." See these and more in today's Links of Awesomeness...
Those cheeky Canadian Christians are at it again!
In its summer issue, Geez Magazine sends a reporter under cover on a Caribbean cruise for "Christian singles." Hilarity (and outrage) ensues.
Earlier this year, Geez — with its tagline "holy mischief in an age of fast faith" — dipsatched their reporter to take a five-day luxury cruise in the Caribbean, the "Christian Singles Valentine's Day Cruise," promoted by AllChristianCruises.com.
With tape recorder in hand and cameraman in tow, Lyndon Froese, a 26-year-old single guy from Manitoba with "Mennonite roots" (who considers himself only quasi-Christian these days), drove from Canada to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and hopped aboard the Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas in search of a story about "the underbelly of the Christian leisure industry."
Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel offers his thought on the Syrian crisis in The Washington Post:
Author Jonathan Merritt sets our the seven reasons why Christians should "change their political tune":
Aristotle is credited with saying, "Change in all things is sweet." And perhaps no change of late is as sweet as that among young Christians in the public square. While the last several decades of Christian engagement have often been marked by partisan tactics and a polemical tone, a new generation is changing its political tune. These individuals aren't leaving the public square altogether, but they are looking for less divisive and less partisan ways to engage. They want to follow Jesus without fighting the culture wars.
Read the full list here
For Talking Points Memo, Eric Lach reports on the 'progress' of the North Carolina bill that restricts state agencies’ ability to take global warming into account when making sea-level rise projections:
The language in the bill was toned down from the version that had been circulating — the original version of the bill stated starkly that rates of sea-level rise could use only historical data, extrapolated linearly, despite the fact that most scientists expect sea-levels to rise faster over the next century as a result of global warming — but the version of the bill approved Thursday still contains the following language:
[Rates of sea-level rise] shall be determined using statistically significant, peer-reviewed historical data generated using generally accepted scientific and statistical techniques. Historic rates of sea-level rise may be extrapolated to estimate future rates of rise but shall not include scenarios of accelerated rates of sea-level rise unless such rates are from statistically significant, peer-reviewed data and are consistent with historic trends.
Writing for The Daily Beast, Barbie Latza Nadeau and Jesse Ellison examine the rift between nuns across the world:
In the U.S., where the number of religious sisters has dwindled from 179,954 to 57,544 in the past half century, the controversy cuts to the heart of what it means to be a nun. To many non-Catholics, nuns conjure up a vision of the ladies from The Sound of Music. To Catholics, they can be anything from the no-nonsense school teachers who rapped their knuckles during Catechism class to hospital workers who pray at the bedsides of the dying.
Read the full article here
As relations between the U.S. and Pakistan continue to deteriorate, the Obama administration has decided the solution is … more drone attacks.
"Expressing both public and private frustration with Pakistan, the Obama administration has unleashed the CIA to resume an aggressive campaign of drone strikes in Pakistani territory over the last few weeks, approving strikes that might have been vetoed in the past for fear of angering Islamabad."
Seems to me that killing more people in Pakistan is probably not the best way to improve relations.
"Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain." - 1 Corinthians 15:58