In this clever mashup, the POTUS gives a new take on Carly Rae Jespen's radio hit "Call Me Maybe." While it may not be as endearing as his rendition of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together," it still gives us something to smile at until the next musical tribute.
ATHENS, Ala. — Black and white. Heaven and hell. Right and wrong.
Blur or question those lines, and, well, all hell can break out.
At least it did for Edward Fudge in the early 1980s in in this small northern Alabama hamlet.
Fudge was a young preacher who also worked in his father's publishing company. When he began to teach a doctrine of hell that contradicted the traditional view of a place of eternal fiery torment for the damned, a quick succession of events cost him his job and his pulpit.
A new film, Hell and Mr. Fudge, compresses the events of the years when Fudge, now a Houston-based lawyer and internationally known Bible teacher and author, began an intensive study of the Bible and the doctrine of hell. What he found made him question one of the bedrock doctrines of Christianity.
My eyes locked with those of the priest just as his right hand, gripping the aspergillum, went back (in a wind-up that would impress many baseball enthusiasts) and then forward, sending a shower of water across my face and torso.
While I wiped water from the bridge of my nose, we both laughed and I could see the jolly Irish priest’s arm go back once again as he prepared to douse the people seated in the pew behind mine.
So began the annual Blessing of the Artists in Laguna Beach, the sleepy seaside village where I live in southern California. Blessing the artists is a community tradition that goes back almost 15 years, begun at the behest of the artists themselves. The ritual is held the first week in June, in advance of the opening of the Sawdust Festival and the Festival of the Arts, art exhibitions held here each summer and populated largely by artists and artisans from the town itself.
What is a climate orphan? Why is the term “fossil fuels” misleading? What do knives have to do with air pollution and valuing our children? How can addressing climate change be 100 percent compatible with Christian values? Why should we care?
These questions and many others were part of a national conference call on creation care and climate change recently hosted by Sojourners. A handful of our nation’s leading creation care voices came together to discuss how they answer tough questions and effectively communicate their faith and commitment to climate justice.
The speakers included:
Rev. Mitch Hescox, President & CEO of the Evangelical Environmental Network; contributor, Sacred Acts: How Churches are working together to Protect Earth’s Climate.
Rev. Sarah Scherschligt, Associate Pastor, Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Gaithersburg, MD; author, http://thebarefootpastor.blogspot.com/; Founder and leader of the Creation Care Team for the Metropolitan Washington DC Synod of the Lutheran Church (ELCA).
Katharine Hayhoe, Director of Climate Science Center and Associate Professor at Texas Tech University; co-author, A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions.
Calvin B. DeWitt, Professor, Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin – Madison; author, Earthwise and Song of a Scientist: The Harmony of God-Soaked Creation
Listen to their presentations.
What matters is human ingenuity. Allow people a window of freedom, and they will fly through it.
They will buy millions of tablet computers as escape from cramped airplane seating and being tethered to desktops. They will create homegrown social networks when Facebook goes weird with their privacy. They will abandon overpriced private colleges, avoid uninspiring suburban housing, and seek investments other than the rigged game of common stocks.
If venture capitalists exact too high a price for startup funding, entrepreneurs will turn to crowd-sourcing. While civic leaders chase yesteryear solutions like industrial parks, real job creators set up shop any old place and work around stuck politicians.
In my work with mainline Protestant churches -- perhaps the most "stuck" of any enterprise -- I see two tracks diverging.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. --- Andrew Hamblin's Facebook page is filled with snippets of his life.
Making a late-night run to Taco Bell. Watching SpongeBob on the couch with his kids. Handling rattlesnakes in church.
Hamblin, 21, pastor of Tabernacle Church of God in LaFollette, Tenn., is part of a new generation of serpent-handling Christians who are revitalizing a century-old faith tradition in Tennessee.
While older serpent handlers were wary of outsiders, these younger believers welcome visitors and use Facebook to promote their often misunderstood — and illegal — version of Christianity. They want to show the beauty and power of their extreme form of spirituality. And they hope eventually to reverse a state ban on handling snakes in church.
An award winning new short starring Kevin Spacey -- the most extroverted city in the U.S. -- Wilco releases free e-book -- The Daily Show's coverage of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee -- Jason Schwartzman and Jimmy Fallon's ode to a pepper. See these and more in today's Links of Awesomeness...
Following three U.S. drone strikes in the past three days, the government of Pakistan is not happy, and it has made it officially known.
"Pakistan's foreign ministry summoned Washington's deputy ambassador to Islamabad, Richard Hoagland, to "officially convey the government's serious concern regarding drone attacks in Pakistani territory". A statement repeated the stance that drone strikes were "unlawful, against international law and a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty.""
Meanwhile, U.S. officials claim to have confirmed that Monday’s strike killed the #2 leader of Al Qaeda, known as Abu Yahya al-Libi, along with 15 other people. News reports say that
"Abu Yahya was among al Qaeda's most experienced and versatile leaders - operational trainer and Central Shura head - and played a critical role in the group's planning against the West, providing oversight of the external operations efforts," one official said."
It seems the Sisters of North America are calling the Vatican out. When criticized by Vatican officials for taking a position too far left of center on a number of social issues, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious responded by calling the Vatican’s criticisms unsubstantiated and flawed.
But the rhetoric didn’t stay at the topical level. LCWR president Theresa Kane said (according to a Huffington Post report), "It is a matter of the men in the Vatican still thinking they can control the women. ... They don’t realize that we have moved to another whole point of tremendous equality and mutuality. And that we have much to say about our future and what’s going on.”
The Catholic Church, and the Pope in particular, embrace a number of socially redeeming virtues; equality and mutuality between the genders are not two of them.
Lord, help us assemble ourselves before you today through our acts of peace and reconciliation with neighbors near and far. Help us to teach the children in our communities what it means to be children of a God who loves us like a mother. Amen. From Common Prayer