In most cities in the USA, especially in our current economic climate, there are more abandoned housing units then there are homeless. In other words: there is enough housing for everyone. Of course, the red tape and economic structures of our society prevents this solution from becoming a reality. ...
I've posted this same brief post for the past few years around this time, in hopes of drumming up a bit of discussion regarding this national holiday. About five years ago I was reading the paper in a small town in Minnesota. I read an article by Congressman Mark Kennedy ...
(This is the first in a series of posts I'm considering for publication. Please take a minute to read the post and if your willing, leave a comment or use the stars at the bottom right of the article to give it a rating, your input will be extremely helpful. ...
If I ever had the opportunity to preach a sermon, I think this just might be the question I would pose. It really feels to me like money and all the issues surrounding it is the greatest hinderence to our americanized Christianity truly being a radical faith that it was ...
(This is part of my December Experiment series) After a week and a half, one of the realities that has set in is that I simply don't refer to God often enough to even warrant frequent use of pronouns. One area that most church going folks do reference God is ...
This is going to be a thoughtless rant of sorts, so before I launch into it let me preface things first. I used to really enjoy my own personal prayer time (during high school), but in the past several years have had difficulty praying for any sustained amount of time ...
I got a copy of Leadership Magazine in the mail yesterday. I forget why, but it showed up and so I started a quick skim through it. This ad caught my eye. Before I start, let me just say that I am a big fan of Compassion and the ...
There are few forms of discrimination that have as much wide-spread and consistent impact on success then the wage gap. The wage gap references the statistical gap between men and women's pay for equal work. To date, all skills and experience being equal, white women earn 77 cents on the ...
If you haven’t heard, John Piper’s god sent a tornado through downtown Minneapolis last week to tell Lutheran’s not to let gay people become pastors.
Over the last few years, one consistent ‘pastoral’ voice in my life has been the music and lyrics of Derek Webb.
We redeemed food from the excess trash of our consumer culture, and made delicious stews, pastas, and sandwiches. Then, each Sunday, we’d host a party in the park, potluck style, for everyone.
Spurred on by my failure to realize Monday was International Women’s Day, I’ve decided to start a small project to create a significant events calendar. Several years ago I had one of those pocket daily calendars with a random quote on each day, and those 365 calendars with a random fact or puzzle each day where quite popular. My idea back then was to create a similar calendar with historically significant events related to social justice (Juneteenth, end of S. Africa Apartheid, Assassination of Oscar Romero), and have that published …
It’s 10:36pm on March 8th, and I just realized, thanks to my wife pointing it out, that’s it’s International Women’s Day. I’ll blame my own ignorance primarily, but it’s both sad and surprising that in my web browsing and activities of the day I didn’t notice a single recognition of this global celebration of women. I was well aware, thanks to several status updates, that yesterday was the Oscars, and I’ve already been reminded that St. Patty’s day is coming up, so how is it that we as a community …
The Celebrity
Carrie Bloom was used to being a star, it came with the territory. Like others in her profession, her stardom hadn’t diminished over time, if anything, it actually had increased. The truth was, she had always appreciated the perks, it was a reminder to her that what she did was important. It had been her husband, many years ago at the beginning of her career, that had taken a while to come around.
“I’m not saying what you do isn’t important, honestly.” He had said that evening twenty years ago, …
“There is enough for everyone’s need but not enough for everyone’s greed.”
— Mahatma Gandhi
You’ve probably heard this quote before, as have I, but somewhere amidst the recent earthquake, tsunami warnings, or more foreclosures news, the quote hit me afresh. There really is enough.
We as a global society have enough resources to rescue the hundreds and thousands from the rubble of natural disasters. We have enough food to feed every hungry mouth on the planet. We have access and the ability and knowledge to produce medicine and vaccinations to stop preventable …
The videos below are created by famous directors about the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set, in 2000, by the international community (189 countries) to reduce extreme poverty by 2015.
They are interesting and engaging videos, not high speed dramas, but intriguing. The player below (click through the email or RSS to view) has all 8 videos, starting with one about Development.
(By http://www.notimeleft.org)
Even today, over a month later, thousands are in desperate need of help in Haiti. It has been encouraging to see the global community come together in the moment of crisis to help an entire country recover from near total destruction. But this post isn’t about Haiti. It’s not about devastation we saw when Katrina or the Tsunami hit or the carnage of lesser publicized natural disasters in China, Pakistan and Iran over the last several years. This also isn’t about belittling the need in those moments or the compassion …
Q: What thing or area of your life have people told you that you can’t? Has that crippled you from venturing out and making it happen, or have you successfully said, “watch me”?
[photo credit, via]
Derek Webb sang one of the new Caedmon’s Call songs that will be on their upcoming album (which he is producing). I recorded it at the concert on my phone, the audio is surprisingly decent, though the actual video isn’t much to look at.
