Rev. Arnold Conrad's prayer at McCain rally

According to the opening prayer evangelical preacher Arnold Conrad offered at a McCain rally on Oct. 11th, John McCain is God's candidate, and God must "guard his (sic) own reputation" against believers in "other" "gods, like Hindu (sic), Buddah (sic), and Allah" by …

Stanley Hauerwas on having children

"The vacuity of our society is revealed by our inability to come up with a sufficient rationale for having children. About the best we can muster is: 'Children help us to be less lonely.' (Get a dog; children make parents more lonely, not less.) And, 'Children help give …

Howard Zinn on why he's voting for Obama

As you might guess, I love the activist scholarship of Howard Zinn. My first post at Vox Nova was a short one on the family as domestic church, referencing Howard Zinn's view of the power of families to be "pockets of insurrection" in the united states. I thought of …

White privilege

One of my co-bloggers at Vox Nova received this in an email, and I thought I'd post it here:

For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.

* White …

On not reducing the Church's politics to voting

Zach at Civics Geeks criticized Policraticus' recent powerful post explaining why he feels he cannot vote for McCain or Obama, specifically for implying that he will abstain from voting in this election. I'm not sure Policraticus actually says he will abstain, just that …

VP debate on SNL

CA.org in NCR

Thanks to Patrick Gallagher for mentioning CatholicAnarchy.org in a recent article in the National Catholic Reporter! Vox Nova, the group blog to which I contribute, was also mentioned.

McCain-Palin thinking vs. Catholic thinking

Sarah Palin: "Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America -- [Obama's] worried that someone won't read them their rights?"

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: "No human being should be treated as lacking human rights, and we have no …

The contradictions of "redneck rhetoric," or why Palin does not represent "rural culture"

Morning's Minion at Vox Nova is right to contest the rhetoric surrounding Sarah Palin's supposed representation of "normal, white, rural" (er -- "average," whatever word you choose) america from the perspective of those who do not identify with that culture. Such talk …

Amazing: "Jesus Is My Friend"

H/T: David

Palin back to Alaska

Why Palin is the perfect Republican VP choice

The more I think about it, the more I am convinced Gov. Sarah Palin is the perfect Republican VP choice because she has the unique power to expose the complete hypocrisy of the Republican party and right-wing Catholics.

Consider the following statement by a commenter …

Pro-life super mom!

Obama and american exceptionalism

I caught the second half of Obama's speech last night after I arrived back in West Virginia for a long weekend visit. There was certainly much to be impressed with, but theologian James K. A. Smith is right to point out the degree to which Obama's "new politics" …

My first Canadian health care experience

After living in Canada for the past two years, I finally had my first experience personally seeing a doctor (not counting trips with my wife for ultrasounds). Some facts:

Type of condition:

I scheduled my appointment for a non-life threatening condition, the kind of …

The Church and hope

In a discussion that eventually ended up dealing with fascism and the Catholic Church, a fairly well-known (infamous?) ex-Catholic blogger made the following claim punctuated by a personal comment directed to me:

Fascism accusations are a bit strange coming from …

Banjo comic

Transformed by Hope Conference

Ya'll may be interested to know about an exciting conference taking place in Chicago at the CTU and DePaul University at the end of October called "Transformed by Hope: Building a Catholic Social Theology for the Americas." It features sessions with Gustavo Gutierrez, …

"The right to life comes first"

A pet peeve of mine in discussions which attempt to "weigh" various life issues for their relative importance is when people use quotes from authoritative ecclesial sources which state that "the right to life comes first" in order to argue that abortion is "the most …

One down, over 700 to go...

Ecuador has told the Bush administration that it is refusing to renew the lease for the u.s. Air Force at Manta once it expires next year. Let's pray this is the beginning of an anti-imperial trend and that we will soon see the closure of the rest of the 700 or more …