Cheney, Appalachian humor, and American imperial logic

Dick "Don't Let the Door Hit Ya" Cheney made headlines yesterday after he made a joke at the expense of West Virginians in front of the National Press Club, a joke centering around the oh-so original image of Appalachian incest. West Virginia's Democratic governor Joe …

Iraq's death toll may be 'above highest estimates'

From the Inter Press Service:

The real number of the dead is far higher than even the highest declared in death tolls, many Iraqis say.

A study by doctors from the Johns Hopkins School of Health in conjunction with Iraqi doctors from al-Mustanceriya University in …

Don't stay out of politics, Father!

An accusation that we see thrown around a lot, especially around election time, is the charge that Father So-and-So is "being too political," and that he should "stay out of politics." The charge is made from either side of the aisle, sometimes directed toward priests …

The Kings and Their Gods

My rating: 4 out of 5

Although still active in the Plowshares Movement and protests against the U.S.-led war in Iraq, legendary American Jesuit peace activist and poet Daniel Berrigan places his body on the line with less regularity these …

Sharing the Burden of Ecclesial Sin: Rahner on the Sinfulness of the Church (Part 6 of 6)

Conclusions

The relationship between the sinfulness and the holiness of the Church has been both a theological problem as well as a practical source of scandal in the life of the Church. Triumphalist approaches to ecclesiology tend to solve the problem by denying the …

Theology and the political imagination

[My aim is] to put theology into conversation with political theory in an attempt to expand our current political and pluralist imagination. Political theory is nothing if not an exercise of imagination, offering new or different pictures of collective life in the hopes …

Memorial Day

New readers may find my thoughts on memorial day in a piece from last year:

Memorial Day and the Religious Syncretism of the State

Naomi Klein on writing for social change

Sharing the Burden of Ecclesial Sin: Rahner on the Sinfulness of the Church (Part 5 of 6)

Ecclesial sin and the task of witness

Yet there remains a nagging question, a question that may get to the heart of why the Church has throughout its history been so concerned about removing sinners from its ranks. The Church has always had a sense that part of its …

Sharing the Burden of Ecclesial Sin: Rahner on the Sinfulness of the Church (Part 4 of 6)

Bearing with the sin of the Church

Ever pastorally-minded, Rahner comments as well on the way the sinfulness of the Church can be a scandal to the Church's members, making ecclesial faith difficult. In the face of ecclesial sin, the members of the Church are often …

Sharing the Burden of Ecclesial Sin: Rahner on the Sinfulness of the Church (Part 3 of 6)

The Church of sinners and the sinfulness of the Church

It is from the hints present in the texts of Vatican II that Rahner fleshes out his own description of the theological significance of the sinfulness of the Church in more detail. In particular, he elaborates on …

Sharing the Burden of Ecclesial Sin: Rahner on the Sinfulness of the Church (Part 2 of 6)

Ecclesial sin as implied in the documents of Vatican II

Rahner's view on the sinfulness of the Church takes its cue from the documents of the Second Vatican Council which recover neglected aspects of the Church's ecclesiology, particularly the insight that the Church …

Bonnie update

I cannot find a record store in Toronto that actually has the new Bonnie "Prince" Billy CD. What's going on? Whose fault is it? Victoria Day, or Drag City?

I did locate a blog post about Will Oldham's visit to Appalshop Archive in 2005. Pretty cool.

Sharing the Burden of Ecclesial Sin: Rahner on the Sinfulness of the Church (Part 1 of 6)

The extent to which the Church can be called "sinful" in its collective dimension remains a debated question in both Roman Catholic and ecumenical ecclesiologies. The Roman Catholic Church has traditionally been hesitant to state on an official level that the sin of the …

Bonnie

Ooops, I nearly forgot that Bonnie Billy provides us with a new full-length record (somewhat of a surprise) starting tomorrow.

Andrea Smith on rethinking the "givenness of the united states"

"[S]ocial justice activists as well as U.S.-based liberation theologians often criticize U.S. policies, but they do not critically interrogate the contradictions between the United States articulating itself as a democratic country, on the one hand, while simultaneously …

Movie meme

David (who has a great blog) tagged me for this movie meme, so here we go:

1. One movie that made you laugh:

Recently, The Darjeeling Limited.

2. One movie that made you cry:

A lot of movies have almost made me cry, but I can't think of one that actually did, off …

Publish Yourself / Vox Pop

Check out a WNBC (New York City) video report on my anarchist Catholic bud Sander Hicks' Publish Yourself and Vox Pop shops in Brooklyn.

A couple years ago, Sander and I started an email conversation/interview to share on CatholicAnarchy.org, but we never got around …

Religious intolerance in the military

Robyn Blumner of the Salt Lake Tribune contributes a great piece on religious intolerance in the u.s. military, namely the harassment of atheist soldiers by Christian ones:

[Army Spc. Jeremy]Hall, 23, served two combat tours in Iraq, winning the Combat Action Badge. …

Daniel Berrigan, SJ on wartime Christian identity

"Does war alter our 'grammar of assent'?

In times of peace, do we see ourselves as Christians (a solid, sure noun) who happen to be American (adjective, of secondary import)? Which is to suggest: we could be Christians who 'happen to be' Afghan or Iraqi. An alteration …