In an interview, she said the idea of an author whose singular effort creates an original work is rooted in Enlightenment ideas of the individual. It is buttressed by the Western concept of intellectual property rights as secured by copyright law. But both traditions are being challenged.
from Lines on Plagiarism Blur for Students in the Digital Age – NYTimes.com via Hamma Library.
Whatever backlash Anne Rice might eventually receive from her Christian readers, or from the Evangelical establishment itself, the undeniable fact is that the decision of this sensitive, passionate, and devout woman to leave Christianity is one that Christ himself would likely understand, even applaud, even as He would likely weep at the holocaust of hatred, bigotry, and collateral carnage that has devolved from the grimy, shopworn religion to which His glorious name has been affixed.
via Michael Rowe: Why Anne Rice Has Never Been More of a Christian.
Í ágætu trúarljóði er sagt: “Afsakanir æði margar er mér tamt að tína til, en orsökin er afarljós, sú ein að ég ei vil.” Eftir að hafa skoðað þær röksemdir sem voru bornar á borð af fulltrúum flestra ríkustu þjóða heims í tengslum við ályktun um réttindi til vatns er kýrskírt að ástæða hjásetunnar er afarljós. Þörf vestræna landa fyrir að móta ákvarðanir um þetta efni eftir sínu höfði. Continue reading “Af hverju drekka þau ekki bara kók?”
Sú ákvörðun Íslands að sitja hjá við afgreiðslu samþykktar Sameinuðu þjóðanna um rétt til aðgangs að hreinu vatni er sorgleg og þjóð minni til minnkunar. Ákvörðun nokkurra ríkustu þjóða heimsins að sitja hjá, byggir á engu öðru en græðgi og voninni um að geta grætt á neyð þeirra sem verr standa. Mikil er skömm okkar.
Óformleg samfélagshlutverk hennar eru aftur á móti mörg, þau standa öllum til boða og eru endurgjaldslaus: Þjóðkirkjan rekur öflugt barna- og unglingastarf með tvímælalaust forvarnargildi. Með sálgæslu býður hún upp á stuðningsþjónustu fyrir þau sem glíma við lífsvanda af ýmsu tagi. Með kærleiksþjónustu (díakóníu) hefur hún á síðustu áratugum veitt þeim sem standa höllum fæti aukinn félagslegan stuðning. Með innanlandsaðstoð Hjálparstarfs kirkjunnar hefur hún byggt upp vaxandi efnahagsaðstoð við þau sem búa við skort. Í helgihaldi býður hún öllum sem þiggja vilja griðarstað og griðarstund í stríðum straumi áreita og krafna daglegs lífs. Þetta eru allt gild rök fyrir þjóðkirkjuskipan. #
Í annars góðri grein Hjalta Hugasonar um Ríki, samfélag, þjóð og þjóðkirkju bendir hann á ofangreint sem helstu rökin fyrir þjóðkirkjuskipaninni. Þessi rök eru hins vegar meingölluð, því það sem hann nefnir er einfaldlega það sem trúfélög um allan heim (og ekki einvörðungu kristin) bjóða náunga sínum, og það án stjórnarskrárverndar. Reyndar er þessi þjónusta alls ekki bundin við trúfélög.
Þess utan er það fremur vondur vitnisburður um kirkjuna ef hugmyndin um þjónustu við náungann þarf að tengjast á einhvern hátt stöðu kirkjunnar gagnvart ríkinu.
Nice is not a Christian virtue.
Brad Binau in Care of Souls class.
As I looked through my stuff, there are lot of interesting things that might as well go here on ispeculate.net. When taking a class about Urban Ministry in Detroit, I attended few lectures by Dr. James W. (Jim) Perkinson. Dr. Perkinson was in his lectures focused on the reading of the Bible as a response to the Empire. Continue reading Gospel as a threat
A web companion to Documentary about race.
Here, I will look at few issues addressed in the book After the Baby Boomers and/or the US Religious Landscape Survey. Those issues caught my attention when I read those originally two years ago, but it is not an attempt to represent either reading, far from it. I decided to write them down randomly as an invitation to further speculations rather than trying grasp them in any fullness. Continue reading The Religious Landscape in America
Patricia L. Liberty has written an excellent short paper on why sexual contact between a pastor and a parishioner is never justified.
Since the ministerial relationship is professional in nature, it is inappropriate to call a sexual encounter an affair. Affair is a term used to describe a sexual liaison between peers, or equals. In addition, the term affair focuses attention on the sexual nature of the behavior rather than the professional violation. It also places equal responsibility for the behavior on the congregant. Since clergy have a responsibility to set and maintain appropriate boundaries, those who are violated by clergy’s inappropriate sexual behavior are not to be blamed even if they initiated the contact.
via Why It’s Not An Affair by Patricia L. Liberty.
Gene Outka wrote the article “Social Justice and Equal Access to Health Care” in 1974. It is still as relevant now as it was then. In it Outka reminds us that:
Health crises seem non-meritarian because they occur so often for reasons beyond our control or power to predict.
The claim that some are to be treated differently based on merit or virtues, forces us to come to a conclusion that some people are more than others. Such a conclusion calls us to give all human beings a price tag.
If one agrees, for whatever reasons, with the agapeic judgment that each person should be regarded as irreducibly valuable, then one cannot succumb to a social productiveness criterion of human worth.
Therefore, concept of merit or virtues, are useless.
Unless we are able, as Christians, to discover ways of conducting our life and our mission that differ radically from the Christendom form of the church that has dominated throughout most of Christian history, we shall be doomed in the future to be part of our world’s problem, and not its solution.
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Perhaps if ecumenism was less concerned about the union of tired, old institutions and more concerned about the calling of the Christian movement in the world as a whole, ecumenicity itself would be more vital to all who take this faith with some degree of seriousness.
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We Christians, who have imposed ourselves and our faith on so many, for so long, must now earn the right to explain the reason for our hope.
Acts In Common is an organization of Christian believers who seek to renew, resource and empower Lutheran congregations and ministries in African American neighborhoods in the Detroit metropolitan area. Acts In Common (AIC) seeks to assist these congregations and ministries to find creative and public ways to invite others to know God’s love through Jesus Christ. Membership in Acts In Common is open to all Lutheran congregations in the territory of the Southeast Michigan Synod who subscribe to the purpose and goals of the organization.
Church-based organizations do not try to solve problems. Problems will always be there, and we cannot afford to waste our energy fixing unending problems. We do, however, take specific actions on clearly defined issues.
from Congregation-Centered Organizing: A Strategy for Growing Stronger Communities via The Gamaliel Foundation an organizing institute.
Here I think Mark I. Wegener is not correct. We cannot afford giving in to problems, and just continue to bring band-aid to the wounded. Community organizing is more then running around with first-aid kit, it most address the reason for the wounds.
Some people are put off by the blatant appeal to power, which is an integral part of congrega tion-centered organizing. We tend to think of power as manipulative, as domineering, as too political, as “power over” someone else, and we suspect such power is out of keeping with our Christian values. We recall Lord Acton’s famous dictum: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely.”
More recently, however, we have come to recognize that power in and of itself is neither good nor bad. Power is nothing more than the ability to accomplish something.
Whether the goal is to accomplish something helpful or harmful is another question, but power itself is a necessary ingredient for any action. Power is constitutive of life. (Mark I. Wegener)
from Congregation-Centered Organizing: A Strategy for Growing Stronger Communities via The Gamaliel Foundation an organizing institute.
Concerning those who call themselves Cathari, if they come over to the Catholic and Apostolic Church, the great and holy Synod decrees that they who are ordained shall continue as they are in the clergy. But it is before all things necessary that they should profess in writing that they will observe and follow the dogmas of the Catholic and Apostolic Church; in particular that they will communicate with persons who have been twice married, and with those who having lapsed in persecution have had a period [of penance] laid upon them, and a time [of restoration] fixed so that in all things they will follow the dogmas of the Catholic Church.
via CHURCH FATHERS: First Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325).
When reading through The Canons of Nicaea from 325, it is surely interesting how structures and hierarchy take over and questions of righteous and holy living become secondary. As part of that the Canons address very thoroughly the right way of the clergy, reminds us that:
Let all such practices be utterly done away, and let the deacons remain within their own bounds, knowing that they are the ministers of the bishop and the inferiors of the presbyters. Let them receive the Eucharist according to their order, after the presbyters, and let either the bishop or the presbyter administer to them. Furthermore, let not the deacons sit among the presbyters, for that is contrary to canon and order. And if, after this decree, any one shall refuse to obey, let him be deposed from the diaconate.
One wonders how the word “inferiors” made it to a Christian document in 4th Century, and how this rule of sitting in groups fits with Paul.
FaithTrust Institute is a national, multifaith, multicultural training and education organization with global reach working to end sexual and domestic violence.
FaithTrust Institute has various resources to deal with and confront boundary issues of Religious Leaders.
Friendship Ministries is a not-for-profit organization that exists to help churches and organizations around the world share God’s love with people who have intellectual disabilities.
LDM equips the Church to minister with persons who are mentally impaired. Through innovative programs, we evangelize, develop relationships, model servanthood, and disciple leaders
LDM began as an independent ministry serving the Lutheran Church. However, we understand that the mission of LDM is much larger than any single denomination. We are available to assist any Christian congregation to start intentional programs for people that are mentally impaired. Our programs teach the basics of the Christian faith as revealed in God’s Holy Scripture. As Christians, we are saved by God’s grace through Jesus Christ.
LDM.
This means that a people’s sovereignty is diminished inasmuch as that people lack any one valued human characteristic, namely whiteness or maleness. For instance, to be both white and male affords one the highest level of political, social, economic and ecclesiastical privilege and dominance. To be white and female eliminates the claim to gender (i.e., male) privilege but preserves the right to race (i.e., white) privilege. To be black and male portends a “racialized” male privilege. Specifically, black men are able to exercise sovereignty only in relation to black women. To be black and female is to have virtually no claim to the privileges accorded in a white patriarchal society and/or Church. …
The underside are better situated to see the radical and revolutionary change required to ensure that all human beings have access to what is needed to live and to fulfill our full human potential.
I came across this via orvitinn.com. Watching this video led my to www.thersa.org which describe themselves as:
For over 250 years the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) has been a cradle of enlightenment thinking and a force for social progress. Our approach is multi-disciplinary, politically independent and combines cutting edge research and policy development with practical action.
