Category Archives: politics

Thinking wins

I’ve gotten out of the habit of writing, so I’ll start again. Our Neighborhood MeetUP viewed a film on the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German Lutheran pastor who collaborated with German leaders seeking to kill Hitler. Bonhoeffer wrote extensively … Continue reading

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Hearing the Silent Cry

I’m using a new version of WordPress. Not used to it yet. The idea of Resistance is fascinating to me. I’m reading a second time Dorothee Soelle’s masterwork The Silent Cry: Mysticism and Resistance (2001). She begins with a quote … Continue reading

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The White Rose

The White Rose Munich 1942-1943 by Inge Scholl. Intro by Dorothee Soelle. A sister’s account of the anti-Hitler leaflet campaign of her brother and sister Hans and Sophie Scholl and other students, most in their early 20s. They paid with … Continue reading

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Henry David Thoreau “Life with Principle”

The chief want, in every State that I have been into, was a high and earnest purpose in its inhabitants….. When we want culture more than potatoes, and illumination more than sugar-plums, the the great resources of a world are … Continue reading

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Zephaniah: one tough read

(You may prefer first to read the I Will section at the end of this post.) I love the Bible—having read it, learned it by heart, taught it, preached and (I hope) lived up to it all my days. I believe … Continue reading

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Birdsong and Hope

Today scientists sound more like the old fashioned “the end is near” preachers than most preachers do. Scientists note the changes taking place in the earth and speak of a possible mass extinction event. One of these occurred 65 million … Continue reading

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Hollow cake

I tried my baking skills the other day. I had an orange-cranberry muffin mix, which called for an added cup of water. Flush with the success of earlier efforts, I added a protein booster whey powder, a couple eggs, and two … Continue reading

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Beauty and the Tyrant

Why bother with Arenas? A comment follows this quotation. Quoting Reinaldo Arenas, Before Night Falls (1993): “At the [Cuban] National Library in 1969 Lezama [Lima] gave a reading of perhaps one of the most extraordinary essays of Cuban literature under … Continue reading

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In Spirit and Truth

I always get into what I’m reading. I’ve been wanting some biography, and happened on Before Night Falls through a book list. It’s a memoir of Reinaldo Arenas, Cuban poet, freedom fighter and gay activist. Not the kind of book you’d … Continue reading

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If as Christ prayed “We are One,” then what does our Solidarity mean?

I continue reading Bonhoeffer slowly. He wrote that freedom in Christ is not selfish narcissism. No—we are free for others. I come more and more to believe the Western idolizing of the rugged individual, the Marlboro man, is pathological. My friend … Continue reading

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