In Jerusalem, a prayer for the sins of the world….
Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2016
All rights reserved.
Showing posts with label Religion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Religion. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 21, 2016
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Book review: The Witches: Salem, 1692
Toil and trouble….and craziness
My book review of The Witches: Salem, 1692….a community gone crazy….
This post has been moved to
my website:
Sunday, August 21, 2016
Civitas
I
think maybe too many folks have allowed too many other folks to corrupt the meaning
of “common good.”
I
think too many folks think the word “them” is part of the definition.
The
only definition that embraces a positive outcome for you and me and the rest of
the tribe is the one that emphasizes “us.”
The
Commonweal Magazine recently offered a perceptive and instructive piece by
Anthony Annett, who, sadly enough, did a great job of explaining the decline of
the willingness to seek the common good in America.
Turns
out there’s lots of blame to spread around—Annett lays out the failures,
deliberate and otherwise, of Republicans and Democrats and non-political
elites to support and revitalize concepts of the common good that were a more
substantial foundation of our society a generation or two ago.
He
examines “the common good, understood as the good arising from a shared social
life in which the flourishing of the individual is inseparable from that of the
community, each reinforcing the other…It does not permit the exclusion of any
individual or group.”
He’s
not saying the individual is not important, and he’s not saying that individual
responsibility and achievement are not important. He’s saying that when the community—the civitas—is degraded, as a consequence too many individuals are degraded….when
the community is not vibrant, as a consequence too many individuals are not
vibrant.
When
the quality of life and living improves for all (or most, or many) then the
quality of life and living of each of us is improved because there are so many
more opportunities for enrichment and success.
We need to talk more about “us” and less about “them.”
Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2016
All rights reserved.
Thursday, July 14, 2016
The times they are a-changin’….
The inexorable demographic
transformation of America is part of the context for the current dangerous
turmoil in our politics.
For instance, TheAtlantic.com points out that less than half of Americans are now classified as white Christians.
Less than 30% of the 18-29 age cohort identify themselves as white Christians.
Nevertheless, it’s true that almost
three-quarters of all adults claim to be Christian (including Protestant,
Catholic, Orthodox and other non-Protestant Christian faiths). So, the minority
status of white Christians is largely driven by the increasing proportion of persons
of color in the U. S. population.
Increasing diversity of the American
citizenry is inevitable. Increasingly, ballot boxes will reflect this trend.
I think these changes will make
American society richer in so many ways.
I look forward to the election of more
folks who will champion the kind of government an increasingly diverse
population needs and wants.
Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2016
All rights reserved.
Saturday, May 28, 2016
Consider another point of view….
Fr.
Richard Rohr, OFM, has an unconventional and incisive point of view. He offers
startling, lucid guidance on matters spiritual, contemplative, intellectual and
personal. See his comments here at The Center For Action and Contemplation.
Recently
he discussed “Community as Alternative Consciousness.” I’m not competent to
summarize it, read it for yourself here if you wish.
Here’s
an excerpt:
“For
instance, I've never once heard a sermon about the tenth commandment, "You
shall not covet your neighbor's goods," because in our culture that's the
only game in town. It is called capitalism. The individual is largely helpless
and harmless standing against the system.”
Regarding
capitalism, this is more a rhetorical statement than a conclusive definition.
Nevertheless, he’s dealing with pith.
Here’s
my own rhetorical whack at capitalism: not by its classic philosophical design,
but in its inescapable effect, it’s a system that reinforces too many
inequities and shields too many wrongdoers from accountability. Too many of us
don’t fully understand this reality.
Copyright
© Richard Carl Subber 2016 All rights reserved.
Thursday, April 14, 2016
Hatred is now legal in North Carolina
You must have heard about the new North
Carolina “bathroom law.”
The law makes hatred legal in North
Carolina.
In plain language, it says that
transgender people can’t use the public bathroom of their choice. In fact, it
says that everyone must use the labeled bathroom that matches their physical
sexual organs at birth.
The law can’t be enforced, unless the
state assigns 24/7 guards with authority to require all users to drop their
pants or lift their skirts for inspection before entering the bathroom.
Enforcement wasn’t the point, of
course.
The point was to officially hate
transgender people.
I wonder how many transgender people
are in the families of North Carolina legislators? I wonder how many folks in
North Carolina are playing pickup basketball or having lunch or sharing a
carpool with transgender people every day?
Why isn’t every public watchdog news
media organization in America pointing at the North Carolina Republicans and
laughing?
I think the answer is: it’s not a laughing matter.
Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2016
All rights reserved.
Monday, February 1, 2016
Book review: America Ascendant
Stanley
B. Greenberg, America
Ascendant: A Revolutionary Nation’s Path to Addressing Its Deepest Problems and
leading the 21st Century
New York: Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin’s Press,
2015
406 pages
Doubtless
you’ve been wondering what’s going on in American politics, our Congress, our
state governments and the Republican Party. Greenberg offers many answers in America Ascendant.
He expects we
are witnessing the slow unraveling of what ails our body politic: civil
dysfunction, the concentration of greed/power/wealth, the conspicuously
parochial Republican/conservative/rightwing points of view, and the blatant
bigotry that too often masks itself with dissembling, righteous talk of
“traditional” American “values” like self-reliance, commitment to family,
Jeffersonian “small government” and religious faith. Greenberg expects that
better days are coming, but he cautions that the process will be achingly and
devastatingly slow.
His essential
message is that America is inexorably becoming a less white and more diverse
nation—most abundantly, a nation of immigrants, and a nation undeniably
represented by young generations of folks who are tolerant and happy to live
their lives with culturally and racially and sexually diverse friends, lovers,
marriage partners, neighbors and coworkers—the folks who consciously wish to
live their lives unfettered by the domination of a select few with great wealth
and great power.
To those of
us who have struggled to understand the motivations and fears and dreams of the
folks who support the divisive and hurtful and dangerous and self-interested
antics of so many politicians, America
Ascendant offers much more understanding than I have encountered from any
other source.
What Greenberg says is not pretty. His book suggests that a good outcome is possible.
I want to
believe his message.
Copyright
© Richard Carl Subber 2016 All rights reserved.
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
The wisdom of Ecclesiastes
"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it
with thy might…”
Ecclesiastes 9:10
King James VersionV
King James VersionV
This is an elegant reminder for me that
I am committed to doing what I want to do, committed to doing the right thing, committed
to taking my best swing with all my heart….
Ecclesiastes is regarded as one of the Wisdom Books of the Old Testament. Likely it was written in the 3rd century AD by an unknown author, who used as a pseudonym the Hebrew word Koheleth, usually translated as “teacher” or “preacher,” with the Latin transliteration Ecclesiastes.
“Do it with thy might” asserts a powerful admonition, with moral suasion and with raptured optimism.
Them’s words to live by.
"See the [segregated] USA, in your Chevrolet..."
Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2016 All rights reserved.
Monday, December 28, 2015
“…juice of toads.”
Toad juice. Gag and spit. May I never say words
that will taste like toad juice when someone else says them.
Some people say these words.
Perhaps you have heard some of them.
For example:
The speaker singled out members of a particular
religious faith, comparing them to dogs, serpents, dragons and vipers.
He wanted to see them banned, exiled,
imprisoned, whipped….he proclaimed they are a “leprous” people, their doctrines
as despicable as the “juice of toads.”
Who was the speaker and which religion did he
condemn?
 |
| Persecuted Quakers |
Want a hint?
Think late 17th century.
Think Cotton Mather, the celebrated Puritan
minister.
Think Quakers, who were widely stigmatized by
our strangely intolerant Puritan forebears.
In every history, of course.
Copyright ©
Richard Carl Subber 2015 All rights reserved.
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