Unpacking Ideas

While we are repelled by the idea that an undocumented immigrant might “get away with something” if we grant amnesty, we are complacent if not comfortable when one of “our own” is blessed with forgivness. Is anyone in Mississippi confused about this?

If we are approaching maturity, we know that it’s hard to be Christian but it’s dull to be anything else.                                 — William Sloane Coffin, 1982 When reading a William Sloane Coffin sermon I expect to be challenged by the radical social demands of the Gospel of Christ.  I expect prophetic social disturbance.  I expect to squirm uncomfortably [...]

The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and The Partnership For A New American Economy released a new report last month about immigrants in the United States and their impact on employment levels for native-born workers.   You can download the entire article at http://www.aei.org/article/society-and-culture/immigration/immigration-and-american-jobs/. Do Immigrants Take Our Jobs? Principal Investigator, Madeline Zavodny of Agnes Scott College in Georgia led [...]

The problem, as we have seen from the beginning, is that being set apart — even for good reasons — slowly morphs into exclusion, meaning what began as a distinction later becomes a fence or wall.

Are we prophetic? This, of course, is the right question, but the much harder question, which is why I avoid it.

Having latent Buddhist tendencies, I feel guilty, partly because the worms died, but more because I benefited from their suffering.

I have been writing Unpacking Ideas for about two and a half years. I am exercising my right to self-indulgence. To the extent you have either enjoyed or become irritated by my articles, thank you.

I wonder if our zealous pursuit of numeric growth is the exact opposite of what Jesus had in mind. Maybe, if we told the truth about the Gospel our congregations would become smaller. I won’t comment about our religious leaders, except to ask: How might a bunch of self-protected white guys behave with such a challenge?

Coffin’s invites us to consider the divine nature of hope rather than the human nature of optimism — and it requires that we exercise our hope in the context of a realistic understanding of humanity’s limitations.

The truth is, Joe is not so important. Protecting vulnerable children trumps even Joe Paterno. The vulnerable children are more important than even my Joe. Every honorable Penn State fan will agree. I think Joe would agree.