Good Citizenship

Simon Barrow at Ekklesia writes:
“Good citizenship is not about flag-waving, metaphorically or otherwise. It’s about the just practices, shared habits and practical ways of organising our public lives which enable people to belong to one another across boundaries like those created by nation states, not in subjection to them.”
Read the rest of the article here.

Blessed are the…?

Presumably I wasn’t supposed to find this ironic…

Big Brother is watching… and listening… and reading your emails

Romans 13 as a Justification for Authoritarian Violence

I often see this passage used by Christians to not only endorse the necessity of human authority, but also to justify such things as capital punishment and warfare.
I have often argued that the traditional interpretation of the chapter cannot possibly make sense given that it follows on directly from Romans 12, which seemingly offers a [...]

New Monasticism

As I’m given to understand it, “new monasticism” is the commitment to seeking after a more thought-out, prayerful, contemplative, and peaceful life, with these 12 guidelines:

1. Relocation to the abandoned places of Empire.
2. Sharing economic resources with fellow community members and the needy among us.
3. Hospitality to the stranger.
4. Lament for racial divisions within the [...]