![newsweek:
Andrew Sullivan writes this week’s cover story on the crisis in Christianity in America, which has been overrun and destroyed by politics, priests, and get-rich evangelists. Sullivan’s argument? Ditch all that and just follow Jesus. Here’s an excerpt:
We inhabit a polity now saturated with religion. On one side, the Republican base is made up of evangelical Protestants who believe that religion must consume and influence every aspect of public life. On the other side, the last Democratic primary had candidates profess their faith in public forums, and more recently President Obama appeared at the National Prayer Breakfast, invoking Jesus to defend his plan for universal health care. The crisis of Christianity is perhaps best captured in the new meaning of the word “secular.” It once meant belief in separating the spheres of faith and politics; it now means, for many, simply atheism. The ability to be faithful in a religious space and reasonable in a political one has atrophied before our eyes.
Keep reading!
[Photo: Brooks Kraft / Corbis]
Interesting. The quoted portion isn’t one of the more intriguing parts, to me, so the whole thing is worth a read.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1urvzse1K1qzs5cqo1_500.jpg)
Andrew Sullivan writes this week’s cover story on the crisis in Christianity in America, which has been overrun and destroyed by politics, priests, and get-rich evangelists. Sullivan’s argument? Ditch all that and just follow Jesus. Here’s an excerpt:
We inhabit a polity now saturated with religion. On one side, the Republican base is made up of evangelical Protestants who believe that religion must consume and influence every aspect of public life. On the other side, the last Democratic primary had candidates profess their faith in public forums, and more recently President Obama appeared at the National Prayer Breakfast, invoking Jesus to defend his plan for universal health care. The crisis of Christianity is perhaps best captured in the new meaning of the word “secular.” It once meant belief in separating the spheres of faith and politics; it now means, for many, simply atheism. The ability to be faithful in a religious space and reasonable in a political one has atrophied before our eyes.
[Photo: Brooks Kraft / Corbis]
Interesting. The quoted portion isn’t one of the more intriguing parts, to me, so the whole thing is worth a read.
Today in science: turns out that chocolate reduces body mass, prevents blood clots, improves numeracy, may prevent cancer, doesn’t ruin your complexion, and makes everybody like you. One of those is not true but does it matter? No! Chocolate!
Sweet!
Sorting a Life
My father has one thing in common with his father-in-law, personality wise (I’d be hard pressed to come up with others): they both love to take pictures.
While my father dabbles in art photography as well as portraits, it was rare that my grandfather took a picture that didn’t have a human in it somewhere.
Now that my grandfather has moved into a nursing home, the work of divvying up, clearing out, cleaning up, and repairing his house in preparation for sale has begun. The process has revealed a regular hoard of photographs, from a closet entirely filled with slides, to drawers full of photographs. They mostly range in time period from the 1940s to the present, but there are some even older than that, dating back into my grandfather’s childhood.
My parents have taken upon themselves the monumental task of sorting and digitally archiving the collection. It requires several steps - first, sorting through the pictures to remove duplicates (Papa loves duplicates. Sometimes there are triplicates, or even more), poor quality, pictures of people no one (not even Papa) can identify, slides that are damaged beyond hope, etc. The keepers are scanned, cleaned up as best possible (the slides especially need this), and labelled according to subject(s), and sorted into folder categories.
After that, the originals are sorted into piles to be sent to those who will find them of most value (i.e., my aunts get the pictures of their families, my mom’s cousins will get theirs, etc).
Letters are also getting the scan treatment.
It’s a slow, but important project. In the meantime, every horizontal surface in my parent’s living room, dining room, and den (and even a few surfaces that have been added specifically for this purpose) feature piles of pictures or stacks of slide boxes.
There are more still at Papa’s house.
It’s both fascinating and overwhelming.
And now for something completely different. A picture of kittens. Because, why the heck not?
Sadly, not my picture. It is cute, though.
(Source: 0necup0fdestiny)
A Great Injustice, and Too Many Broken Hearts
I remember Kristen. She lived down the street from my best friend, so even though she was two grades above me, there were plenty of shared memories: giggling over Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing, singing along with Tiffany at the top of our lungs, running around the neighborhood, goofing off. She had a huge crush on my brother. We were little kids, we were innocent.
I remember standing in my grandparents’ living room, reading the newspaper article about her accusation against her neighbor, also once her teacher, saying he put his hands up her shirt and touched her while she was playing with his new baby.
I remember the teacher, too. His 4th grade classroom was right next to mine, and I was jealous of the big loft they had in there. Also, my 8-year-old self thought he was kind of cute, and even though I absolutely adored my 4th grade teacher, I kind of wished I’d been assigned to his class instead. That was before Kristen spoke up, though.
In the end, the Grand Jury determined there wasn’t enough evidence. The teacher kept his job…and received the Teacher of the Year award that same year.
Kristen had to change schools. I saw her once after that, at a football game. The conversation was short, all smiles and “do-you-remember”s, with no mention of her trauma. I don’t think I even thought about it at the time. She asked me to say hi to my brother for her.
She’s been dealing with it for nearly 20 years now, and will for the rest of her life. Meanwhile, he’s been teaching 4th grade, driving a school bus, serving as a youth minister and youth choir director. Oh, and molesting other young girls.
He was arrested yesterday. This time he confessed. 20 years too late, for Kristen, and for the other 20 or more girls whose lives will never be the same.
Paragraph three has a little something that may have made the publisher of the Greenville, S.C., News get a serious case of indigestion. (thanks Charles Apple)
I had a writer friend comment just the other day on sneaking stuff into rough drafts for his own amusement, that he never intends to make it to publication. But, y’know, accidents happen.
In slightly related news, I normally don’t have much of a beef with UGA (I do live in Georgia, so in some ways it’s a self preservation tactic). I usually do despise LSU. However, I want an SEC team to be win the National Championship, and I don’t want it to be Bama. So. WDLSU.
Mufasa the pocket puppy on January 6, 2011, with his owner. This is the picture that earned him his nickname. I’ve previously featured other pictures of Mufasa, on January 7, January 25, and March 4.
Yesterday, he was hit by a car. This morning, he passed away.
He was a good puppy, when he wasn’t eating shoes. He’ll be missed.
October 29, 2011 1/30th at F2.8 ~~~ Oh, the irony of a fireman starting a fire. Taken at a party I was at on Saturday, during the 15 minutes this guy was still sober enough to care that it was cold outside, and his costume (the lower half of his turn out gear, a wifebeater undershirt, and his helmet) wasn’t particularly warm. Naturally, he left the coat at home. My costume was more subtle (a ribbon around my neck, to keep my head on), but since I was toting around a camera all evening, people assumed I was “a photographer.” Go figure.
