I just got the latest issue of No Depression magazine. Its the ten year anniversary issue. It has Nickel Creek on the cover and interviews with Rodney Crowell, Son Volt, Marty Stuart, and of course Nickel Creek (never cared much for them, my wife luuuuuuuuuuuvs them though). Anyway, much is changing with this issue. They're officially dropping the moniker Alt. Country. They promise a new website soon with a blog. Oh and did I mention this issue includes a ten year retrospective on every previous mag they've done. And a top 25 list of albums over the last 10 years. If you don't subscribe get down to your local Borders/B&N/franchise--originality killing--chain bookstore and pick up a copy!! I'm sure I'll find plenty in this issue for use in my writing whenever the book deadline is past. (Lord haste the day!)

Can we agree to disagree pt. II

I just gave examples that no doubt are easily named among political
rightists. But leftist examples are also clear:
turning a blind eye to sexual immorality, calling same sex marriage God
ordained, backing equally selfish leftist demagogues in their bid for
power, scripture twisting (just like the rightists) until it clearly
fits an agenda, demonizing and lying about the opposition, and finally
the idolatry of making God useful for their purposes.

God is of no use to either rightists or leftists. We all stand under his
judgement.

Now back to the agree to disagree, we should ask not for what we can
agree on but whether our only final option is separation. The truth is
the Evangelical landscape is so all encompassing that various works have
been in opposition to one another for years. The media spotlight now
aggravates it to be sure. I am personally amazed by groups like the
National Association of Evangelicals who have rightists at the helm and
many leftist and progressive thinkers helping to frame policy now who
are surely in large disagreement.

Can we agree to disagree?

Is it possible for Christians to agree on essentials, namely Christ's
person and work, and vehemently disagree on matters of social,
political, and public relations? That's a question that's been really
bugging me lately. Did Jesus come to bring peace and harmony and are
disagreements like these only getting in the way? I'm not so sure its so
cut and dry. The book of First John addresses both of these issues and
more. First he warns against those who deny Christ as the Son but he
equally warns that true Christians are known by their deeds. But for
those asking the question he admonishes to Love our brothers and
sisters. There is a lot packed into this little book! There is a time
to overlook one another's faults and bear with weaker members. But out
of love for Christ the work of exposing harmful directives (such as the
suggestion to assassinate leaders, to amass wealth even in shady deals,
to teach women they are naturally weaker and subservient to men, or that
one nation is God-ordained to commit crimes against another) for what
they are: sinful and against Christ's work.

I just posted my comment on Pat Robertson's "Clarification" onto the comments on Blue Christian. It was too inflammatory for my own site here. I'd rather include such skullduggery where it belongs in Jon's corner. Anyway, to comment on my comment, I got heated because Pat appealed to Bonhoeffer. I've spent the last ten years gleaning from Bonhoeffer and to have Robertson misuse him is just plain hurtful.

Amira Haas article

I haven't blogged in a while about the Palestinian situation. Truthfully I feel shame for the distance time and circumstance have brought me from my solidarity with Christians in the Middle East. I still get all the email reports. I'm so bogged down with work and family that I have had no time for anything else. But my heart still beats in time--and breaks over my experiences in Israel/Palestine in 2002. I pray I'll get back there some day, and that the Christians in the West Bank and Gaza will have not all been forced out by the violence. A friend sent me this recent article from Amira Haas, a jewish reporter for Haaretz who has written extensively on life in Gaza.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/616309.html

on a-bomb day i had nothing to say

I was struck dumb on the anniversaries of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Look up Hiroshima on Wiikipedia and read all the pros and cons, that's what i did. I wanted to blog but my emotion struck me dumb. Brian Walsh gave a lecture at Cornerstone Festival in 2003 on Postmodernity and Empire. He said that being postmodern is never being able to get over the Bomb. That historical event overshadows every other action postmodern Americans take. I read this quote from the new 'Ethics," volume 6 in the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works project: pg. 77, second paragraph:

"That evil appears in the form of light, of beneficence, of faithfulness, of renewal, that it appears in the form of historical necessity, of social justices, is for the commonsense observer a clear confirmation of its profound evilness."

I read that and I think of the use of the bomb on Nagasaki. Hiroshima was not enough. Somehow Japan wouldn't have surrendered with Hiroshima. We had to drop it again. And what of it all now? Is it even an issue anymore?
I think it should be.