Chicago!
Walter Brueggemann on the Bible's view of economics. (HT: JD)
A must-read blog by Owen Youngman.
New blogs I've recently seen worth following: PreacherMike and Wade Hodges.
And Eric Bryant's blog is uber-cool.
David Cramer has come out as a pacifist and has a number of informed discussions. A Christian by any other name: Lisa Miller. Dan Reid takes on Tom Wright. An excellent meditation by Mark Wylie. Cyber-communities with TSK. Nice (but only if read slowly). I can count on Eugene to put things in perspective. Jim Martin's breath of fresh air. (We expect to see Jim today down in Texas.)
Edsel's back. And so are the laments.
Pittsburgh is establishing a Formation House (Karen Sloan's involved); check it out to see if you are interested.
I really liked the post and conversation at Tom Ward's FB site, and don't know if you have to be a FB member to get to it. Anyway, read it if you can. Julie Clawson wonders aloud -- as in "grieves" -- about emerging Christians and how their children can be taught (think SS class curriculum) in the emerging way. Some things can't be given away.
And some things are hard to explain.
Rev! Mag interview about The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible
. Our Fasting: The Ancient Practices 
is going Korean with the IVP group there -- but it could take more than a year.Quote of the Week: "This is the biggest generational transfer of wealth in the history of the world. If you're an 18-year old middle-class hopeychanger, look at the way your parents and grandparents live: It's not going to be like that for you. You're going to have a smaller house, and a smaller car -- if not a basement flat and a bus ticket. You didn't get us into this catastrophe. But you're going to be stuck with the tab, just like the Germans got stuck with paying reparations for the catastrophe of the First World War. True, the Germans were actually in the war, whereas in the current crisis you guys were just goofing around at school, dozing through Diversity Studies and hoping to ace Anger Management class. But tough. That's the way it goes." Wow, that's harsh.
Weird issue of the week: cell phone bacteria.
1. A machine that transforms ingredients into a pizza in about 3 minutes. Hide the kids.
2. And I thought fishermen were liars. (HT: TD)
3. The internet at 20 yrs old. (HT: TD)
4. Arkansas is discussing the wrong thing.
5. Very sad news.
6. Funny and clever and a good shift from the bundles of money spent on prom.
7. Volunteering, esp by the unemployed, is up at non-profits.
8. Will you be using Kosmix?
9. Memory ... fascinating stuff.
10. What kind of cook are you?
Sports:
The greatest rivalry I've seen in NCAA basketball, even more than Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, was between Lew Alcindor and the Big E. How many players in this picture can you name?I would rate Jim Thorpe and Babe Didrikson Zaharias as the top two. Michael Jordan's baseball days were anything but spectacular. Bo Jackson was better than Michael, but neither rivals Jim and Babe.
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Although politically I often lean in the same direction as Brueggemann, I have to agree with Michael that his article is naive (or at best not very clear about what he is saying). Whatever the moral of the current crisis is, it isn't that markets are mere instruments of greed. To the contrary, they are the best means we have for an efficient, productive economy.
Sure, markets need to be regulated. And it may be best for governments to interfere with normal market operation in some instances to promote just distribution. But when we do so we can't pretend like it won't have trade-offs.
Conservatives seem to focus only on the size of the overall pie, and liberals only on the way you cut up the pie. Conservatives need to realize that just distribution (the way you cut up the pie) is a Biblical value that we need to take very seriously, and that it is ok to give up some level of efficiency for governments to promote just distribution (and that, even aside from government involvement, individual and church assistance to widows and orphans carries very little market disruption). Liberals need to realize that if you monkey with markets too much, there won't be a big enough pie to help anyone, the rich or the widows and orphans. Unless both sides begin to acknowledge the trade-offs and values running in both directions, the discussion itself won't be either efficient or just.
#7 Eric
"... acknowledge the trade-offs ..."
Harry Truman, the first president to have formal board of economic advisers (as I recall), once said he only wanted one armed economists because he got so tired of endless rejoinders, "On the other hand ..." But that is the reality. Every economic decision involves trade-offs. We need theologians to help us deeply think through economic questions yet precious few seem inclined to really engage the task. Miroslav Volf and Darrell Cosden are a couple of exceptions I can think of. There is good stuff in some aspects of Roman Catholic scholarship as well.
For me, this "no scarcity," "just be generous," "markets evil" mantra is what literal six-day creationism and ID is to RJS.
Michael -- agreed
You are all wrong--if it's two sport athlete--it's Jim Brown hands down:
1. Greatest Lacrosse player of all time
2. Greatest running back of all time
QED.
I'm with Mich, Jim Brown.
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