tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90746082012-02-14T18:03:20.691-05:00“The goal of the Christian life is not to save your soul but to transcend yourself, to vindicate the human struggle of which all of us are a part, to keep hope advancing," said the late William Sloane Coffin. In these pages we're all just trying to keep hope advancing at the intersections of faith, culture and politics during the age of American Empire.Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.comBlogger5661100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-90397631459194385042012-02-14T16:05:00.003-05:002012-02-14T16:11:13.141-05:00

I am a witness, standing on the side of love.Sometimes that is the most important calling to which we respond. We show up. We stand together. We witness. We speak of what we have seen and done.I was asked this morning to say a few words of blessing at the Valentine’s Day public witness for marriage equality at the Arlington County Courthouse as two of the elders in my congregation sought a

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-90266833741851581922012-01-24T22:41:00.004-05:002012-01-24T22:44:45.366-05:00

I’m a beginning potter, or more accurately I am taking a beginning pottery class, so perhaps I can be forgiven for pitching pots instead of throwing them, but I am a lifelong Presbyterian so I know process, and I know when process is being used to obfuscate rather than to clarify. This evening National Capital Presbytery voted down an overture to General Assembly from the session of the

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-16424048745724169852011-12-26T21:35:00.006-05:002011-12-26T21:59:41.372-05:00

December 24How many clichés about time could be gathered around Christmas trees or hung from their branches like ornamental clock faces? The halls are decked with memory and expectations as cards stretch out as if hung on a string stretched between the hopes and the fears of all years, and the dream that they might be met tonight.So a very merry Christmas from our household to yours. May your

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-18335970928239636782011-10-20T15:49:00.001-05:002011-10-20T15:55:29.392-05:00

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-62916087431576646062011-10-19T15:01:00.010-05:002011-10-19T15:46:59.726-05:00

I broke one of my cardinal rules today, again, and was reminded, again, of how incredibly difficult the law of love really is.Here's what happened: Following a now forgotten link I found myself on Red Letter Christian, Tony Campolo's blog, reading a thoughtful piece posted by Methodist pastor Morgan Guyton. Guyton wrote about Herman Cain's recent statement aimed at Occupy Wall Street that “If you

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-75652742519276963192011-10-13T19:42:00.002-05:002011-10-13T19:46:56.639-05:00

I got one of those e-blasts from the Democratic Party. You know the ones; they usually go straight into the recycle bin. But the sender ID caught my eye: Chelsea Clinton. That was new and different. So I opened it and was surprised to be asked only for ideas for the Clinton Global Initiative. No money ask; no voter support solicitation. Just ideas. Naturally, I was suspicious. But I did write

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-2855206328445144722011-10-11T09:13:00.004-05:002011-10-11T09:23:35.595-05:00

I was reading an article the other day about the local footballers, the ones with the incredibly racist team name and, let’s face it, a long history of racist practices as well. The article concerned the team’s practice habits – not the practices of racism, mind you, but the football practices.I was struck by the routine the author noted, the deeply ingrained habits of off days and on days, of

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-32666355038828081172011-08-26T10:44:00.001-05:002011-08-26T10:44:27.355-05:00

Perhaps I'm coming up from the depths, or the fog of summer is clearing. Don't know, and perhaps will eventually reflect on the long silence of this summer. For now, in the aftermath of an earthquake and before the deluge of Irene, here's a hymn that I wrote when doing storm cleanup after Katrina. Amidst the Storm When raging storms push forth a rising tide, When rain and wind leave nowhere

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-32299474071057840922011-07-12T13:18:00.002-05:002011-07-12T14:03:47.753-05:00

According to Google Maps, it's 592 miles from Arlington, VA to Chattanooga, TN. According to my backside it's a damn long drive. The average American family drives 793 miles on its longest vacation drive, or so says a survey by the American Automobile Association. The note on that survey wasn't clear about whether or not that's a round-trip or one-way total. Either way, it's plenty of time

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-3549723694656680312011-06-20T09:44:00.002-05:002011-06-20T10:10:48.481-05:00

U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, envoy to Afghanistan, lobbed a parting shot at the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai over the weekend. According to an NPR report today, Eikenberry told university students in Herat that when Afghan leaders call the United States an occupying force it becomes difficult for him to look the family members of slain U.S. soldiers in the eye and explain to

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-27322707064509027632011-06-03T11:43:00.004-05:002011-06-03T12:55:01.173-05:00

I had a lovely dinner last night with a couple whose one-year-old daughter I get to baptize on Pentecost. The family has been worshiping with us at the wee kirk since last fall. Mom joined the church mid-winter. Dad may at some point down the road. He likely would have joined last winter, too, but for a month of out-of-state Air Force training back in January.None of that is particularly

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-12583295625088890272011-05-27T11:57:00.003-05:002011-05-27T12:26:32.461-05:00

What is the church for?I've had a series of rich conversations over the past little while that all come round to some variation on that question. What is the point and purpose of this enterprise that we call the church?These conversations -- with friends and colleagues both locally and spread a bit further afield, some Presbyterians, some not, some ordained, some not -- have not typically begun

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-49085389804855970702011-05-20T11:55:00.010-05:002011-05-20T13:32:39.744-05:00

I seem to spend a great deal of my preaching life wrestling with Walter Brueggemann. He's getting on up there in years, so I ought to be able to take him now, but most of the time I still wind up bearing the scars of our encounters. And I've never actually met the man.At the moment I'm being bounced about by his argument that "obedience follows imagination." More than 20 years ago, in Finally

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-43593006915802945642011-05-11T10:56:00.002-05:002011-05-11T10:59:35.335-05:00

Yesterday the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) took a leap of faith into a future that looks more like the rich garden of God’s good creation. The Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area became the 87th presbytery to affirm a change to the denomination’s constitution that will allow for the ordination of faithful, called and qualified gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender candidates for clergy and other

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-74798184560276864962011-05-10T14:03:00.000-05:002011-05-10T14:04:51.175-05:00

May 10, 2011Dear Jim,As a long-time Sojo reader, subscriber, and fan, and as a friend who has worked with your interns and worshipped with your community, I write with deep respect and great fondness, but also with deep disappointment in calling you on Sojourners’ rejection of the “Believe Out Loud” ad. More than calling you on this decision, I feel that I am calling you back to your own

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-41262243306946558872011-05-03T14:22:00.004-05:002011-05-03T15:17:58.957-05:00

A fine season I pick to return to the blog: a bit of Easter, a vote on 10-A, oh, and then the death of Osama bin Laden.The interwebs were all abuzz yesterday, and social media machine in full flux first with the news of bin Laden's killing, then with reaction, and then with reaction to the reaction.Perhaps this falls into the category of "reaction to the reaction to the reaction." It's going to

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-73411952896806469952011-05-03T09:55:00.003-05:002011-05-03T10:01:27.797-05:00

National Capital Presbytery met Saturday to vote on proposed changes to the denomination's constitution, including the amendment known as 10-A, which would remove the categorical barrier to the ordination of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender candidates for church office. Here's the brief statement I made during the debate.When we talk about this I always hear so much fear about what will

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-73280431101176633272011-04-26T09:25:00.002-05:002011-04-26T10:08:04.169-05:00

I set aside blogging for Lent, and am going to pick it back up. The practices that we engage, if they are alive for us, change over time. There's nothing unusual in that. Living things change or they die.Which brings me to a wistful coincidence. I me Bob Woodward two weeks ago; and I canceled my subscription to the Washington Post one week ago.I met Mr. Woodward at a fundraiser for the River

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-38503947355131629062011-02-10T17:17:00.002-05:002011-02-10T17:36:38.013-05:00

Well, to begin with, nobody is asking me to do so and most who know me would be horrified at the though, but the scenario crossed my mind during a conversation yesterday about the possibility that Jesus was serious when he said that thing about loving enemies.So, to begin again, I have neither the political profile to raise the $20 million it would cost to run a campaign, nor is that $20 million

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-45441439089342607472011-02-01T13:56:00.009-05:002011-02-01T15:58:26.236-05:00

My 20-year-old son asked me this week if I'd been following events from Egypt. I said that I'd been reading some of the news reports but that, in truth, I'd followed the news from Tunisia more closely. We have good friends living in Tunis so we've seen regular updates on Facebook, including photographs our friends took from their front yard of neighbors pushing an SUV down the block. Turns out

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-59515623875531110802011-01-19T10:56:00.004-05:002011-01-19T11:13:03.366-05:00

We’ve put “the Dream” back on the shelf for another year, and we can let Martin Luther King, Jr. rest in peace again at least until this August, when the huge, official monument to him will be dedicated along the edge of the Tidal Basin in D.C., facing across the water at the slave holding President Jefferson. I can’t quite imagine that this was what King had in mind when he spoke of the sons of

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-3708610572092834192011-01-12T12:23:00.000-05:002011-01-12T12:24:02.946-05:00

Every time someone commits a rampage killing my mind turns back to the Friday after Easter, 2000. We lived in Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh, and our sons were in elementary school. With our infant daughter in tow, we picked the boys up after school and were advised to go directly home because there were police reports of a shooting in the area.At home just a few minutes later

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-942752866782603422011-01-06T17:49:00.002-05:002011-01-06T17:52:31.690-05:00

If a picture is worth a thousand words, here are a few thousand from my front yard last month. Enjoy.

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-11287526388943033662011-01-04T19:33:00.002-05:002011-01-04T19:37:28.576-05:00

Here's a poem for today ...These things are not the same -- hope and longinglistening for the sound of green shoots pushing up through frozen soilremembering my sons as I watch two little boys with their dad at the Targetwanting to shoot hoops on aging knees when I catch a stale breeze while walking past a gym doorway.I'm trying to remember what the old school looked like back

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-13896649549732062232010-12-25T16:25:00.013-05:002010-12-25T16:49:11.043-05:00

Friends,In the age of Facebooks and blogs and other social media to call someone “friend” means, what, precisely? An encounter – a chance – that brings a click of a virtual “button” that creates an ephemeral connection across wires and waves of electricity, and leaves a name in a list of hundreds or thousands of other names and changes nothing, really? Is that what it means to be “friends”? For

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-54271868762062367922010-12-06T11:50:00.003-05:002010-12-06T12:07:08.277-05:00

In times of despair and hopelessness folks turn to all kinds of things, but building an ark? Well, not exactly, I suppose, but some Biblical literalists with more money than good sense are planning an ark-based theme park in Kentucky. They have raised a small fraction of their expected costs and are seeking financial aid from the cash-strapped commonwealth of Kentucky.What is it with ark builders

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-12076997030172905642010-11-22T15:32:00.002-05:002010-11-22T15:35:04.167-05:00

I don't often post stuff from Sunday mornings on this blog, but this just seems appropriate to this holiday week. I offer it here with the invitation to try is: sit down with pen and paper or keyboard and screen, set a timer for 10 minutes, and just write what you are thankful for. Here's my list, which was offered as a prayer/meditation yesterday morning at Clarendon.Thanks. How many things can

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-13003267525676907562010-11-16T16:34:00.005-05:002010-11-16T16:58:25.189-05:00

I had lunch today with a group of Presbyterian clergy colleagues. It's a group of good folks that gets together once a month, and I always enjoy breaking bread with them. Today the gathering included three retired pastors and four of us still "laboring in the vineyards." We tend to be more liberal than conservative, but we do come from a different points on the theological spectrum and have a

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-20861071112201764022010-11-12T17:24:00.002-05:002010-11-12T17:44:43.550-05:00

OK, this is not a long list because, well, this is not a category I've ever given a lot of thought to until this morning when I heard a J.E. McNeil, a Quaker attorney who has served for more than a decade as director of the Center on Conscience and War, was speaking about the legal strategy for creating selective conscientious objection in the U.S. Military, and she said,"The Second Amendment is

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-9939751270763809922010-11-10T11:53:00.004-05:002010-11-10T12:58:47.096-05:00

In the speech that famously launched him on his way to the White House, then Sen. Barack Obama proclaimed to the 2004 Democratic National Convention that "there is not a liberal America and a conservative America -- there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America -- there’s the United States of America."Oh that it were

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-86823463913172029202010-11-04T14:50:00.002-05:002010-11-04T15:10:35.913-05:00

A word of hope for today, from the psalmist:The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed,a stronghold in times of trouble ...for the needy shall not always be forgotten,nor the hope of the poor perish forever.I wonder if such hope will ever again be part of the political narrative of the nation. Seriously. FDR named "freedom from want," one of the Four Freedoms. LBJ declared War on Poverty in 1964.

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-31914037093818856742010-11-02T17:10:00.007-05:002010-11-02T19:44:10.427-05:00

Been crazy busy for the past couple of weeks, but election day brings a nice break with kids home from school and baking cookies with me. I felt like an all-American mom from the 50s, and my son offered me the jumper he wore to school as Hester Prynne last week to wear under an apron so I'd look the part as well.Election day 2010 is a depressing circumstance, although by some measures it should

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-57455707214763472812010-10-21T11:06:00.002-05:002010-10-21T11:11:06.604-05:00

Citing President Eisenhower’s famous farewell warning about the emerging power of the military-industrial complex, I noted yesterday, Andrew Bacevich writes about the threat that imperial power poses for American democracy.Citing the same passage, Quaker activist Chuck Fager, in his booklet Study War Some More, pays special attention to President Eisenhower’s specific inclusion of the spiritual

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-87854749740982885522010-10-20T10:18:00.004-05:002010-10-20T10:24:28.490-05:00

Two wars. The Great Recession. Mid-term elections. The Tea Party. The Obama presidency. It is the perfect storm, and, if nothing else, it pumps money into the local economy as march and rally season descends upon DC as surely as Ringling Brothers brings the elephants to Capitol Hill each spring.We got a jump start this year with Glen Beck’s “God-bless-America” gathering in August. I’ll confess to

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-40397087269664064512010-10-14T16:28:00.000-05:002010-10-14T16:37:16.601-05:00

I've been privileged to spend this week in the company of some enormously talented musicians gathered for the first Songs of Peace and Justice Conference at the Stony Point Center in New York. I'm sure I'll post some thoughts on the experiences shared in that incredible circle of talent, but for the moment, holed up in a cheap hotel somewhere in southern New Jersey where the rain caught up to me

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-7923198701042070822010-10-04T14:06:00.003-05:002010-10-04T15:07:22.162-05:00

To begin with, I fully confess to being a Michael Jordan fan. I lived in Chicago through the Jordan years, and I'm a hoops junky. He's the best I ever saw, and the fan in me will brook no comparison to Kobe or LeBron or Magic or Larry or Wilt or anyone else. That is a fan speaking, and not a student of the game. If I put on that hat then the comparisons might shake out differently. But I won't

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-20640132617481161192010-09-29T12:18:00.003-05:002010-09-29T12:30:59.896-05:00

A few thoughts on hospitality and justice, inspired by reading several stories about hate crimes in the past few days, started off the preaching at Clarendon last week. “Sticks and stones may break my bones but names can never hurt me.”What a crock that is.Jap. Raghead. Kyke. Nigger. Bitch. Dyke. Faggot. Chink. Tell me again that names can never hurt. Tell me again that names don’t matter.These

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-54760199798901470802010-09-17T16:01:00.003-05:002010-09-17T16:05:20.275-05:00

We’ve been investing tiny amounts of money through Kiva in microcredit ventures in the developing world. What began as a $25 loan a couple of years ago has grown to a couple of hundred in a half dozen small ventures in places such as Pakistan and Afghanistan and Uganda where a few dollars can make a difference.One of our loans was just repaid this week so we began looking for another small

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-11948462335828495202010-09-16T08:51:00.011-05:002010-09-16T10:16:51.280-05:00

This is going to sound like the grumpy lament of a middle-aged man, or, perhaps like a wagon train tale. But I can remember the election, in my home state of Tennessee, of moderate Republican lawmakers and executives. I doubt that my children will have such memories for the moderate Republican is a dying breed.Why should a life-long liberal lament this fact of contemporary American political life

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-8021497460770089042010-09-08T11:40:00.001-05:002010-09-08T11:40:42.479-05:00

David Brooks got religion, albeit a tad late. Brooks column yesterday was called "The Gospel of Wealth," and he used it, in part, to praise David Platt's book, Radical: Taking Back Your Faith From the American Dream.Platt leads a megachurch -- more than 4,000 members -- and has begun to call megachurches into question. Brooks quotes what I imagine is the heart of Platt's critique: “When we gather

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-76784214472890132202010-09-02T13:23:00.005-05:002010-09-02T13:58:24.837-05:00

Billy Jonas recorded God Is In before the age of the ipod so he didn't include it in the lyrics. (Take a minute and click on it and give it a listen. Lovely and incredibly creative song.)Now that you're back ... God is in the ipod, or, at least in mine, at least this noontime while I was running four miles.It remains damn hot here, mid 90s. While I love the sweat-soaked feeling that comes with

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-12303785879281664712010-09-01T16:02:00.004-05:002010-09-01T16:25:50.020-05:00

With far less fanfare than President Bush's infamous declaration of "Mission Accomplished," President Obama announced something only slightly clearer: the end of combat operations. Given that 50,000 American troops -- presumably well armed and trained in the arts of war -- remain on the ground in Iraq the president's Oval Office speech last night seems like a milestone without much meaning.Since

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-23421550279669610262010-08-30T10:03:00.003-05:002010-08-30T10:10:23.971-05:00

The fifth anniversary of Katrina hitting the Gulf Coast got me thinking back to the brief time I spent there that fall in the early days of the clean up effort. Here's something I posted then. Alas, five years on, our theological discourse remains in greater disrepair than does the Gulf Coast, what with mosques burning and Glen Beck's preaching.Katrina Diaries: Theological StormsRita swirls out

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-13949035079877925102010-08-25T10:21:00.004-05:002010-08-25T11:00:24.941-05:00

The Pew Research Center's August 19 poll is getting a lot of attention because it reveals that one in five Americans believe that President Obama is a Muslim, and only a third identify him as Christian. Newsweek is running a piece on line called Dumb Things Americans Believe that leads with the Obama/Muslim opinion.Of course, one in five Americans also believe in witches. As an astute friend is

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-67083475237363871592010-08-20T10:06:00.007-05:002010-08-20T11:06:45.370-05:00

If there are words there I am going to read them. I can't help myself. So I caught a headline from the execrable Washington Times this morning. The woman seated in front of me on the bus was highlighting an article headed, "Muslims, not Americans, Intolerant."Being a tolerant American, I suppressed the urge to scream.I wondered if the woman reading was using her red pen to underline points she

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-71372463877578376522010-08-17T16:51:00.005-05:002010-08-18T09:38:54.854-05:00

I have been on the road most of the last six weeks. Interestingly enough, I've managed to be out of internet range most of that time. Six weeks of mostly off line time gets one quickly in touch with one's connectivity addictions.How long can you go without checking e-mail? Facebook? Your favorite web sites or blogs?How long can you go without coffee? Chocolate? I didn't suffer any shakes, but I

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-71596229755930229402010-07-24T09:59:00.001-05:002010-07-24T10:01:15.553-05:00

A quick slide show from GA, set to David Lamott's wonderful song, "Hope." Thanks, David.General Assembly

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-50199933883591361322010-07-22T12:37:00.002-05:002010-07-22T12:41:05.410-05:00

I left Minneapolis for a week of vacation down in Tennessee, out of the frying pan of GA into the fire of July in the hazy, hot and humid southeast. It was all good, and the best (or, something) had to be this church sign of Jesus that brought the car to a screeching halt for a photo op. There's just not much better than roadside religious Americana. The kids call this one "camel Jesus" for some

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-90338906202400782752010-07-09T20:51:00.002-05:002010-07-09T21:10:16.076-05:00

Late last night the Assembly voted to commend to congregations and presbyteries a study report on same-gender marriage. Following that vote, GA voted to let that action be the Assembly's response to a series of overtures that proposed changes in the definition of marriage in our directory of worship, and one that would have clarified pastoral rights and responsibilities in relation to same-gender

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-89679570141363000992010-07-08T18:03:00.002-05:002010-07-08T18:16:08.702-05:00

I don't know what it is with me and laptops these days. Mine has blown some video function again, and since yesterday the screen presents everything as if it's a film negative. Incredibly annoying, and it reduces the world (the on-line world, in any case) to a pale and mostly monochromatic version of itself -- kind of the like the Presbyterian Church, come to think of it.But a couple of things

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-64246604762283140522010-07-06T23:14:00.002-05:002010-07-06T23:23:51.125-05:00

I am just too tired to think about much, though Jay Leno is on right now in the background and he seems to have just hosted a wedding on Latenight. How romantic ... and spiritual.Well, the committee on civil unions and marriage at GA today endorsed a change to the church's definition of marriage from "one man and one woman" to "two people." It probably won't get us on Leno, but it will open a lot

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-5908052659943270802010-07-05T23:24:00.002-05:002010-07-05T23:26:55.837-05:00

I heard this story today: in March of 2003, on the eve of the American invasion of Iraq, the session of a Presbyterian church in Iowa was meeting. The pastor asked elders to share their thoughts on the simple question, “what would Jesus do?” As they went around the circle, one elder became increasingly agitated. When it was his turn to speak he said, “if you’re asking me if Jesus would drive a

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-50607596065708160882010-07-04T21:57:00.002-05:002010-07-04T22:16:32.619-05:00

A few images from the first 30 hours or so of the 219th General Assembly. Elder Cindy Bolbach, from our neighboring congregation at First Presbyterian Church in Arlington, was elected moderator. That means that four of the past five General Assembly moderators have joined us at Clarendon for worship or fellowship during the past seven years. For a little church that often finds itself at odds

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-65987754928763131512010-06-29T13:23:00.000-05:002010-06-29T13:24:09.668-05:00

I’m preparing this week for the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which opens Saturday in Minneapolis. I will be advocating for change in the denomination’s ordination practices among other things. We are calling for a revision or removal of the so-called "fidelity and chastity" clause of our Book of Order that was put in to deny ordination to gays and lesbians. As the

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-82828966537501420262010-06-26T09:36:00.004-05:002010-06-26T17:26:39.372-05:00

So President Obama has fired General McChrystal. He fired the warrior, but he should have fired the war instead. Afghanistan is now the nation's longest war, and it is an unwinnable engagement, perhaps the very definition of quagmire. The news is full of the McChrystal intrigue but scant attention is being paid to the substance of the conversations reported in the infamous Rolling Stone article.I

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-8272742877848069142010-06-25T16:32:00.007-05:002010-06-25T19:15:53.490-05:00

Our fifth grader completed elementary school today. This morning we went to her promotion ceremony. I always love attending events at the school if for no other reason than reading the names of our kids' classmates: Uuganzul, Tasnim, Tamudgen, Mustafa, and my favorite, Dixie Espinoza. The children at Hoffman-Boston speak dozens of languages and come from families with roots planted in soils all

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-89608001175445029762010-06-16T08:53:00.004-05:002010-06-17T15:55:51.050-05:00

So I'm in the midst of writing a sermon for Sunday morning and I've just written something about being a congregation known in the community for the way we welcome the outcast and marginalized and there comes a rapping on my window. It was a young deaf man looking for help paying for a prescription.I've met this young man before. He's come looking for help. Because I can't sign we communicate

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-61755138285652576502010-06-11T13:31:00.002-05:002010-06-11T13:48:34.793-05:00

Last night at the Fourth Annual Northern Virginia Interfaith Pride Celebration, a colleague read from a 20-year-old entry in her personal journal recalling the evening when, as a still closeted lesbian pastor, she sat in a church board meeting as members discussed pulling out of their denomination over its increasingly liberal positions on GLBT concerns. She wrote that evening of feeling

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-7106674738395851102010-06-02T12:59:00.008-05:002010-06-02T14:52:54.426-05:00

Well, of course it is. It's June in Virginia, after all. It's always hot in Virginia in June. On the other hand, it's been pretty hot for a while. In fact, NASA reports that we just experienced the hottest April globally in its data set that dates back to 1880. January to April was the hottest such period in those records, and the same data suggest that the earth just endured its hottest 12

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-22920879197118878732010-06-01T11:52:00.002-05:002010-06-01T11:58:50.681-05:00

Spring brings our own small blossom festival, which corresponded this year with the great laptop die-off. If you'd been at our house two months ago, this is what you'd have seen on the way to the front door.

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-35751736955796168292010-05-29T07:49:00.002-05:002010-05-29T07:55:55.892-05:00

I don't reckon Plato had blogs and spam in mind when he suggested moderation but that's what it's come to friends. A few of you offer comments from time to time and I welcome them -- even the persistently argumentative and disputatious ones. When I started this little thing years ago I imagined that it might serve sometimes as a place of dialogue and a few times it actually has. I continue it

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-89132885145154004522010-05-28T11:39:00.003-05:002010-05-28T12:07:32.461-05:00

I rarely watch TV news so I don't really know how much time is being spent focused on President Obama's Memorial Day activities. I hope it's not much, because it is surely not a newsworthy item.It seems that, like President George H.W. Bush before him, Obama is sending his vice president to Arlington National Cemetery next Monday. The president will be in Chicago and will visit a national

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-71378908643244260062010-05-21T13:23:00.004-05:002010-05-21T13:46:28.865-05:00

Just got off the phone with a nice Indian man who has done his best to resuscitate my practically brand-new laptop which has been randomly shutting down pretty much since I bought it two months ago.He had me drain the power from it, which involved pulling the battery and holding the power button down for about 20 seconds. It doesn't take much to drain power.He walked me through a couple of simple

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-6309062224978898082010-05-20T09:21:00.005-05:002010-05-20T10:27:44.713-05:00

The sad, strange and silly saga of Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut's attorney general and Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, has prompted a lot of commentary. It seems that Blumenthal has claimed, falsely, that he served in the American military in Vietnam. It's not the first time and probably not the last that someone who did not serve in that war has claimed to have done so. In this

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-14882078276311367062010-05-12T17:25:00.013-05:002010-05-12T19:44:05.493-05:00

Oh, yes. May 4. Kent. 1970. Busted laptop. Hm, one of these things is not like the other.In any case, the story I wanted to tell goes like this:In the spring of 2000 the organizers of the memorial events that year invited all of the survivors of the shootings to Kent. I don't know if that happens every year. I do know that in the early years, including the years that I was a student, the school

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-91796018472717429542010-05-04T18:40:00.006-05:002010-05-04T19:02:41.863-05:00

Forty years ago today Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on a crowd of unarmed college students at Kent State, killing four and wounding 13. In the aftermath of the shootings President Nixon remarked, "when dissent turns violent it invites tragedy." Of course, it was not the dissenters who turned violent that Monday morning. It was the empire's police, armed with weapons of war trained on

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-31906019327037292832010-04-28T10:14:00.004-05:002010-04-28T14:34:59.207-05:00

I spent much of the past two days with the Bishops and Elders Council of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Monday we met with Josh DuBois at the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. The first thing that should be said is that Josh DuBois is one whip-smart young man. The amount of information that he holds in his head is more than most of us hold in our

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-90943625555493446452010-04-23T11:03:00.003-05:002010-04-23T11:42:03.553-05:00

It is a beautiful day in the neighborhood, as my favorite Presbyterian minister used to say.I got a note from my uncle this morning. Yesterday was my late aunt's birthday as well as the anniversary of their engagement. He recalled that their first book was on creation care, although long before that term of art had come into use.John's note details what is happening in his garden this spring, and

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-83135438216756438422010-04-15T21:04:00.003-05:002010-04-15T21:23:21.374-05:00

Well, not exactly, but I did pass the exit as I was counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike on my way up to Stony Point this afternoon. And there's your two pop cultures nods for the day.It has been a while since I last posted; in fact, it's the longest pause since I started this blog four or five years ago. I've come face to face with my own ridiculous dependence on convenient technology.

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-36556043273632488982010-03-25T15:47:00.003-05:002010-03-25T15:48:57.315-05:00

This week, in a book I'd set aside at least two years ago, I found a slip of paper on which I had written a couple of commitments: to practice patience and to find moments of joy to celebrate each day.I was an excellent reminder to stumble across just now. We are almost to the end of Lent, and stand at the moment on the edge of Holy Week. Holy Week demands patience, as we move from the waving of

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-73271668885189096312010-03-16T13:22:00.002-05:002010-03-16T13:28:47.247-05:00

As noted a couple of days ago, my laptop is misbehaving. As a result, I've spent a lot of time -- writing time -- backing up files in case this is a sickness unto death. Backing up files reminds me of one of the Platonic dialogues about writing. I don't recall which dialogue -- Phaedrus perhaps -- but the conversation concerns the notion that writing is a secondary and thus lesser form of

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-20228608603642469372010-03-14T18:44:00.008-05:002010-03-14T19:05:55.026-05:00

The piece I wrote for People of Faith for Equality Virginia responding to Attorney General Cuccinelli's recent actions ran today as an op-ed in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. By this evening I've only received two e-mail condemnations, neither of which was particularly interesting or creative. Times have changed. Ten years ago I was forced to resign a church in Pittsburgh after preaching a sermon

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-83438502448802633702010-03-13T10:47:00.002-05:002010-03-13T10:52:40.208-05:00

The curly haired boy pictured further down has infected me with his cold.Some strange viral thing infected my laptop yesterday.Everything put together falls apart.One could go lots of places from there, but my head is stuffed with anything but thought today so I'm just going to leave at that.All the king's horses and all the king's men cannot but this back together again.

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-5832846636227320932010-03-11T16:49:00.003-05:002010-03-11T17:03:07.093-05:00

The great privilege of ministry comes in walking through the valleys and across the mountain tops with people. I've had my share of such experiences, and they inevitably remind me of what I love about my job. Celebrating with couples who have become friends as they marry. Weeping with friends who have lost loved ones. Marching with friends seeking justice. Organizing with friends seeking peace.

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-86418101796053152182010-03-10T13:58:00.007-05:002010-03-10T15:43:10.096-05:00

I spent several hours yesterday serving as a peace marshal at a health care reform rally sponsored by Health Care for America Now. While the event was rowdy, it never veered toward anything nonviolent so I didn't have much to do other than watch and listen.The target of the rally was the meeting of the insurance industry group America's Health Insurance Plans, which gathered at the Ritz-Carlton

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-63981250733779243332010-03-08T21:29:00.004-05:002010-03-08T21:44:05.760-05:00

Apparently Fox News' Glen Beck was talking about churches recently. This is all hearsay because the only time I actually hear Glen Beck is when Jon Stewart plays clips of Beck for the sole purpose of mocking him. Anyway, apparently Beck was telling his listeners to be wary of church web sites that use words or phrases such as "justice," "social justice," or "economic justice." I hear that he told

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-25111749133248625852010-03-07T15:20:00.005-05:002010-03-07T19:10:38.686-05:00

Below is a letter to Virginia's attorney general Ken Cuccinelli, who last week sent a letter to Virginia's colleges and universities informing them that none of their non-discrimination policies that pertain to gays and lesbians would be enforced by his office and that the schools should rescind the portions of policies that refer to gays and lesbians.I wrote this for the board of People of Faith

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-72494067567553858412010-03-05T09:33:00.004-05:002010-03-05T10:01:31.069-05:00

My writing for today is an e-mail I sent to a young man in Florida whose story has been told in recent days on Daily Kos, in a diary entitled, "My Nephew Was Outed and Kicked Out of School Today." As the title suggests, the young man (18) was outed as gay and thrown out of his conservative "Christian" high school in North Carolina. His parents tried to send him to the pastor of their evangelical

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-58722965955079332902010-03-04T08:49:00.002-05:002010-03-04T08:54:49.850-05:00

As promised, a few pics from the beach.

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-54626743037553612262010-03-03T22:45:00.003-05:002010-03-03T22:48:23.403-05:00

Sometimes it's best simply to admit that one is too pooped to post. Forty straight days of blogging is a long time, and writing today was confined to responding to the backlog of e-mails that stacked up while we were away. I was planning to post pictures (each worth a thousand words) from the beach, but I'm going to celebrate National Procrastination Week and put it off till tomorrow.

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-34747487855413053232010-03-02T21:16:00.004-05:002010-03-02T22:05:35.037-05:00

Another long day of driving just to get back where I started. It wasn't exactly an Odyssey but it was a round trip with sea creatures -- we watched a pod of dolphins swim lazily by yesterday -- and interesting locales as well. We went inland a bit last evening to find a place to eat open on a Sunday night off season. We found a little joint nestled down on the banks of some tidal river just

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-66286601162187133122010-03-01T19:57:00.002-05:002010-03-01T21:42:01.594-05:00

So now we have a Coffee Party to oppose the Tea Party.I wonder if this is the next stage in the virtual reshaping of politics and the political sphere that internet theorists predicted 20 years ago. Is social networking becoming a political force beyond being used by the existing political parties and candidates and commercial/political interests?It's far too soon to tell, especially considering

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-73329510667290527472010-02-28T21:26:00.004-05:002010-02-28T21:40:22.007-05:00

I'm not hockey fan, but watching the gold medal game between the U.S. and Canada this afternoon was about as much fun as I've had watching a sporting event in a long time.Watching sports is an interesting phenomenon. I've been a sports fan all of my life, and can appreciate competition in most games even if I've never played the game. Like hockey.I can't even stand up on skates, much less try to

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-17243732361023270902010-02-27T20:39:00.001-05:002010-02-27T20:39:27.855-05:00

THIS IS THE FASTIs this the fast I choose for theeOf ashes, tears and empty misery?Or rather this: To share abundant breadThat all my children will be loved and fed.Why do you fast, yet still not seeYour sisters suffering in poverty?Their children cry, and still you do not hear;Their fathers bowed and broken by their fear.This is the fast I choose for theeOf justice, peace and human libertyNot

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-63305376447718500382010-02-26T21:30:00.003-05:002010-02-26T21:36:20.743-05:00

Trying to do anything beyond bodily necessities for 40 consecutive days is tough. Writing is not a bodily necessity, and it does take time no matter how much or little one does.I've been on the road all day. Though I enjoy it, driving is rather mind numbing and it's tough to write with a numb mind! I'm sure I've written at least parts of sermons -- if not the whole of some -- in that condition.So

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-55057810539021624982010-02-25T10:55:00.002-05:002010-02-25T11:11:01.930-05:00

"Paternity is a relationship to a future that is not your own." So said the great Emmanuel Levinas in an essay that I was working over as I drafted my doctoral dissertation 19 years ago.Oh, and 19 years ago, today, our first child was born. (Happy birthday, Bud!)As our first son grows into adulthood I gain more personal understanding of Levinas' insight.My mother has often said to me that she has

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-73801827758486319032010-02-24T13:59:00.003-05:002010-02-24T15:02:48.062-05:00

I noted over the weekend that National Capital Presbytery on Saturday endorsed three overtures that originated with Clarendon's session. (A friend in Minnesota says that must be a record for one session for a single General Assembly. To which I could only say, "who keeps such records?") In any case, I did not note that the meeting Saturday was remarkably grace-filled and much less antagonistic

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-31921173365593847462010-02-23T16:12:00.003-05:002010-02-23T16:24:56.822-05:00

Remember sniglets? Those made-up words that are so descriptive of everyday situations?One of my favorites is "buckstacy" which is defined as the experience of finding money in your pocket when you didn't know any was there -- especially when putting on a coat for the first time as the weather gets colder.I experienced frozen buckstacy today when I found a dollar where snow had melted away.I

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-43718283160912125532010-02-22T13:27:00.002-05:002010-02-22T14:05:20.927-05:00

I was reminded again this afternoon that you are what you practice. It's been almost three weeks since I've braved running the streets of Arlington. More accurately, there has been nowhere other than snow-narrowed streets to run until the past couple of days when sidewalks and bike paths began to reappear.If you practice couch potatoing you become a couch potato, and couch potatoes find that

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-64032515654572518502010-02-21T18:41:00.003-05:002010-02-21T18:51:07.091-05:00

Tis the first Sunday of Lent. We seem to give up singing good songs for Lent in the church, making this the 40 days of dirges. I don't think this was the fast that God would choose. Indeed, Isaiah seemed to have something to say about that, but it's the end of a long Sunday and I'm much more interested in a glass of wine than the 58th chapter of Isaiah. So here are a few last shots of the snow as

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-57789846167406575232010-02-20T18:27:00.003-05:002010-02-20T18:37:39.446-05:00

National Capital Presbytery voted today to submit several overtures to this summer's General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Three of the overtures originated in my session and they call on the assembly to1) delete the section of our church's constitution (Book of Order) that blocks the ordination of gay and lesbian candidates for ministry and other church offices;2) change the

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-59203130016904764712010-02-19T18:10:00.002-05:002010-02-19T18:22:23.386-05:00

We are about to lose one of the elders of our community who is lingering near death today. When it comes, death will arrive as a friend to a man who has suffered the cruel symptoms of Parkinson's for many years and its accompanying dementia for the past several.He is a few miles further down the road my father is traveling, and thus the end of his life strikes me in a more personally felt way

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-65240157694838457142010-02-18T21:00:00.002-05:002010-02-18T22:05:56.984-05:00

Google that phrase and you get about a million hits. I didn't read most of them. Duh.But the first couple of pages were, as one would expect, about either GLBT concerns or the origins of the phrase itself. I did find one riff on loving Mac users but not the sin of using Macs -- or maybe it was PC users. But I digress.Gandhi actually said "hate the sin but not the sinner" in his autobiography long

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-45410351884005861042010-02-17T20:41:00.002-05:002010-02-17T20:58:07.312-05:00

This has absolutely nothing to do with Ash Wednesday, but, hey, it is Ash Wednesday so I thought I'd at least note the day.I just finished James Carroll's Constantine's Sword, and I'm sure I'll reflect some on the book itself in the coming days, but for the moment I am thinking about why I just read this book.Carroll published it in early 2001, and I picked it up in late 2002. It sat on the

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-69825453289164945842010-02-13T19:09:00.003-05:002010-02-13T20:53:50.024-05:00

We would wave the white flag of surrender, but no one could see it.Our neighbor's car is under that mound to the left.We thought this drift looked like a gnome, or a "snome" as it wereJoy in the snow

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-29860928723672102782010-02-09T21:39:00.003-05:002010-02-09T21:50:59.357-05:00

Here's a little video thing I've been having fun with.

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-66524029165650941052010-02-06T22:11:00.001-05:002010-02-06T22:17:27.062-05:00

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-45539707351766409322010-02-05T09:16:00.002-05:002010-02-05T09:26:46.846-05:00

When we lived in Chicago Cheryl taught at the largest all girls school in the country, Mother McAuley. The school was locally famous for two things: its basketball team and Jenny McCarthy, who graduated and promptly posed for Playboy. Internally, the school was famous for never closing no matter how nasty the Chicago weather got. The principal at the time, at stern sister, was fond of saying, "at

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-80505882165985547882010-01-29T17:06:00.002-05:002010-01-29T17:32:26.145-05:00

Presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin was Jon Stewart's guest on the Daily Show last night, and they were talking about the State of the Union address. Goodwin mentioned a classic gaffe committed by President Nixon when he delivered his last State of the Union in January 1974, about eight months before he resigned.Nixon ignored Watergate almost entirely in the speech and, instead, laid out

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074608.post-86519628383223136942010-01-26T17:43:00.001-05:002010-01-26T17:43:53.272-05:00

I was walking out of the church building with a group of friends last evening when some guy driving past rolled his window down and shouted, “Jesus isn’t real.”We’ve all been tempted to yell rudely out the window at other people from time to time. The guy who cuts you off in traffic might merit a “yahoo!”; the woman who walks cluelessly across the street while yakking on the cell phone deserves a

Christian Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05404166082971649728noreply@blogger.com7