In the News. . .

So I have a certain friend who is fond of sending me random news articles from a denominational news site. These articles are always intriguing to me, because they make me realize how differently I am thinking about things in comparison with many in my tradition. I came across this article when I was browsing the news site, and I thought I'd put it out here. the link is http://www.faithnews.cc/articles.cfm?sid=6945 The article adresses a speech in which Sen. Barack Obama from Illinois is appealing for cooperation between religious and secular America. I was a little taken aback by the article, because it seemed to characterize the senator differently than I had previously viewed him. I linked over to the transcript of the actual address, and found that I was aligning much more with the senator than with the news story I had initially read. Here's a link to the Senator's site and his speech: http://obama.senate.gov/speech/060628-call_to_renewal_keynote_address/index.html

Anyone interested in dialogue on some of the themes in these two pieces, I'd love to hear from you. I think Sen. Obama makes some great points about people of all faiths translating their values into terms in which they are able to communicate them to all of society. I would argu with the FaithNews Network, that this is not a call to water down beliefs, it is a call to employ our beliefs in making us better members of our communities, and thus more effectiveely connected to the peopl with whom we hope to share our very real faith.

If he did get the presidential nomination for 2008, I don't know of anyone else yet in the runnings that I'd rather vote for.

Learning how to use this thing...

So I'm trying to figure out how to post papers, articles etc. on this thing. I think that it may entail hosting them somewhere else, and then just linking over to them from here. Anyway, as soon as I figure that out we'll get some fun reading up for everybody. In the meantime, I just thought I'd let everyone know I moved to my new apartment and it's great. you should all come over sometime and see it. . . oh wait, that's not really practical, since this thing is connected to the www. Well, in that case I'll try to put up some pics by the end of hte week.

Thanks to our new contributors who have come on board. I look forward ot hearing from them. Also, congrats to one of our contributors, simplegift, on her Graduating this weekend.

what I envision

So ultimately, I would like this blog to be about something bigger than me. In the next few weeks I will be inviting some people to dialogue with me on a few specific topics. I want to create a space where organic discussion can take place between people from different perspectives who share a common interest in the topics I have chosen. My approach is from a Christian theological interest, but I hope to hear from this and other perspectives as well. The areas I want to explore for now are as follows: text/art, community, love for the neighbor, love for the enemy, and justice/justification. Look for some links, papers, new participants and topics to be posted in the next week.

The First Post

okay so This is the first post on this. I wanted to try a new/ experimental blog. unlike the xanga (for my family) blog, the myspace (for my friends) blog, or the facebook (this isn't a blog, but a yeilding to social pressures) page, I wanted a place that I could write on a few specific topics. Those will be outlined in the next post. I just wanted to make this a sort of declaration of what this wasn't.

Peace.
-Daniel