Theoblogical

And PJ O’Rourke behaves like an ass (again).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcjeUFodYfQ

Alan Grayson is awesome here.

From the United Methodist Reporter:

The Rev. Paige Eaves, pastor of Crescenta Valley UMC in Montrose, Calif., acknowledged she hesitated about getting involved in Occupy Los Angeles, “trying to figure out what the message of the movement was and if I could align myself with it as a clergyperson.”

But soon she had concluded affirmatively.
“It is obvious to me that the call to economic justice is clearly part of our theological and denominational legacy and mission,” she said.

http://www.umportal.org/article.asp?id=8435

The floodgates are opening,  and the churches are awakening.  What the Right dismissively labels “Culture War” is becoming a new theological division between the Right Wing of Christendom and the politically concerned.  And,  as usual,  a disturbingly large, inactive, un-engaged group of “Moderates” or “Centrists” who don’t even think about it.  The large  majority of them seem to diss the idea  of political activity and open dissent.  If the active, “Occupy-supporting” and “Occupy involved”  can articulate a theological vision (which many groups have been doing for decades),  then this movement will naturally reach many more as more of the middle class slide  down into poverty and debilitating unemployment, home foreclosure,  and health care debts.  We’ve already reached an apparent tipping point.  And many in the church who have been so fortunate as to have heard or  been exposed to visions of God’s Kingdom as a place and life of justice and peace are seeing the importance  of lifting this vision up and re-affirming it in solidarity with the increasing oligarchy that is being strengthened before our very eyes.

Dave Winer highlights what ALL JOurnalists shoudl be doing with claims such as the fictions that the GOP is floating about through their drones. They’ve repeatedly been claiming that taxing small business owners prevents jobs from being created.

They asked the Republicans for names of small business people they could interview that would confirm what they say. How many did they get? Zero. They also asked some of the lobbying groups that say the same thing. Again, no introductions. So they went online and looked for some small business people to interview, and got the same answer over and over. They played the interviews. It was inspiring! They’re trying to win, in business, not win in taxes. When they have a chance to grow — they grow, and they don’t worry about whether they’ll pay more or less taxes. A couple of them said taxes are too low and they worry about the country, and they would happily pay more.

via Scripting News: NPR should get a Pulitzer for this.

Yes,  I heartily agree.  NPR, in this matter,  is the model of what good journalism should do with such claims.  The Left-Right, point counterpoint “debates” that set up this “here’s one side” and then “here’s the other side” makes no effort to verify the claims.

Love it.  I’ve posted a similar video link at some point,  but I wanted to re-emphasize and re-highlight.  Rev. Michael Ellick interviewed by Laura Flanders

http://www.nationofchange.org/occupy-church-1321464468

Got 3 new books this past week:

Reading the Cavanaugh book, Being Consumed, right now. First chapter talks about what constitutes economic “freedom”, and it is much more than the simple absence of coercion. He even takes Milton Friedman to task for his ignoring the telos of economic freedom, which ends up making such a “free market capitalist fundamentalist” view espousing a freedom which is nothing.