Christianity

The Catholic Crisis: Part II: When faith is challenged, Catholics must grow up

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Many years ago, when I was struggling to understand the smoke-and-mirrors world of corporate journalism, a Washington, D.C., veteran passed on to me a bit of wisdom:
When I was a reporter, an old PR pro once told me something. He said ‘You come to the press conferences and you listen, and the first mistake you make is that you think we’re lying. You discover we’re not lying. Then you make a greater mistake. You think we’re telling the truth.’

Empathy

Americans Shouting At and Talking With Each Other

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This remarkable video captures the scene at an unusual demonstration: one where the police make no attempt to separate the two sides. Those defending a convicted policeman’s reputation and those attacking the system as racist are vehemently opposed to each other. Without police lines between them, people engage at close quarters, shout insults and even talk and answer each other’s points, nose to nose. It looks like the police should stand back at more demos, and let this happen. People want to speak at and to each other and some even listen.

Empathy

Bad temper in inter-faith dialogue

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I guess I’m not alone in sometimes being mystified by myself and my reactions. I want to be a peace-maker – yet I sometimes lose my cool, and can provoke others to rage, without meaning to. I am part of an inter-faith committee in Geneva, Switzerland, the city where I live. We’ve built up some good friendships, relationships across divides – but the tensions in the world beyond our borders often touch us. Which is no big surprise.

Culture

Six items of clothing for a month…

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When have I ever linked to a fashion article? But this is I like: Shoppers on a ‘Diet’ Tame the Urge to Buy. Sally Bjornsen, the founder of the Great American Apparel Diet, said she was prompted to stop buying clothes for a simple reason: “I was sick and tired of consumerism,” she said. Last summer, Ms. Bjornsen, 47, said she was thinking about how years of easy credit had led to overspending on cars, homes and luxury goods. Then, looking in her own closet, she realized that she was part of the problem, she said.

Culture

Orlando: Surreal Film Ridicules Gender Roles and War

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By Ralph Seliger
“Orlando” is a 1992 film of exceeding crispness and beauty, being re-released on July 23. Spoiler alert: because of the paucity of dialogue and plot, I provide more detail than I normally would in a review, but I suggest that this is not a problem. Its plot basically serves as a vehicle for conveying a memorable cinematic experience. Yet since nothing other than the fantastic seems to happen, this is not for moviegoers who only appreciate realism. For those who can enjoy more, it’s remarkable for (among other things) a stately pace that never seems to drag.

Culture

Shame and Love

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This post was inspired by an email I received two days ago: “Where does shame come from …? How can we approach it so we can eventually free ourselves from it? What works for you? What did you see working for others? Anything alive in you around this topic that might serve other readers as well?”

art

The Feast of Mary Magdalen: Celebrating Incarnation

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I would like to declare July 22nd a feast day to celebrate our incarnation on this earth, something all of us alive and who have ever lived share with all life and life to come. We are made of the same substance; we are subject to the same joys and sufferings of the flesh.

Culture

Unemployment, Fear, and What We Can Do

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A manager in a failing department store runs to the bathroom and throws up, consumed with the fear of losing her health benefits which, even with COBRA, will cost too much. A teacher wakes up multiple nights a week with his whole body clenched, dreading that California’s annual pink slip won’t be retracted this time. A factory worker grieves the loss of friendship and socializing at work as much as the lost income. Very likely everyone reading this knows someone who has recently lost a job. Unemployment is a strange word; defined negatively, it fails to convey the meaning of an often devastating experience (though one that, together, we can mitigate).

Christianity

Does Religion Cause Bad Behavior? Hitchens Can't Decide

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Christopher Hitchens’s book God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything is a lengthy and detailed description of what happens when religious people behave badly. And this apparent correlation between religion and bad behavior is perhaps one of the most common reasons cited by the new atheists as to why all religion should be abandoned. But does Hitchens really believe religion causes people to do bad things? As I illustrate his position is unclear. An interview with Jian Ghomeshi on QTV reveals the double standard that Hitchens has about the cause/effect relationship of religion and human behavior.

Culture

Nonviolent Conflict and Comunication — at Street Level

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Edwin Rutsch is videotaping all kinds of people in political hotspots and asking them for their views about and experience of empathy. Today he is at a pro-Johannes Mehserle demonstration in Walnut Creek, an outlying Bay Area suburb. Mehserle is the San Francisco Bay Area transit policeman who killed an innocent, unarmed traveler in full view of dozens of people last year, and who was just convicted of involuntary manslaughter. After the verdict was announced on July 8 a great deal of anger was expressed on the streets of Oakland at the insufficiency of the verdict, and Edwin was there taping as well (he recommends #s 27, 29 and 34 to our readers): here is # 27, his brief interview with our own Nichola Torbett:

In this video Niochola deftly brings together two strands of nonviolent work that can seem to be working at odds with each other. Here she is talking about empathy for the police, while linking arms with fellow protesters against efforts by the police to minimize and disperse their collective energy.