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Archive: James Anderson
Cosmic Companionship
Obama's spontaneous, clear, concise, incisive response to Brooks' query regarding Niebuhr gave me hope and assurance that Obama understood well and carried in both his heart and mind Niebuhr's brand of pragmatic, Christian realism.
By James Anderson | November 11, 2008; 05:05 AM ET | Comments (2)
The War of the Gods
The lifeblood of a democratic society is its continuing capacity to engage in thoughtful, open, candid, substantive, debate and discussion. Neither public life, nor church life, nor the media encourage and support the forms of discourse a democracy needs.
By James Anderson | October 17, 2008; 03:26 PM ET | Comments (8)
Palin, Evangelical Religion and Enlightened Religion
I share with Sarah Palin what I assume is both anxiety and pride over a son serving in Iraq. Unlike Governor Palin, I do not believe that our nation's leaders have sent our sons on "a task that is from God."
By James Anderson | September 12, 2008; 05:04 PM ET | Comments (16)
Will Conservatives Tell Palin to Practice What They Preach?
Governor Palin clearly proved she can be the attack dog for the Republican Party. Will conservative Christians hew to their scriptural guidelines reminding her and the world that the Bible says "suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence."
By James Anderson | September 8, 2008; 08:31 AM ET | Comments (16)
Senators, What Have You Done for Us Lately?
As U.S. Senators, will each of you tell us what you have done as Senators to encourage the development and use of alternative power sources?
By James Anderson | August 17, 2008; 05:36 AM ET | Comments (5)
Colluding in Scapegoating the "Other"
Even religious leaders learn that scapegoating the other as "the enemy" is a way to keep the conflict going and maintain a claim to power. This is evident in how the church handled the issue of race and how it is handling the issue of homosexuality.
By James Anderson | August 2, 2008; 09:09 PM ET | Comments (1)
Should Satire Require a Gun Permit?
Laughter can be a wonderful remedy to conceit and vanity. But laughter can also be a painful attack on the very core of the other. The difference can be very hard to see until the blow is delivered.
By James Anderson | June 24, 2008; 07:35 AM ET | Comments (8)
Life is Not a Health Spa Visit
Life is not meant to be a long-term sojourn in a health spa.
By James Anderson | June 16, 2008; 07:29 AM ET | Comments (2)
Think Global, Act Local on Racism, Sexism
Someone who genuinely desires deeper insight and increased knowledge regarding the issues posed for religion in America by the “isms’ of sexism and racism must begin by thinking locally.
By James Anderson | March 29, 2008; 06:35 AM ET | Comments (6)
Speak from the Heart, Not for the Polls
I am a 75-year-old, white, male, a proud veteran of the Marine Corps., a retired Episcopal clergyman, and I speak as one who loves this country. Oh how I wish the congregation my wife and I attend had a minister like Dr. Wright.
By James Anderson | March 21, 2008; 09:06 AM ET | Comments (11)
A Degree of Separation
The wonders of the World Wide Web and of E-mail provide a marvelous technology for almost instant transfer of vast amounts of information. But they also constitute an additional powerful buffer, allowing us to be in touch and not touch.
By James Anderson | March 13, 2008; 04:26 AM ET | Comments (1)
Faith in the Public Arena
If religious and political leaders are willing and able to heed the ground rules Obama proposes, the climate of public debate may become considerably more healthy and fruitful.
By James Anderson | February 22, 2008; 08:43 AM ET | Comments (1)
An 'Unclarity' Best Ignored
Much of the muddled thought of Dr. Williams regarding English law and Islamic law seems to stem from his perspective in a declining established church within a more and more diverse society.
By James Anderson | February 15, 2008; 10:47 AM ET | Comments (14)
Casting for Votes, not Debate
Romney’s speech strikes me as a well crafted statement, designed to position his candidacy as a moderate conservative leader with integrity and character.
By James Anderson | December 6, 2007; 10:33 AM ET | Comments (2)
Torturing the Very Idea of America
Whether motivated by revulsion of the act of torture, pity for the victim, respect for human dignity, or charity for all, most human beings and most nations regard torture as a moral evil
By James Anderson | November 11, 2007; 04:59 PM ET | Comments (6)
Appreciate the Differences Too
There are differences which have enormous and far reaching influence on the way the message of the major faiths is understood and lived out
By James Anderson | October 18, 2007; 09:55 AM ET | Comments (29)
Absolute Truths
This trip with the Spirit of Christ has been too eventful, surprising and beyond my imagining to wrap in a statement of beliefs. That is not the way love works.
By James Anderson | October 16, 2007; 08:58 AM ET | Comments (29)
Warning Labels
Hitchens is in error if he believes the world will be a better place if the quest for God disappears – because it isn’t going to disappear or diminish. What is happening, and will continue, is that the search will take new paths and an increasing variety of forms.
By James Anderson | October 1, 2007; 07:18 AM ET | Comments (17)
The Nun, the Buddhist and the Columnist
Protestants have been tempted to treat Scripture as an idol. Catholics have been tempted to treat the institution of the Church as an idol.
By James Anderson | July 22, 2007; 12:38 PM ET | Comments (492)
Peering Into the World of the Dead
Between the living and the dead is a great gulf, a mystery to all.
By James Anderson | July 3, 2007; 07:24 AM ET | Comments (62)
First, Drop the Moral Pretensions
The Iraq War has not been, and is not now, a moral venture. Let's be done with moral pretension.
By James Anderson | June 26, 2007; 10:10 AM ET | Comments (160)
Patching Together the Quilt of Faith
The plain fact is that there is no authoritative source anywhere to which we can turn for normative definition of the tenets and traditions of Christianity.
By James Anderson | June 18, 2007; 08:04 AM ET | Comments (19)
Life is Tough
Fear propels us to accept fiction for fact, illusions for reality, to give ourselves over to idols of our own creation in the hope they will save us.
By James Anderson | June 1, 2007; 09:31 AM ET | Comments (45)
The Heavy Yoke of Religion
Tillich's sermon renewed my faith that there is a hidden saving power in our existence that does give rest to our souls.
By James Anderson | May 28, 2007; 10:46 AM ET | Comments (13)
Not With Where WE Are
How can I be satisfied living in proximity to the violence, death, and insanity of a war zone?
By James Anderson | May 21, 2007; 10:31 AM ET | Comments (15)
The Experience of an Ordinary Believer
am thankful and glad that my Christian faith has never rested on certainty about the meaning of any Scriptural story or tenet of doctrine.
By James Anderson | April 7, 2007; 09:10 AM ET | Comments (28)
Before and After
The world is a beautiful and wondrous place. To think of the ultimateness of its end requires a fearsome act of imagination.
By James Anderson | March 23, 2007; 10:51 AM ET | Comments (14)
Protect Religious Liberty
The complications of mandatory teaching about religion in our schools are beyond imagining.
By James Anderson | March 9, 2007; 09:08 AM ET | Comments (198)
'That Bible I Mean to Follow'
Church and society have been wrong. Gay friends and colleagues deserve the same love and respect as my own family.
By James Anderson | March 5, 2007; 11:32 AM ET | Comments (137)
The Critic's Responsibility
The words of responsible critics may be hard to hear but they deserve our respect.
By James Anderson | February 21, 2007; 05:48 PM ET | Comments (4)
Religious Bureaucracies Sometimes Hinder Environmental Activism
Many weeks went by until it gradually dawned on me that my letter to the bishop was not going to be answered. It never was.
By James Anderson | February 13, 2007; 03:01 PM ET | Comments (2)
Women Still Reminded To Know Their 'Place'
My wife was dismayed that the other women were focused on what to call their spouses in public conversation.
By James Anderson | January 23, 2007; 09:50 AM ET | Comments (36)
Its Time To Abandon Just War Theory
The problem with the concept of a just war is the implication that the_conditions of the teaching can actually be met.
By James Anderson | January 15, 2007; 05:15 PM ET | Comments (19)
