By Parson Brown, on June 14th, 2013 Here is Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, a man who has actually stood in the pulpit at Ebenezer Baptist, saying something very similar to my sermon back in February. Always nice to find support from someone closer to the real thing as it were…
…Americans of faith—and according to Gallup that includes 92 percent of us—thus must . . . → Read More: Always nice to find support…
By Parson Brown, on June 14th, 2013 This is Fay Vincent, former Commissioner of Baseball, reflecting on some of his Father’s advice. Most of it is fine stuff. Advice to live a quiet honorable life. That and one line of his advice is what crosses into another column.
Here my father reflected the Great Depression and his experience of graduating from Yale . . . → Read More: Father’s Day, Baseball, Status and Religion
By Parson Brown, on June 13th, 2013 As someone who likes the sound of his own voice, after seeing this I was actually speechless. Here is the write up of the reporter asking the question. Here is the cspan video of the exchange.
The core of the speechlessness is this phrase by former speaker Pelosi…
as a practicing and respectful Catholic, . . . → Read More: When can you say…
By Parson Brown, on June 11th, 2013 This is just some noodling. Pharisees were one of the rival groups of Jews at the time of Jesus. Paul was a Pharisee. It is often assumed that Jesus came from a house that would have been closer to the Pharisees than any of the other groups. If nothing else, there is passion in his . . . → Read More: Pharisees
By Parson Brown, on June 4th, 2013 Once upon a time I was a physics geek. Some days I wish I had been smart enough or determined enough to keep studying. But getting past that, one of the best things about physics was its dual nature. You had theoretical physics where you postulated what the world was actually like. And then you . . . → Read More: I Love Physics (A Sentence to Ponder)
By Parson Brown, on June 1st, 2013 T.M. Luhrmann in the NYT talking about the divide between: the faith which is believed and the the faith which believes. It drives certain pastors crazy (cue Blake Shelton’s self-referencing finger), but the author is right about which takes priority.
Rob Bell in the WSJ with a short article that reminds you why you . . . → Read More: Stuff Falling Through the Sermon File
By Parson Brown, on May 29th, 2013 That title is a reference to Wendell Berry. A rough translation: Boomers = people who go where ever the opportunity is greatest regardless of the mess they leave behind. Stickers = people who stay in one place because the community is greater than the individual. As with all dualities it is immediately true and false . . . → Read More: Boomers & Stickers
By Parson Brown, on May 27th, 2013
Biblical Text: John 8:48-59, Athanasian Creed Full Draft of Sermon
I believe that Trinity Sunday, at least as we normally observe it, is the most offensive Sunday of the Church year. Let me explain that statement. The Sunday School answer – Jesus – is what we proclaim most Sundays. Scratching under that simple statement . . . → Read More: A Specific God with A Specific Grace – Trinity Sunday
By Parson Brown, on May 21st, 2013 David Brooks gets it, at least from a secular point, and in a way (especially if you look at the comments from the clueless multitude of Times readers) that is terribly sad. In this essay, he preaches half of my sermon this week much better than I could. The problem, as Babel told us, is . . . → Read More: The Vocabulary of the Spirit
By Parson Brown, on May 10th, 2013 There is something called the GSS, the General Social Survey. It is a large sample survey of the US population regarding several interesting data-sets like religious identity. It starts roughly in the 1970′s and has continued through today. Here is wikipedia on the GSS.
Here is a post by much better social scientists than I, . . . → Read More: What does the data say?
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