Links

Yes, it's been a while.  Here are a few items of interest that have come through my news reader in recent weeks...

-Rachel Held Evans puts the phrase "The Bible clearly teaches" into some much-needed perspective.

-David Brin offers a perspective on our current political situation that I find compelling.  Granted, everyone thinks their political viewpoint is the best one, but he makes some good points.

-John Shore points out the hypocrisy that biblical literalists commonly display when they voice their condemnations of homosexuality.

-And in this pair of posts, we see how evangelism conducted by those (theists and non-theists alike) with a tribalistic 'us vs. them' mentality fails to be persuasive or winsome.

Happy 2014

And in the spirit of things, here's a New Year's message from author David Brin, who articulates some things that have been rattling around in my head for a while. Among them, this:

Indeed, the lesson must be that a benign Creator -- if one exists -- clearly chose ambiguity and distance for some reason. Not as a cruel and infantile “test of faith,” but as a very clear sermon that we are supposed to stand up and look around, and figure things out for ourselves.

Anathema to those who demand nothing less than absolute certainty, perhaps - but something that the rest of us can embrace, and strive to live up to.