I have been struggling to understand and articulate my ideas around the recent mess of the Muhammad cartoons in the Danish newspaper. However, Gary Younge at The Nation (of course) has done it far better than I could have. It's a good read.

One of the most important parts of this mess, which I hadn't understood is this:

I love, I mean love, getting my mind blown in seminary. This week is the week I get my mind blown in two different directions by approaches to sacred texts.

I had a class today, where we were all going around the room, and the teachers had asked for a one word, or one phrase description of ourselves that would help them remember us. I said "I'm a mystic." Someone asked me once why I called myself a mystic. I had to think a minute or two. In that process, I realized that I came to that label not so much from a head space, but from a heart space, which is why I have a hard time sometimes explaining why I think I am one.

I heard a great talk this morning by Herbert Locke, who is a professor at University of Washington. He gave a great talk at the Earl Lectures titled "America and the Theocratic Vision: Why America is Not a Christian Nation (and, Pray God, Never Will Be)". It was a fantastic talk, which looked at the original failure to create a Christian nation by the Puritans.

As I've said before, I've nicknamed PSR "Progressive Christian Central." They are launching a new website in a couple of weeks, called Progressive Christian Witness. In their words it is

For reasons that escape me right at the moment, a while ago, I signed up a anonymous yahoo account to a Family Research Council mailing list. I hardly ever read my mail from this account, but happened to this morning, and was greeted by an email with this quote:

Here's a quiz I couldn't resist taking, and posting, especially given the result! Thanks to Gina:

Finals

First, you might have noticed the blog entries have gotten a bit less frequent lately. That's because I'm in the throes of finals. Next week is the last week of classes, and I'm completely swamped. Don't be surprised not to see a blog entry until break.

Speaking of finals, my final project for the Art & Religion course, which has continued to be, er, a challenge for me, is up on the web. Enjoy.

I was about to write yet another scathing post about the intolerance and persecution complex of the religious right, when I came across this really good post on Street Prophets. It's worth a read. It's about Soulforce, Inc.