holidays

People love to stay immune from the connections between the sacred and the profane, holy space and “regular” space, tented space and the well-appointed space of a mansion. They try to tell us that politics and religion never meet. Or that money is “dirty” and therefore can get away with its meanness. Deliverance from these false dichotomies is our greatest need as a country. Money is holy and just and good when used for holy and just and good purposes. It is not “dirty” and therefore the property of those naughty boys of Wall Street.

An antidote to Maggie Gallagher’s advice on dealing with relatives.

Gingrich’s Christian Right training.

Democrats press White House against siding with bishops.

Lowlights from Thanksgiving Family Forum.

We Americans don’t like to talk about death or the dead, and since many Protestants have difficuty with Catholic practices around prayer to the saints and prayers for the dead, our practices around All Saints’ and All Souls’ days have drifted in very different directions, leaving more space for the secular, non-religious practices around these festivals.

Brian Williams and John Harris apparently don’t heed Bill Keller’s advice.

Texas Governor Rick Perry says of his August 6 “call to prayer for a nation in crisis” that we need to call on Jesus because “some problems are beyond our power to solve.” Here, John Adams is resurrected to provide guidance.

“What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” illumines the hypocrisy of a nation unable to check and challenge itself concerning its own moral hubris.

What the Texas governor’s “The Response” is all about.