unshackled

To Vote Or Not To Vote (by Brian McLaren)

McLaren wrestles with whether to vote or not, (and I think for the first time in writing) comes to the decision to vote. Regardless of whether you agree or not, it’s a good read.

Lately some of my friends and I have been discussing the virtues of voting McKinney or Nader as opposed to simply writing in Jesus on the ballot. Any thoughts? How will your vote reflect your conscience regarding a government that regularly empowers the rich in this world to become richer at the expense of the poor? How will your action this November change the world? Remember––a non-vote can be an act of subversion or a passive apathy.

Let me know on Twitter or Facebook.

Greg Boyd Reviews Overcoming Evil God’s Way

Greg Boyd just posted a mini review of the soon-coming book by Steve Russell, Beachy theologian extraordinaire. I’m eagerly awaiting its release.

A Visualization of Walmart’s Growth

This will either make you nauseous or ecstatic depending on what your conscience is arranged around.

An Opportunity to Open Presidential Debates

An Obama-McCain-Nader-Barr-McKinney debate would be less crowded than most of the Democratic or Republican primary debates, and much less crowded than the debates in the last French presidential election. But it would still be sufficiently energetic and ideologically diverse to boost the quality of the presidential dialogue and give America something closer to a genuinely democratic discourse.

Pregnancy Boom at Gloucester High

And to think it’s all Juno’s fault. Wow.

Obama “Shift to the Center” and the Narrow Authoritarian Spectrum in U.S. Politics

This article highlights just a few of the growing number of things that make me uncomfortable about the direction Obama is taking his campaign and on the way he will lead America when he is sitting in the Commander-in-Chief chair.

Some of the things that concern me the most:

• His approval of the Supreme Court ruling regarding the second ammendment.
• His support of ethanol instead of a more sustainable fuel.
• He supports criminal execution in certain cases.
• Javan Lapp points out that it seems as “if his ‘we will talk it out with enemies’ is falling by the wayside.”
• His ridiculously blind semitic support including his call for an undivided Jerusalem controlled by Israel.

This article points out that it was only recently that Obama began his treacherous flop to the center. Progressives, beware. Stay tuned for more.

Cynthia McKinney Deserves Your Support, Obama Does Not

As many of you know, I’ve been increasingly disappointed to the sake of disillusionment with Obama these past weeks beginning with the Rev. Wright betrayal. Black Agenda Report points out some very good things about Obama that should be obvious but unfortunately aren’t as Obama is fast becoming the newest Washington slick-willy.

I’m leaning towards Cynthia McKinney…a Washington rebel that signed her political death sentence by refusing to accept without question the official story regarding 9/11.

“McKinney, whose last act in Congress was to submit articles of impeachment against George Bush in 2006; who courageously questioned the White House version of events before and after September 11, 2001; who acted as a one-person conscience of the House Armed Services Committee, speaking out against corporate and military mega-theft under both Clinton and Bush; who has with amazing consistency always placed principle above her own personal and electoral fortunes, is at this juncture in history the only vehicle through which progressives can both register their outrage at Obama and begin the process of rebuilding a mass, Black-led movement for real social change. (Ralph Nader cannot, for reasons of temperament and race, achieve such dual purposes.)”

Opting Out

It’ll be interesting to see how economic pressures influence the self-sufficiency of the Amish and Mennonite communities that remain aloof from government aid.

Brian McLaren: A New Kind of Ancient

Interview with Brian McLaren on Jesus Manifesto.

Evangelical movement touts ‘Jesus for president’

Claibourne’s still making waves and here’s CNN reporting from Pittsburgh, an event which I unfortunately missed because I’m still in El Salvador. I’m so excited to see efforts in Pittsburgh like Claibourne’s combined with great organizations like Thomas Merton which has existed for decades.

I can’t talk enough about how the political demographics have changed since 2000 and how the Evangelical Right has fallen from grace and power. Suffice to say that it has, and everything has changed, and even the media doesn’t have it right when it talks about a “Religious Left”.

Sure, there are those flip voters out there that mirror the Religious Right (if you don’t know what that is, ask your parents) but for the most part the young evangelicals and the movement that was facilitated by organizations like Sojourners and yes, Claibourne’s ordinary radicals are willing to ask the deep questions and work for real change that can’t be brought only by legislation and partisan politics.

The media underestimates the new “young Evangelicals” (the new buzzword).