Mike Pence and Causality

Governor Mike Pence of Indiana has been in the news since his selection as Donald Trump's vice-presidential nominee.  Of course, this means that some of his more surprising statements over the years have suddenly found themselves highlighted.  For instance, "Despite the hysteria from the political class and the media, smoking doesn't kill."

Memories IX: A Step over the Void

Skyline Traverse is a Seneca Rocks classic, described in the old guidebook as "one of the finest routes of its grade".  The author then continues, however, "The start of the second pitch has filled the hearts of many beginning climbers with fear".  When you arrive there, it is not hard to see why, especially if (as the "beginning climber") you are the second person on the rope.

Are You Receiving Me?

Justin Lee

Our child Eli loved to dream big.  Several times over the years, he and I dreamed together about putting on some kind of event - perhaps a mini-conference - in State College that would highlight the call for the Christian church to be fully inclusive of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, as well as the many gifts that our LGBTQ siblings have to offer the church.  This call, we believed and still believe, is one that issues from the heart of the gospel and is also one that many Christians are longing to hear (whatever may be the 'official line' of the churches to which they belong).

Can "Moral Foundations" Be Criticized?

You've probably heard about moral foundations theory, which is described in detail in Jonathan Haidt's book The Righteous Mind.  Simply put, this theory suggests that human moral judgments are points in a higher-dimensional space: we don't just evaluate actions or policies along a "good/bad" axis but along several different axes such as "care/harm", "fairness/cheating", "liberty/oppression", "purity/disgust", "authority/subversion" and so on.  These axes (okay, I know that a high-dimensional space does not come with a preferred coordinate system, but bear with me) are referred to as "moral foundations".

It's been suggested further that the cultural-ideological fissures evident at least in American society are tied to the relative weighting of these moral foundations: "progressives", it is said, prioritize the Care and  Fairness foundations almost exclusively, whereas "conservatives" give the other foundations equal weight with these two.  I find this helpful in terms of understanding the different ways in which people think.

Exclusion and Embrace

A few posts ago I was sharing some of the themes that are, or have become, prominent on Points of Inflection - among them, faith-based commitment to creation care, support for the LGBTQ community, and dealing with cancer which has recurred since my treatment in 2014.  Though these seem quite a disjointed collection of ideas, I believe that as I live through them and their implications, I'm going to find connections and intersections.  In talking friends recently, I've come to feel that one important connection is this question: where exactly is the boundary of the beloved community?

Wine That Makes Us Stagger

In Psalm 60, the writer has a complaint to make to God.  Trouble has been piled upon trouble.  You have made your people see hard things, says verse 3; you have given us wine to drink that makes us stagger.  We're reeling!

Seek the Welfare of the City

Where do I belong?

© 2007 Tracy Hunter, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio

One of the great, haunting images of the book of Hebrews - stretched out over three chapters, from 11 to 13 - is an extended portrayal of believers as strangers and exiles upon the earth.   Let us go to Jesus, says the writer, outside the camp, and bear the reproach that he endured.  For, here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.   Let us not become too comfortable here, settling down, rounding out, accumulating privilege.  Our job is to run a race, to go through a great shaking-up - in order that things that cannot be shaken shall remain.