Signs of the Times

Signs of the Times  •  10 June 2016  •  No. 76

Special edition
Sexual assault

        There is no subtle way to have a conversation about sexual assault and rape. Nevertheless, we must endure the discomfort.
        If you can read no further on this page, I urge you to read the statement by the Stanford University campus rape victim. She remains anonymous, but she had the moxie to not only write this but also to read this missive (and it is long)—in court and in the presence of her attacker and the case’s presiding judge.
        This is a modern-day epistle, a dispatch from the traumatized trenches of gender bias. See “Make a new name” below.

Signs of the Times  •  2 June 2016  •  No. 75

¶ Processional. “Get Right With God,” Lucinda Williams.

Above: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia

Memorial Day reprise

Special edition of Signs of the Times

Fellow citizens (in the US): We need to talk. Not just about Memorial Day but about an annual holiday calendar that includes no less than 13 days celebrating (directly or indirectly) a militarized history of our nation. (The annotated list is printed below.)

Signs of the Times  •  26 May 2016  •  No. 74

¶ Processional. “Conga,” Miami Sound Machine.

Signs of the Times  •  20 May 2016  •  No. 73

Special issue

Quotes from early Christian leaders on war and peace
(just in time for Memorial Day)

Editor’s note: My early faith formation training emphasized the urgency of “getting back to the early church” in resistance to encultured Christianity. Of course, what was never mentioned was the early church’s refusal—until the fourth century when Christianity became Rome’s official religion—to wield the sword in defense of the state.
        We hope this special issue of “Signs of the Times” will provide needed ballast in the coming Memorial Day season when the altars of warriors’ lives are vested with redemptive national significance.

¶ Processional. “You have to learn how to die / If you want to want to be alive.” —Wilco, “War on War”
 

Signs of the Times  •  13 May 2016  •  No. 72

New essay featured this week

“Public reasoning and ekklesial reckoning
Commentary on the Vatican conference calling for ‘spirituality and practice
of active nonviolence’ to displace church focus on just war,” by Ken Sehested
 

¶ Processional. “Samba Magic,” Brazilian beat big band, by the Basement Jaxx with the Metropole Orchestra. (Thanks Al.)

Signs of the Times  •  4 May 2016  •  No. 71

¶ Processional. Theme song from the movie “Schindler’s List,” performed by violinist Ann Fontanella. “Holocaust Remembrance Day” begins tonight at sundown.

Signs of the Times  •  28 April 2016  •  No. 70

¶ Processional. “There’s a Meetin’ Here Tonight,” Cantus.

Signs of the Times  •  21 April 2016  •  No. 69

¶ Processional. “We are stardust, we are golden, we are billion year old carbon, And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.” —Joni Mitchell, “Woodstock”

Signs of the Times  •  14 April 2016  •  No. 68

¶ Processional. “Pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua. Osanna, Osanna in excelsis” (“Heaven and earth are full of thy glory. Hosanna, hosanna in the highest”) —“The Ground,” by Ola Gjeilo, performed by the Heritage Concert Choir at Western Washington University

Signs of the Times  •  9 April 2016  •  No. 67

Abbreviated issue

This edition of “Signs of the Times” is abbreviated to clear space for hiking in Utah, with some of our kiddos, pictured at right, in Dead Horse Point Park: Rich, Jonathan, Jessica, Sydney and (behind) Nancy and Ken.

¶ Processional. Grammy winner Rhiannon Giddens and friends sing at a College Park Baptist Church, Greensboro, NC, rally against HB2, a draconian piece of North Carolina legislation aimed primarily at gay and transgendered persons but also threatens, in the guise of “religious liberty,” discrimination against others (including, of all things, the rights of NC cities to establish minimum wage laws). (3:17. Thanks Jane)