Category: theology
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protesting the illinois budget cuts in logan square
Those of us in Illinois- probably like many of you in other states- have been hearing a lot about state budget woes these days. Without going into the details, the amount of the state’s shortfall is causing the legislature to propose massive spending cuts to many government agencies and social service agencies that receive subsidies.…
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preaching on memorial day weekend
I have a pastoral question for you: What, if anything, should a pastor say on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend? We are visiting family in Mason City, IA and, as is often the case, I preached at First Covenant Church on today. This is the church where my aunt Tammy Swanson-Draheim is the pastor…
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to withdraw or engage… is not the question
Last Tuesday the church community group I facilitate talked about the difficulty of following Jesus. More specifically we looked at the tendency to measure our “success” as Christians with the standard metrics available to secular culture. To illustrate, some Christians see their isolation from pop culture as a sign of their commitment to Jesus while…
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the good stuff is in the comments
I promise this will be the last time the Urban Exile post about race and racism is referenced here. However, yesterday I read two insightful comments on this post that ought to be highlighted. Karen, who is the resident expert on the Orthodox Church around here, writes, In Orthodox spirituality, it is understood that no…
David W. Swanson 