September 2011
1 post
new & improved
Stormy Petrel has diversified into three different tumblrs.
the t-rex commentary: where I sort through daily news, governmental items, and whatever else strikes my fancy.
The Daily Brainstorm: strategy and business related topics.
Church-Fu: articles, quotes, and issues dealing with the American church.
My business site is currently: The Basileia Group
and I have blogs at Credo and Basileia...
August 2011
2 posts
“The matter is quite simple. The bible is very easy to understand. But we...”
“The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives. -Albert...”
June 2011
1 post
“While women weep, as they do now, I’ll fight; while children go hungry, as they...”
– William Booth (via azspot)
April 2011
4 posts
“The truth is that Marx was no more responsible for the monstrous oppression of...”
“You only have power over people as long as you don’t take everything away...”
– Alexander Solzhenitsyn, novelist, Nobel laureate (1918-2008)
March 2011
1 post
“If the questions don’t make sense, neither will the answers.”
– Kurt Vonnegut (via azspot)
February 2011
2 posts
“A stupid man’s report of what a clever man says is never accurate because he...”
– Bertrand Russell (via azspot)
January 2011
2 posts
“Occasionally, you meet a young, rising member of this class at the gelato store,...”
– What the science of human nature can teach us : The New Yorker
“Analogy is an inextricable component of any cognition which seeks to understand...”
– Alberto Toscano (via azspot)
December 2010
11 posts
“Writing about science poses a fundamental problem right at the outset: You have...”
– The Lies of Science Writing - WSJ.com
“In this vein, when I say that we use ‘reference’ as a metaphor, what I mean is...”
– Bad Metaphors Make for Bad Theories | Child’s Play
“To the great body of men who have had exceptional advantages in the way of...”
– Theodore Roosevelt, “The College Graduate and Public Life” (The Atlantic, August 1894).
Read the full article here.
(via theatlantic)
“There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that...”
– The Grapes of Wrath (via azspot)
“Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will...”
– C.S. Lewis (via azspot)
“But thus do I counsel you, my friends: distrust all in whom the impulse to...”
– Nietzsche
“There is no zeal blinder than that which is inspired with the love of justice...”
– Henry Fielding (1707-1754)
“The English historian E.P. Thompson suggested that as industrial capitalism took...”
– CultureBy – Grant McCracken
“Governments which do act in the interests of their citizens and do so...”
– Ian Welsh (via azspot)
November 2010
3 posts
“The point here is a simple one. The name “Jesus” evokes an historical reality...”
– Peter Rollins (via azspot)
This Is Your Brain on Metaphors →
What are we to make of the brain processing literal and metaphorical versions of a concept in the same brain region? Or that our neural circuitry doesn’t cleanly differentiate between the real and the symbolic? What are the consequences of the fact that evolution is a tinkerer and not an inventor, and has duct-taped metaphors and symbols to whichever pre-existing brain areas provided the closest...
The Prosperity Gospel
The connection between prosperity and Jesus has been made in the pages of Harpers before. In May 2005, there was an article by Gordon Bigelow titled Let There Be Markets: The Evangelical Roots of Economics that detailed the connections between evangelical Christianity and Victorian era economics. Fortunately, this article can be read in its entirety here even if you are not a subscriber....
October 2010
1 post
“The rich imagery of the American dream promoted a promise that if one works...”
– The Wizard of Oz: A Man Behind the American Dream (via azspot)
July 2010
3 posts
“I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that...”
– iGoogle
Church as Icon
Bibliolatry. Some groups suffer from it. It keeps them from reading or understanding the bible. It’s a map but they use it as framed art, an icon. What’s the equivalent of church idolatry? Ecclessiolatry? Is this the modern dilemma of trying to get church right? The process is sacred? Missional church has no referent as a process. And that’s the problem. Church is...
The savvy pastor
Tired of the super saavy pastor. All the average pastors with above average “insight”…about how the system works, or the business of ministry, or what a cool operator you are with telling your staff what’s what. “Once you’ve been in the business a while…”, “”
Truth is, this is all pretty elementary. You’re not a genius. ...
June 2010
8 posts
dis-membered: the american church
Dis-membered is the opposite of membered, right? Individual and member cannot be synonymous. The church can be a collection of the un-membered, dis-membered, fragmented. But then is it possible for the church to be a body also? Not really. It’s possible to pretend to be a body because there is a room full of body parts. But that doesn’t constitute a body. But we easily called it...
“Bring the Ruckus is a revolutionary cadre organization in the United States that...”
– Bring the Ruckus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
“Recently I thought for the first time in years of childhood church services in...”
– nightmare brunette
“I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers....”
– Why Latinos (and African-Americans) have concerns about their fellow Evangelicals | OrthoCuban
Solutions for community
Community resoures are hoarded by the nervous. Even when there’s plenty to go around. And/or the wrong people are enjoying them. Structure is meant to enhance and promote community, not choke it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrmGfZlvXTQ →
HBO’s Pee Wee Herman Show. Pre-Playhouse and creative.
May 2010
11 posts
“When this war ends, and it won’t be long, the global economic and...”
– Global Guerrillas
“So the church falls far short of God’s intent. And it fails to conform to our...”
– A Place Called Community
“Yes, many of them are pleasure driven. But they are not unintelligent. They may...”
– The ideas interview: Philip Rieff, the eminent sociologist | Education | The Guardian
“The work of Philip Rieff remains seminal for sociological concerns with morality...”
– Philip Rieff’s Mission: Character, Culture and Morality — Langman 3 (3): 279 — Journal of Classical Sociology
“. In a sense, therapeutic culture is no culture at all but an anti-culture,...”
– First Principles - Rieff, Philip
“The wisdom of the next social order, as I imagine it, would not reside in right...”
– The prophetic Philip Rieff - Crunchy Con
THE DECLINE OF THE WEST →
azspot:
Who’s winning? The global economic system, of course. The 2008 financial crisis, the first real battle of this war (as opposed to the early losses in skirmishes in Russia, Argentina, the Balkans, etc.), generated a very decisive outcome. It was a resounding defeat for nation-states.* The current crisis in the EU will almost certainly end with the same results.
When this war ends,...
“Schumpeter’s theory is that the success of capitalism will lead to a form...”
– Joseph Schumpeter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
“Schumpeter thought that the greatest 18th century economist was Turgot, not Adam...”
– Joseph Schumpeter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
“The Triumph of the Therapeutic Rieff continues the theme established in Freud in...”
– Philip Rieff - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
“Nisbet argued that human beings should not be studied as individuals, but rather...”
– Robert Nisbet Criticism