Kenneth Sutton's aide-mémoire
My Second-Life alter ego has posted some photos to mark A year of Quaker meeting in SL.
It was a year ago that we held our first Quaker meeting for worship in Second Life, and here we are, still meeting weekly, with a midweek meeting at a more Euro-friendly time getting started, and a beautiful meetinghouse.
David Zarembka critiques a few news reports on the situation in his Report 17 — Hoodwinked: International Coverage of the Crisis in Kenya
If this story had been true, it would have been one of the biggest massacres in the current violence in Kenya. Even though the story was fabricated, it was passed on by at least CNN and Time. I have never seen any reference to it in the Kenyan media.
This ought to be a red flag not only for coverage of the recent events in Kenya, but overall coverage by the international media in Africa.
Carol, blogging at among Friends has a number of posts about the situation in Kenya, including a message from Friends United Meeting staff yesterday:
The country Kenya is now in chaos now and many people are dying and properties destroyed as a reaction to the announcement of the results. We are appealing for prayers that calmness may come to our country.
Peace and unity may prevail in our country. We are all safe wherever we are. Pray for Kenya!! Pray for Kenya!!!God bless
John Muhanji
There is a also a press release from Friends United Meeting.
Well, I’ve cherry-picked the best part of Paul’s post: Showers of Blessings: La Natividad: Year 2
The most touching part for me happens at St. Paul’s when, through a nice bit of stagecraft, the masked José y Maria are replaced with a flesh-and-blood couple holding a real baby. The switcheroo can’t be seen by the audience until the right moment when the adoring animals and wise men part, and when they realize what’s happened and see the living actors and baby there’s a spontaneous “ohhhh” that fills the church. I tear up every time. I realized tonight that this is what happens whenever we are able to break through the masquerade of religion and illusion and encounter the Living God on the other side.
But how better to note his beautiful image of breaking through illusion to the Living God.
Via QuakerQuaker and Martin Kelley, I found Jeanne’s Social Class & Quakers blog and her blog game on class. As she says,
It’s based on an exercise developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University. . . . The exercise developers hold the copyright but have given me permission to post it here and ask that if you participate in this blog game, you acknowledge their copyright.
Go on over to Jeanne’s blog for a link to the creators, in addition to wonderful comments and links (in the comments) to others who have done the exercise.
Bold items are advantages I received.
Jeanne adds:
To participate in this blog game, copy and paste the above list into your blog, and bold the items that are true for you. If you don’t have a blog, feel free to post your responses in the comments. Once enough people participate in this little game, I’ll do a Part II post about what all this has to do with Friends. (And you can, in your blog post, ponder what it means to Friends).
Go on over to Jeanne’s blog if you do this exercise, and let her know.
I’m a sucker for a great line and Peggy Parsons delivers today in A Silly Poor Gospel: Protection
Then I noticed that this God was a pretty crummy wiseguy. He often appeared to blast good people anyway. A God less honorable than the Mob was not a God I wanted. Hence the apostasy.
As always, her whole column is a rewarding read.
Well, all I can say is, God bless Peggy Parsons: Star-belly Sneeches and modern day cossacks
I don’t like fear-based segregation. I do not often find that it is based in reality. I like to challenge it and look for the good in the other side. That’s my default setting.
I’d love to quote the conclusion of Nancy’s Apology: Harry Potter and the Eerie Silence, but that just wouldn’t be cool. It’s longish for a blog post, and worth every moment spent.
I don’t think it was the pagan or magic aspects of the Potter books that drove the conservatives nutty: I think it was the Christian elements.
Rowling, who is not a professed Christian, took 2000 years of christendom–in the form of symbols, legends, archetypes, allegories, and values–and put it into a new story.
(Hat tip to Johan Maurer and QuakerQuaker.org)
On Friday 26 August 1664, Samuel Pepys mentions William Penn.
This day my wife tells me Mr. Pen, Sir William’s son, is come back from France, and come to visit her. A most modish person, grown, she says, a fine gentleman.
Yesterday I was on a panel in Second Life for a University of California Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism fellowship program project. The fellows had researched and created reports on “Faces of Faith: God Sex Family” and decided to bring their reports into Second Life. As part of their weeklong exhibit, they organized this panel of SL religious figures (video). It was a real privilege to be on the panel.