Presby-Musings

I was thrilled to hear that President Obama's inauguration team had invited Louie Giglio to deliver the benediction at Obama 's 2nd inauguration.  Giglio is the pastor of Passion City Church in Atlanta, and the founder of the Passion Conferences which attract tens of thousands of students.  Giglio is also a committed activist, driven to stamp out human trafficking around the world. In addition, Giglio is an evangelical Christian, who happens to be fairly theologically conservative.  Giglio has, however, spent the last 10-15 years devoted to motivating a new generation to follow Christ and do kingdom work in the world.    His selection spoke to me of at least a symbolic gesture toward evangelical Christians from the Obama administration---a group that holds President Obama in fairly low esteem.  These are the kinds of things that I want to see from the President---reaching out to those who don't agree with him to help heal the divisions i...

It's over... The Election. Is. Over. [Now breathe deeply] I've issued a personal moratorium on news, news-related media and news items.  I have no desire to hear how or why President Obama won re-election. I have no desire to hear how or why Mitt Romney failed to get elected. I am done.  I've reached my information quota, and I'm sick to death of listening to politicians posture, grandstand, evoke the most incredible hyperbole when saying virtually nothing and promising to singlehandedly save America. Before the election I gave up monitoring and posting on Twitter because I grew weary of the negativity from both liberals and conservatives and the way it made me want to fight, argue and act out of meanness. Now, I fear that I am going to have to give up monitoring and posting on Facebook for the same reason. I seriously don't need the negativity.  And I don't need any more reminders that our nation is divided---some might say hopelessly so. I...

I sent this letter to my congregation, but it could easily go to the whole Church... Election 2008 has finally come to an end. For those of us who have been suffering from election fatigue these past few weeks, it's a welcome relief, to tell you the truth. But now, after months and months of being made aware of all the ways Americans seem to be divided, we will begin to hear (and quite rightly) that we must come together. In president-elect Obama's victory speech last night he spoke directly to this when he quoted Abraham Lincoln, who also presided over a divided nation. "We are not enemies but friends," Lincoln said after the Civil War, "though passion may have strained...it must not break our bonds of affection." These are fine words. We can't escape the sense of history in that they were spoken by an African-American who has been elected President of the United States in Lincoln's home state, and in Chicago, the very city where Lincoln won th...