Roundup: Being prophetic, money, flying padre, stories, Apocalypse

Between a rock and a hard place

Younger clergy “are worried about job security — not just about getting paid (which is not always a given) — but whether they can do the job they feel called to do in congregations that don’t want to change … Being prophetic is an attribute we laud in seminary, but it can get you fired in the parish.”

Future of liberal religion: a counterculture blooms?

Have desperate ecumenical Protestants now quieted their courageous prophetic voices in exchange for building greater unity with numerically-robust evangelical groups?

Money, technology, and the silence of churches

Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite wants to do for money what gays and lesbians have done for sex — within the church, that is. Instead of ignoring this unwelcome subject, she wants to bring it out into the open.

Flying padre set to keep flying

The Uniting Church has reconfirmed its commitment to servicing remote parts of the country, including far west New South Wales, with its flying padres.

Neither The Joker nor godlessness drove Batman shooting

Scottish philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre reminds us that the human being is a teller of stories that aspire to truth. But the key question for men [sic.] is not about their own authorship; “I can only answer the question, ‘What am I to do?’ if I can answer the prior question, ‘Of what story or stories do I find myself a part?’”

Apocalypse now and then: our global death wish

It’s almost like we’d rather the world be destroyed, than for it to be as impersonal, as relentless, as it appears.