The Divine role of Emperor or King seems to be making a comeback. The Return of Sacral Rulership?: Ancients would learn, and our Founders too, that the language of sacral rulership is incompatible with a functioning democracy or republic. In 1787 Ben Franklin famously declared that with the Constitution, the founders had given America “a Republic, if you can keep it.” Franklin knew well the perils faced by republics because he had an extensive understanding […]
An Update on Haiti – The Episcopal Church: First and foremost, we call on all Episcopalians throughout the Church to pray for the Diocese of Haiti and for Haitians everywhere. Pray for peace and stability in the diocese, that a way forward may be found towards clear and healthy leadership. Pray for peace and stability in the country, that there may be a peaceful resolution to the governance crisis. Pray for all the institutions and […]
If you haven’t read “American Schism” by Seth David Radwell and Jonathan Israel, I recommend that you do. It’s been a popular recent choice for book groups. It’s a study of the different currents present in the Enlightenment movement and how those were present in the shaping American Politics in the 18th century. I came across this quote this morning when I reviewing my notes: Democracy isn’t easy and there are historical forces that oppose […]
There’s a great discussion in this morning NYTimes newsletter on why we’re seeing such a divided and divisive response to vaccination. The short version is that the CDC and public policy issued strict guidelines in what is actually a much more nuanced situation. The piece discusses what it means to US culture that our national guidelines for children’s COVID vaccinations were a global outlier – with the CDC taking a much more aggressive stance than […]
The Canon to the Ordinary here Rhode Island, the Rev. Canon Dr. Dena Cleaver-Bartholemew pointed me to this post on Threads: @marlena.graves • Threads: From my dissertation, “Kevin Kruse judiciously points out that in 1850 church attendance was a mere 16 percent and that in 1900 church attendance was at 36 percent. It was only at the end of the 1950s that church attendance skyrocketed to 69 percent after corporate interests had been pushing an […]
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry home following medical procedure – The Episcopal Church: Presiding Bishop Michael Curry underwent a procedure earlier today to address his reoccurring subdural hematomas. That procedure was successful, and he is now home from the hospital where he will continue his recovery. There was communication yesterday from the Presiding Bishop’s Office that the PB was going to have a procedure done that should stop the recurring episodes of cranial bleeding that he […]
Office of Gun Violence Prevention | The White House: The Biden-Harris Administration has worked to implement the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the most significant gun violence prevention legislation in nearly 30 years. This legislation is already saving lives by keeping guns out of the hands of individuals under 21 who are prohibited from purchasing firearms, empowering the Justice Department with new authorities to prosecute firearms traffickers, improving access to mental health services in our schools to […]
The failure of Anglican managerialism | Gerry Lynch | The Critic Magazine: High Modernism in its post-War heyday was marked by strong confidence in scientific, technological, and moral progress; deference to expertise and technique — or the verisimilitude of them; faith that humanity could master nature — including human nature; and a disregard for local variation, and inherited organically-developed concepts and structures. […]But we don’t live in 1963 anymore. The decline of faith in modernism […]
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry re-hospitalized, undergoing surgery – The Episcopal Church: Presiding Bishop Michael Curry has been diagnosed with a reoccurrence of the subdural hematoma he experienced in early December of 2023. He will be undergoing surgery this morning to treat this issue, and updates on his health will be provided as they become available. Please be in prayer for Bishop Curry, his family, and his medical team. This is not the news I wanted […]
Elon Musk, X and the Problem of Misinformation in an Era Without Trust – The New York Times: (gift link) A more clarifying take on trust is laid out by Chris Hayes in “Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy,” a book that was published in 2012 and turned out to be extraordinarily prescient. In it, Hayes describes how elite malfeasance — the forever wars after 9/11; the 2008 financial crisis — was deeply corrosive, […]
