Uncategorized

From his by now rather famous Terry Lectures, given at Yale in April 2008, now published as Faith, Reason, and Revollution, Terry Eagleton offers a succinct definition of ‘radical’:

“Radicals are those who believe that things are extremely bad with us, but they could feasibly be much improved. Conservatives believe that things are pretty bad, but that’s just the way the human animal is. And liberals believe that there’s a little bit of good and bad in all of us.”

Thoughts?

The Open letter movement is now inviting non-pastors to sign on to their letter as well. Here’s their invitation for all of you from one of the organizers:

I thought some of YAR’s readers might be interested in this: More than 100 Mennonite pastors and people in ministry have signed a letter calling for Mennonite Church USA to extend full welcome to people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT). The signers invite the church to confess its exclusion of LGBT people and witness to Jesus’ Good News of “radical hospitality and extravagant love.” Everyone who considers themselves part of MC USA is invited to sign the letter, which can be found at www.openlettertomcusa.org.

Thanks –
Sheri Hostetler
Pastor, First Mennonite Church of San Francisco and one of the Open Letter’s authors

The following is both an advice guide and pop-culture quiz. On the one hand, young ladies will learn what men are really thinking (it’s not that hard…) and on the other hand it’s a game that you can earn points with. I don’t have a degree or anything so I’m using all my relationship examples from Hollywood movies and TV shows which are made by liberals and people who are exceedingly arrogant. I’m sure they know what they are doing…Anyway, each pop-culture reference has points associated with it that you can earn if you can identify them and tell me what movie or TV show they are from. (I will award partial points if you can only get some of the movies in each piece of advice)

Number 1: Men want women who are hot. Of course, you knew this. But here’s the thing, we don’t woman who are too hot. Okay, okay, sure…we like hot chicks. But while we all want to be in Inara’s bed, it’s Kaylee who’s getting the ring. Hot, but cute. The fact is, Inara tries real hard, which means she’s high maintenance. But Kaylee is cute as button covered in Engine grease. (15 points) (more…)

Tim Nafziger and Roxy Allen are looking for 4-6 brainstormers (aka community organizers) for a young adult pre or post-Mennonite USA Convention 2009 in Columbus, Ohio gathering.

The brainstormers will help us develop a theme and relevant programming topics and activities for this gathering to

1) facilitate networking among young (ages 18-30ish) progressive Anabaptists and

2) re-establish meaningful connection to our faith through a global, Anabaptist perspective.

Ideally we would build off of a vision young adults presented at the previous convention, which you can read here:  http://www.themennonite.org/issues/10-13/articles/Young_adults_present_statement_of_visions_at_San_Jos_2007.

Great for young adult delegates to the convention!

Please comment below or email me if interested.

Roxy

If you are Canadian and Mennonite (or interested in either) you may want to check out Canadian Mennonite’s new blog.

(x-posted at IndieFaith)
On occasion we run across blog entries that give us a glimpse of the all-too ordinary lives of the bloggers. The bloggers begin with some shame in their confession wondering if the few readers they have could possibly respect them after such a confession. Perhaps it is professor of sociology admitting they watch (and are addicted to) American’s Next Top Model or an admitted film snob confessing his guilty pleasures. Well anyway, with some hesitation here is my confession.
(more…)

by Jason Evans

Last year, I was asked to speak at the national convention for the Mennonite Church USA. I had the opportunity to listen to the opinions and concerns of many young adult Anabaptists. I was eager to hear what my fellow Christians—with a heritage of nonviolent theology—had to say. I was anxious to hear their ideas about the future of Anabaptism.

I was surprised to say the least.

My idealistic perception of this tribe did not prepare me for the reality of those that have grown up in this tradition. What I found in the eyes of many young people I saw was disillusionment and frustration with a pacifist gone passive-aggressive system. Sitting there, I wondered what the future is for denominations rooted in the Radical Reformation. And what did that mean for someone like me who came to this tradition out of conviction rather than bloodline? … and how did a guy like me end up at a Mennonite national convention in the first place?!

I was at a rally in downtown San Diego this last week. We cried for a cease in cuts to education budgets. As I walked down the street with my young son over my shoulders, I was amazed at the thought of how much money has been spent on the “war on terror”. All the while, we continue to cut funding for our public schools, the only educational option for the poor who can not afford private schools and can’t afford for a parent to not bring home an income in order to home school their children. (more…)

So, from time to time, a YAR will name drop or link to a blog that she reads.

I would like to propose that, for the mutual edification of everyone on the blog, and for my own curiousity, that we share – via comments on this post – some of the blogs we frequent.

If you have a few blogs that you think are high quality and cover issues that you think are important (or even news sites), then please share those blogs in the comments here.

I think if we all are able to know what others are reading, we will be able to better understand each other and understand what issues are important to YAR authors.

Thanks!