patriotism

Milton Brasher-Cunningham's picture

I'm not proud to be an American

Fri, 01/22/2010 - 14:59 — Milton Brasher-...

Milton Brasher-Cunningham's blog

she said, in that way one speaks
to get a reaction, or the way I titled
this poem so you’d keep reading.
I’m not proud, she said, because I
had nothing to do with it,

deftly putting patriotism in
a new light, a search light, under
the bare bulb of interrogation.

What, then, can I be?... READ MORE.
 

July 4 around the network

Thu, 07/09/2009 - 09:18 — Steve Thorngate

CCbloggers have had a wide variety of things to say about the July 4 holiday.

James Lumsden gives thanks "for the blessings and challenges of this era." Andrew Thompson celebrates freedom for good things, rather than from bad things. Chris Brundage highlights the wisdom of Ben Franklin, while Bruce Prescott recites James Madison's definitive document on church and state. Keith Herron points to King David and the "messy work" of building and sustaining a nation, and Ellen Haroutunian observes that "America isn't easy."

Michael Ruffin picks apart the America-as-Christian-nation myth, and Peter J. Walker confesses that he isn't exactly proud to be an American. Julie Clawson highlights freedom-fighting heroes of the non-white-male variety; Matt Shafer commemorates revolutions that, unlike our own, were nonviolent. Milton Brasher-Cunningham reminds us that Woody Guthrie's patriotic song was written in response to Irving Berlin's, while Chad Holtz celebrates Interdependence Day. My fiancee and I reluctantly agree to exchange vows in a flag-adorned chancel.

"God help me," says Wayne Stacy. "I love the Fourth of July!"

If America were a Christian nation

Fri, 07/03/2009 - 11:10 — Michael Ruffin

Michael Ruffin's blog
Whenever we approach the American Independence Day observance, the debate over whether or not America is a Christian nation inevitably rekindles. The debate seems to me to be shaped in three different ways.

First, some people debate whether or not America was a Christian nation in the past. Many insist, and they can find pious quotes from various founding figures to support their contention, that America was founded as a Christian nation by Christian leaders. The most reasonable observers acknowledge that some of the Founding Fathers were Christians, some were agnostics, and some were Deists. One fact jumps out of the mists of history at me: the founding document of our nation, the United States Constitution, not only makes no mention of the Christian faith but indeed mentions God not at all... READ MORE.
 

Matt Shafer's picture

The theology of Watchmen

Tue, 03/10/2009 - 09:06 — Matt Shafer

Matt Shafer's blog

I went to see Watchmen last night, having read the comic book graphic novel some months back. The novel is a work of art; it’s richly interlayered, accomplishing literary effects and conveying subtleties of meaning that are impossible in straight prose. It was of course impossible for the movie to live up the original, but the film nevertheless was well done. And incidentally, though many fanboys will protest over the film’s changed ending, I thought it made the finale stronger.

Like any narrative of artistic merit, Watchmen, as both film and graphic novel, raises profound theological questions. Lengthy papers could be written on the “Theology of Watchmen“, but this post will seek merely to briefly consider and draw attention to a few of the issues the story raises.... READ MORE.