Ethos is one of the three classical types of argumentative proofs or modes. The other two, logos and pathos, deal with logical and emotional reasoning, respectively. Ethos isn’t primarily about whether a claim makes sense within its context or conforms to a community’s beliefs about the world, although someone who can’t be relied on to […]
Suffering and solidarity
This week I’m reading a remarkable essay by Joanne Carlson Brown and Rebecca Parker on the many, many ways that theologians and activists have explained redemptive suffering, punishment, and justice. It’s part of the old collection Christianity, Patriarchy, and Abuse. What’s fascinating about the arguments I’ve read so far is that they’re more than 28 […]
Core questions for Christianity
In the classic book Christianity, Patriarchy, and Abuse, several writers and feminist theologians discuss how Christianity teaches people, particularly women, to accept suffering as a utility for spiritual growth or an explicit virtue modeled by God Godself through Jesus. This was a theme that I and Herb Montgomery addressed during our talks at the Spectrum […]
What’s underfoot
A few months ago I began listening closely to the lyrics of the Laura Mvula song “Diamonds.” “Sometimes the grass ain’t greener on the other side,” Mvula sings. “But you’ve got diamonds under your feet.” These lyrics remind me of a saying sometimes attributed to James Oppenheim: “The foolish seeks happiness in the distance. The […]
The good news of solidarity
Part of my do list this week has been to develop materials for an organizational partner. When an organization is learning how to offer substantive support to LGBTQ employees and their families, it may need some guidance on identifying what “support” actually means. Who defines the terms of support also matters: so much can go awry when programs […]
Brueggemann on social ideology
“We in the United States live in a deathly social context that’s marked by consumerism and militarism and the loss of the common good… [This] ideological system causes us to be very afraid, to regard other people as competitors, or as threats, or as rivals. It causes us to think of the world in very […]
