The New York Times reports: A nonpartisan, independent review of interrogation and detention programs in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks concludes that “it is indisputable that the United States engaged in the practice of torture” and that the nation’s highest officials bore ultimate responsibility for it.
Day: April 16, 2013
Presiding Bishop offers keynote at Worldwide Anglican Peace Conference
The ancient and most central part of the Christian gospel is about answering fear with love. Our task can be none other than challenging military responses to fear with non-violent and peaceful approaches. We proclaim that loving the enemy is the only ultimately life-giving response.
Boston backstory: A day in the life of the Old North Church
Assaults on our freedom cut deeply here at Old North Church. We will be keeping our lanterns lit and facing the Boston Marathon finish line to honor the innocent victims.
Boston backstory: the man in the cowboy hat
Tasneem Raja of Mother Jones has the story of one of the heroes of the finish line. Carlos Arredondo–the man with the cowboy hat–lived a life scarred by violence and anguish, event before the bombs went off.
Pope reaffirms plans to place U. S. nuns under bishops’ control
Those who hoped that Pope Francis would re-examine Pope Benedict XVI’s unpopular plan to place the main organization of American nuns under the control of three bishops have been disappointed. Joshua McElwee of the National Catholic Reporter has the story:
Casting Out Fear
The message and spirit of today’s reading seems timely in the wake of the shocking bombing yesterday at the Boston Marathon. Such cruel acts intend to sow fear and to invite hate. If we are to be helpful in responding to this kind of evil, we will need embrace another way.
After Boston: finding your people, saying prayers
The Episcopal Church can feel like a place of only one or two degrees of separation on those days when a tragedy strikes, and everyone is frantically trying to find out if the people to whom they feel a special connection are okay. Episcopal News Service did the church a service yesterday by getting on […]
Shroud of Turin and physics of resurrection
[This] recasts the Shroud as a testament to Christ’s Resurrection, and not, as currently revered, a relic of Christ’s passion and death. This is a crucial reconception, one that makes sense of the scriptural record, and suggests that the morbid, and ultimately destructive, fascination of Christianity with the suffering of Christ is misplaced.