It's My Birthday!

Here's a picture of me on my 8th birthday, so many years ago....

I see my brother Sol's hand sneaking in the picture. Also, I notice my left ring finger was still bandaged after I got it crushed in my classroom door. I still have a scar from that one. And there's my grandmother's typing table in the background where she tapped out the poetry collection, Mixed Emotions, which I have an original copy of.

But I digress....

In the World But Not Of It

I've reviewed Brett Grainger's book on his experience growing up as a fundamentalist for The United Church Observer. You can read my review here.

Brett doesn't quite put the "fun" back into "fundamentalism" as I like to quip, but he does offer a more nuanced, understanding view of those with fundamentalist beliefs than you're likely to see elsewhere -- even while moving beyond these beliefs himself.

From my review:

The lesson of this book is that Christians can become so consumed by their own vision of faith that they become blind to the movement of the Spirit in the world around them. This selective blindness afflicts not only the theologically conservative, but liberal Christians as well. Grainger shows us the value of keeping our eyes and hearts open to the surprising work of God in these times of change.

Debunking Health Care Myths

I just realized I have another article in Sojourners (Aug. 2008), where I (in theory) debunk conservative myths about universal health care. It goes with a feature on health care by Elizabeth Edwards.

The myths I look at are:

1) Single-payer health care is more expensive.
2) It would raise taxes.
3) Wait times are longer.
4) The government would limit patients’ freedom of choice and dictate to doctors how to practice medicine.
5) People will overuse the system.
6) People won’t have access to services they need.

Here's the article if you would like to read it for yourself.