February 27, 2004
BBC NEWS: US Church sex claims detailed
More than 11,000 allegations of sex abuse have been made about Roman Catholic priests in the US since 1950, a new report is expected to show.
One diocese has already confirmed that nearly 4,440 priests - 4% of the total - have been accused of such assaults.
BBC NEWS | Americas | US Church sex claims detailed
Posted by thdyck at February 27, 2004 | Comments (0)
February 25, 2004
Barbara Brown Taylor on biblical interpretation (and homosexuality)
Barbara Brown Taylor is a well-known preacher and seminary professor (my M.Div. class is reading her book The Preaching Life as part of our Foundations of Worship and Preaching class).
The problem I run into at the bakery is that I do not have a position on homosexuality. What I have, instead, is a life. I have a history, in which many people have played vital parts. When I am presented with the issue of homosexuality, I experience temporary blindness. Something like scales fall over my eyes, because I cannot visualize an issue. Instead, I visualize the homeroom teacher who seemed actually to care whether I showed up at school or not. I see the priest who taught me everything I know about priesthood, and the professor who roasted whole chickens for me when my food money ran out before the end of the month. I see the faces of dozens of young men who died of AIDS, but not before they had shown me how brightly they could burn with nothing left but the love of God to live on. I see the face of my 16-year-old friend, still waiting for his first true love, who says that if he found out he was gay, he would kill himself. Other people have other stories, I know, but these are the stories that have given me my sight. To reduce them to a position seems irreverent somehow, like operating on someone's body without looking him in the face.
Link (thanks Christian Century)
Posted by thdyck at February 25, 2004 | Comments (0)
Mozilla HTML form spell checking
I went hunting for a spell checker of HTML form contents using Mozilla. There is a development effort being tracked under bug 16409 and a fund-raising campaign at SourceSupport.org which I donated to.
Moreover, there is preliminary code and it works for me (using Mozilla 1.6 release). Thanks Torisugari!
Posted by thdyck at February 25, 2004 | Comments (0)
The corruption of the printed word
In researching the song "Ehane he'ama" ("Father God, you are holy")* for an AMBS chapel service, I learned the following:
Traditionally, Cheyenne poets and musicians did not "own" their creations; rather, they considered their songs to be gifts from God. So the Cheyenne elders who sang and recorded their hymns were happy to have their songs put into print because they knew the tradition was being lost. The feeling existed, however, that printed words were not to be trusted because of the many broken treaties. For that reason, according to Dietrich Rempel, Faith and Life Press, will not give anyone permission to reprint unless they contact the Mennonite Indian Leaders' Council, even though Faith and Life administers the copyright (Hymnal Companion 84).
I was struck with how the sins of our forefathers continue to be with us, even to the creation of hymnals.
* #78 in Hymnal: A Worship Book
Posted by thdyck at February 25, 2004 | Comments (0)
February 19, 2004
Welcome
Welcome to my blog!
This is a place where I'll share things that I've found thought-provoking, challenging or insightful. I am currently a seminary student at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary and previously worked for seven years in technology journalism at eWEEK.
I hope that you, gentle visitor, will find something of value in these pages. Sit down, have a mug o' tea and browse.
Blessings to you, and may peace be upon your house.
Posted by thdyck at February 19, 2004 | Comments (0)