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What's Tony Thinking
July 28, 2025 —
Mockingbird site editor, Todd Brewer, calls our attention to a recent essay by Heather Havrilesky entitled, “Retire Your Inner Lawyer: Relationships Don’t Thrive in a Courtroom.” It’s a great piece, which I say even as I feel convicted by it. Havrilesky is writing about relationships with friends, family, spouse, adult children, neighbors — those kind... Read More
July 22, 2025 —
Recently the IRS decided that it was okay, after all, for churches and their leaders to endorse particular candidates for political office. This goes against the so-called “Johnson Amendment,” which ruled out ecclesiastical endorsement of political candidates lest they risk their tax-exempt status. Trump has inveighed against the Johnson Amendment. You could also wonder if... Read More
July 19, 2025 —
I wonder if I as a Minister/ Pastor I was perceived as a sign and presence of judgment or of grace? Or to put it in the terms of my friends at Mockingbird Ministries, law or gospel? The other evening a new, temporary, neighbor who is staying with his family in a nearby cabin came... Read More
July 17, 2025 —
I am imagining that perhaps a fair number of you my readers and many more in the general liberal/ progressive world are saying something like this — “They’ve defunded NPR (National Public Radio)! How dare they! It’s an outrage!” I find myself more inclined to agree with Uri Berliner, longtime NPR journalist who wrote that... Read More
July 13, 2025 —
This is the second in my “maybe summer” reading list. First was Dave Zahl’s The Big Relief: The Urgency of Grace for a Worn-Out World. Third up will be Rowan Williams, Discovering Christianity: A Guide for the Curious. This week it is the recent book by the NYT columnist, Ross Douthat, Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious. As noted in... Read More
July 11, 2025 —
Occasionally, I do a blog that mostly draws from things I have read or listened to that week and which I found noteworthy. As another week draws to a close, here’s one of those. I hope the headline “The Death of the Public Library” is hyperbole, but the issue it discusses is real, and real... Read More
July 7, 2025 —
Sometime this spring something changed with my email. Now my emails were categorized, with only some of them showing in my in-box. Some bot somewhere started sorting my mail. Instead of everything coming to my “in-box,” I suddenly had half a dozen different categories for what was coming to my in-box. One was labeled “important,”... Read More
July 5, 2025 —
It’s the season for summer reading lists. In that spirit, I’m going to do a series of posts on three books I’ve been reading, The Big Relief by David Zahl, Believe by Ross Douthat and Discovering Christianity, A Guide for the Curious by Rowan Williams. No, they probably do not qualify as “summer” or “beach” reading. All are non-fiction.... Read More
July 3, 2025 —
It is the 4th of July in a fraught and divided nation, a nation in turmoil. Some are giddy with the seeming success of Donald Trump and MAGA’s agenda. Many are frightened, scared. How to live now? What to think? How to pray? I’ve previously mentioned the podcast, “Good Faith.” It comes from evangelical spaces,... Read More
June 30, 2025 —
Over the last year I’ve been working for the United Church of Canada on a project titled, “Re-Imagining Theological Education.” At mid-year the project got re-directed by an announcement from the Lilly Endowment for Religion of a new “Large Grant” program. The grants, of up to $10 million, are for collaborative efforts by theological schools... Read More
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