19 January 2005
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Travel Galleries
SOSHANGUVE TOWNSHIP, PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA
| View exhibit | These are from my May 2007 trip to Soshanguve, a township outside of Pretoria, South Africa. It's an interesting place, nearly 100% black South African and growing like crazy. There is beauty there, as I've tried to show, but it is also complicated, with its share of problems: AIDS, social stratification, depression and suicide, violent crime. I came away with a deep sense of the complexity involved in bringing hope to Africa.
ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA
| View exhibit | In the fall of 2005, I spent a week in St. Petersburg, Russia. There's no way in a week you can absorb the power of that city's presence. These photographs do very little to communicate the grandeur and the fearsome impact of the place. As in any place I've ever been in Russia, there is an imposing sense of history added to the feeling of being very small and unimportant in the face of it all.
NORTH FROM ADELANTO
| View exhibit | I took a drive early in the year to visit family in the Pacific Northwest. I got up before dawn and pulled onto the freeway. By the time the sun came up, I was passing through Adelanto, a has been/will be town in the Mojave Desert. From there it was straight north across Death Valley and into Nevada. Early the next morning, I crossed into the southeastern corner of Oregon before spinning westward toward home. I took some pictures along the way.
CHINA
| View exhibit | In the spring of 2006 I spent a week in China. I'm not sure what I was expecting beyond some crazy traffic and a bunch of neon. In any case, what I found was a surprise in some ways. I thought that on the street I might be treated either with suspicion or completely ignored, but instead I found people friendly and curious. Oh, and they can make a mean bowl of noodles.
POLAND
| View exhibit | In the fall of 2005, I spent a couple days in Poland, mostly in Gdansk. I'm not sure what I expected, a rundown gray country maybe, but it wasn't. In fact, it was beautiful. Also, it was quiet and gracious and very Catholic. I would love to see it in the summertime.
SINGAPORE
| View exhibit | I'm not a huge lover of Singapore. A little too orderly for my taste. But there much that is beautiful about that strange, self-absorbed island city.
INDONESIA & CAMBODIA
| View exhibit | In May/June of 2005, I spent a month in Southeast Asia. I love this part of the world and am always changed when I travel there. This trip was no exception. Here are a few galleries of some of the things that changed me this time.
BARRIO SAN PABLITO, CARACAS, VENEZUELA
| View exhibit | I spent an afternoon in one of the most notorious barrios in Caracas, known mostly for its violence and drugs. But in the middle of the ugliness, something very precious is going on.
Other Galleries
DOWN
| View exhibit | Sometimes we move so fast we forget to look at where we are. Sometimes it's good to look down.
ANONYMOUS - LOS ANGELES
| View exhibit | Blank storefronts in a disconnected city. Images from a drive around town.
CALIFORNIA DESERT
| View exhibit |
These are from one Sunday afternoon in the desert, which is one of the best reasons to live in Southern California.
Magnanimity
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3 Comments:
Intersting. I was part of a panel discussion at the American Jewish Council's trustee meeting yesterday, courtesy of one of my professors who was their expert on "evangelicalism." One of the questions raised -- one that clearly caused significant anxiety amongst the attendees -- was the issue of whether evangelicals saw Bush as a kind of spiritual leader/holy figure. The speaker demurred considerably, arguing that Bush was seen as a political leader with few spiritual connotations for evangelicals -- an assessment with which I partly disagree. Good to see Tony make a similar point. Thanks for the link.
i'm currently reading an excellent book "Searching For God Knows What" by Don Miller. in the chapter called "Santa Takes a Leak," (really!) he talks about how there are people who like to tell you why God agrees with their political ideas and why that makes their political ideas right. and how this makes the Jesus they present an invention of the imagination, a justifier of whatever they think. "Listening to them make me feel tired," he says. "People like that should have an island." I rather agree.
This sorta sounds like sour grapes to me.
Essentially, he is undercutting the serious consideration of a massive amount of people who choose one direction over another in a current state of affairs.
The reality is that one party has a religious blessing, not a religious power. If GWB were to sign a bill allowing gay marriage or submit for consideration a supreme court nominee who is passionately pro-choice you would see how exceedingly quickly he would lose whatever sort of religious leadership some folks see other folks seeing in him.
The fact is that most people see one party as better reflecting their understanding of the religious issues of the day. To reduce this consideration by demeaning the choice is engaging in arrogance and perceived ownership of the "real" Christian view.
Spelling out the moral implications in political issues means in a practical sense choosing the position and candidate in specific elections. At this point in history this results in the broader support for Republicans.
The religious legitimacy is a reflection of the present theology of the church not a church beholden to a political party for its views. We are not living in Nazi Germany with pastors who will shape themselves for the doctrine of the State. We are living in a place where the Church has certain emphases in moral values, right or wrong, and thus lends support to the party which best seems to hold those values.
The Republican party, then, is more likely to change in order to retain support of the conservative Christians than conservative Christians will change to match the movement of the Party. This leads to the better statement that Republicans have lended political legitimacy to one religious movement.
Republicans are beholden to Evangelicals, Evangelicals are not beholden to Republicans.
There are certainly questions about whether or not this should be the case, but those are questions about the values and goals of the theology of Evangelical churches not a question of politics.
Though, that being the case, I do realize it is quite chic to be a Democratic Christian, and so I appreciate what it takes in order to maintain this status. If all the hoi polloi were to be respected for their views, then what would anyone who thrives on contrariness do with themselves?
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