Author: Jana Bennett

Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time: Shady Stories

Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time: Shady Stories

Posted by | Jun 15, 2018 | |

EZ 17:22-24 PS 92:2-3, 13-14, 15-16 2 COR 5:6-10 MK 4:26-34 For us in the northern hemisphere, this Sunday’s scriptures match our experience of the weather and the growing season. We are nearly to the summer solstice, the trees have done their springtime work of creating leafy tops, and now we have spots of shade. So Ezekiel has a story for us about cedar trees – God will take the top off one of them, plant it on a mountain, and it will grow and eventually enough to house birds and other living things. It’s more than a little...

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Commemoration, Patriotism, and a Little CMT: Some Observations on Memorial Day 2018

Commemoration, Patriotism, and a Little CMT: Some Observations on Memorial Day 2018

Posted by | May 28, 2018 | |

I. Memories that Name Who We Are Yesterday, I attended Heritage Day here in Dayton, which is hosted at Carillon Historical Park. This pretty cool historical park dedicates itself to commemorating great inventiveness in Dayton. Key figures include, of course, the Wright Brothers, but also the inventors of the cash register, Huffy bicycles, the pop top can, and more. Our most well-known poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar, is commemorated here. The park also includes a great deal of living history – an 1850s style brew pub that brews beer using 19th century methods, a still-operating 1930s printing press, a school...

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Facebook, Privacy, and the Church

Facebook, Privacy, and the Church

Posted by | Apr 14, 2018 | |

“What does the Church have to say about privacy?” I was asked this week, in the aftermath of Mark Zuckerberg’s congressional hearings. That’s a good question – I haven’t seen a lot in church documents, nor much from theologians. (I’d love to hear from readers if they’ve seen some good theological discussion…) Privacy is (obviously) an important question in a digital age, and I think the Church ought to get a lot bolder about speaking to privacy. I can envision developing arguments along the lines of creation and identity as people being made in the image of God. From...

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Important Seamless Garment Pro-life News

Important Seamless Garment Pro-life News

Posted by | Jan 18, 2018 | |

The bishop of Little Rock has taken a strong pro-life stand – one that includes not only being anti-abortion, but also anti-death penalty. Many of the people writing for this blog have written about the importance of being broadly pro-life.  I am one such person who finds that being pro-life means having deep concern about our whole culture of death, including abortion and euthanasia, as well as our treatment of death-row inmates, our perception of just war, and our use of the environment in which we live. My source for this from Catholic tradition is from Saint Pope John...

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The Fourth Sunday of Advent: Preparing Him Room

The Fourth Sunday of Advent: Preparing Him Room

Posted by | Dec 20, 2017 | |

2 SM 7:1-5, 8B-12, 14A, 16 PS 89:2-3, 4-5, 27, 29 ROM 16:25-27 LK 1:26-38 As I read this week’s lectionary scriptures, I’m reminded of the hymn “Joy to the World” by Isaac Watts: Let ev’ry heart prepare Him room And heaven and nature sing! And heaven and nature sing! And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing! “Joy to the World” is a Christmas hymn, and so I imagine some readers wondering why I appear to be truncating Advent! After all, this year’s fourth “week” of Advent turns out to be merely a day – less than a day,...

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