Starting to Pull the Threads Together

I've started on a couple of new books, Thinking for a Change by John Maxwell and Failing America's Faithful by Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.

Also, much to my dismay, I found the Running with Scissors book. It was under the driver's side seat in my car. Crap. Now, I probably ought to go ahead and finish reading the stupid thing.

The Thinking book is okay. Most of the real meat of the book is pretty good. I just don't like the style and some of the illustrations and various statements are worse than uninspiring for me. The general ideas are okay.

Townsend's book is really good in my opinion. It speaks so clearly about the church's past and in her (and my ) opinion best strengths as agents for social justice. So far, the book is dominated by her own experiences as she grew up in the Catholic Church. I strongly recommend this book for anyone that believes that religion and values ought to be at the heart of who we are and what we do as a people and a nation, but also have the sense that despite all the rhetoric and effort, our current national approach to integrating faith into the public sphere is not quite right. Townsend also writes about a need for action through the collective body of the church and a sense of shared responsibility with and for those both inside and outside the church as opposed to a kind of capitalistic rugged individual approach that permeates much of American thinking today.

Borg's books seem to be saying that faith is more about doing than believing. Aktinson seems to be saying that how we live out our faith and spirituality are more important than getting all the believing just right. Townsend is a clarion call for the church and religious people as agents for social justice. It seems to me that there is an emerging mode or paradigm for those that see themselves as spiritually, ethically, and religiously driven or connected to live and lead in a way that informs a "liberal" or "progressive" mindset rather than a narrow doctrinaire, hierarchical, right wing conservative mindset that has become such a strong force in our country today.