Author: Mike

Emmanuel Charles McCarthy podcast: Questions & Answers on Gospel Nonviolence

Here’s Rev. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy’s “Questions & Answers on Gospel Nonviolence” in podcast form: podcast feed

More info at the Center for Christian Nonviolence site. (I just made a podcast feed out of the audio they’ve posted, so it will be easier for iTunes users to download the whole series.)

I just finished listening to his series Behold the Lamb, and I recommend it to you.

  1. Cleansing of The Temple
  2. What if Someone Is Going to Kill your Wife or Children?
  3. Just War/Just Revolution Theory
  4. Violence in the Old Testament
  5. Christians in the Military/Police
  6. Surely this Is a Purist Gospel?
  7. What about Hitler?
  8. Buy a Sword? Luke 22:35-38

Here’s the first part of “Questions & Answers on Gospel Nonviolence”, to whet your appetite:

Coffee in South Bend: Chicory Cafe

Bruce and I talked to Brenna Cussen about South Bend’s Chicory Cafe for the Snow Ghost Community Podcast. You can listen to the complete podcast, or just read this transcription of the interview.

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Pie and Coffee: On our last Community Show, we were complaining that it’s hard to get Fair Trade coffee at a coffee shop in Worcester. In South Bend, though, it’s gotten a lot easier.

Brenna, how’s it going?

Brenna Cussen: Great, thanks. How are you, Mike?

P: Pretty good. Thanks for sitting through all this nonsense so that you could be on the show.

Brenna: I’m happy, I’m very flattered that I got invited to be on the Bruce Russell show . . . Snow Ghost show.

Bruce: If we’re going to do this, let’s get things right!

P: So Brenna, I wanted to ask you about the Chicory Cafe in downtown South Bend.

Brenna: Sure.

P: They have Fair Trade coffee!

Brenna: They do! They made the transition slowly. Well, they had both options of Fair Trade and non-Fair Trade. And the Fair Trade was a little bit more expensive. I’d say maybe 15 cents more a cup. But just the other day, they made the complete switchover. And now they only serve Fair Trade coffee.
Continue reading “Coffee in South Bend: Chicory Cafe”

Items

Bye Nicole!

Darfur death toll
Interesting NYT op-ed on how some think the Darfur death toll has been exaggerated. Eric Reeves responds. Back in 2005, when we made our Darfur movie, we used a very high number based on Eric Reeves’s latest estimate, which he later revised downwards. I think that criticizing Darfur stats is an important part of public discussion of this issue, and is very different from attempts to claim there’s nothing untoward happening in Darfur; I’ve criticized that sort of attempt before.

Worcester, an immigrant sanctuary?
Buck Paxton:

So in reality, the only bad that could come from Worcester becoming a sanctuary city is a 450% increase in the quality of local food offerings and maybe, just maybe I’ll be able to afford to have a guy mow my lawn. But, Worcester being what it is try explain that to the locals who feel compelled to scapegoat anything that may out their own failings.

Related: Should newspapers run letters that aren’t factually accurate?

South Bend: mural vanishes (2006 vs. 2007)
Give Thanks To The Migrant Farmworkers

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Continue reading “Items”

Emmanuel Charles McCarthy podcast: Behold the Lamb

Here’s Rev. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy’s recorded retreat “Behold the Lamb” in podcast form: podcast feed

“He takes as his central theme the Nonviolent Lamb of God and focuses on this biblical symbol and reality as the true icon and transcendental model for encountering God as revealed by Jesus, and for understanding and following the Way of God as taught by Jesus.”

The recordings:

  1. The Lamb: To Be Adored and Imitated
  2. The Lamb: The Mystery of Gods Suffering Servant
  3. The Mind of the Lamb
  4. The Lamb Who Glorifies God
  5. The Church: A Fold of Lambs
  6. The Love That Is Lamb-Like
  7. The Lamb in a Jungle
  8. The Means of the Lamb
  9. The Lamb Who Is Rich in Mercy
  10. The Security of the Lamb
  11. The Trustworthy Lamb
  12. The Mystery of the Oneness in the Lamb: Baptism
  13. The Lambs Lamb: Mary
  14. The Lamb of Forgiving Love
  15. The Lamb of Serving Love
  16. The Resurrected Lamb

More info at the Center for Christian Nonviolence site.

At a time when I had more or less convinced myself nonviolence was the way to go, I attended a small talk by Father McCarthy which sent me racing down that path.

Here’s the first part of the series, to whet your appetite:

Tribune: Jury selected in manhole murder case

South Bend Tribune:

Potential jurors in the murder trial of Randy Lee Reeder were reminded of their responsibilities on Friday.

In order to be fair as jurors, St. Joseph Superior Court Judge John M. Marnocha said, they must be able to set aside what they already may know of this case, which attracted “a lot of local media attention” earlier this year.

Yesterday’s paper:

Randy Lee Reeder, who was reportedly homeless at the time of the killings, was arrested in February after Daniel J. Sharp, 55, confessed to their involvement in the deaths of Michael “Shan” Nolen Jr., Michael Lawson, Brian Talboom and Jason Coates.

Previously:

Interfaith speaker series in South Bend (2007)

As reported in this morning’s Tribune, the Unity Church of Peace is hosting an interfaith speaker series in August 2007, Sundays at 10am.

  • August 5: Imam Mohammed Sirajuddin of the local Islamic Society
  • August 12: David Cortright of the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, former executive director of the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE)
  • August 19: Deborah Dwyer, member of the Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of South Bend
  • August 26: Rabbi Eric Siroka, spiritual leader of Temple Beth-El in South Bend

More about the Unity Church, including their practice of not complaining for 21 days.

South Bend diary

Last night I cooked dinner at the Catholic Worker here, and emerged from the kitchen to find a huge crowd assembled in the backyard for the meal. My heart filled with joy and I boomed out, “Happy Sunday!”

An Italian, in town for a conference, came up to me afterwards to remark that Buona Domenica is an established greeting, but that he’d never heard an English speaker say “Happy Sunday.” He said that Italians also say buona continuazione (happy continuance?), and buon proseguimento, which translates roughly as “happy follow-through” or “happy proceeding.” Also, they say buon lavorno for “happy work.”

I cooked pizza and white-bean-and-pasta soup. The pizza recipe is mostly from Cooks Illustrated. The soup is a white-bean-and-roasted-garlic soup from Isa Chandra Moskowitz, with a bag of pasta thrown in.

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This morning I attended the beginning of a Mennonite-Catholic theological conference at Notre Dame. It centers on the document Called Together To Be Peacemakers. This document does a good job comparing and contrasting the two faiths; I recommend it. The proceedings of the conference will soon be available at the conference website.

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You ever have one of those days when you’re hungover and sweeping out a soup kitchen, and feel like life is a burden, and then a ragged, weathered man sits down at the piano and riffs on “Let It Be” for 20 minutes, and the burden floats away? I love that.