God in Public?

[Fuzzy San Diego, cas 2007]   Earlier this year, the spiritual advisor to the Queen of England spoke at a fundraiser for my church’s legal defense. It was my introduction to life as an Anglican in Newport Beach. The fundraiser was… Read More

Living in a Secular Age

It really would have been helpful if I had actually read philosopher Charles Taylor’s book, A Secular Age before trying to summarize a two-and-a-half hour discussion of it, so this post will not be comprehensive. By way of… Read More

The Covenant with Black America

  My notes from talk show host Tavis Smiley‘s speech are short, which isn’t surprising. He only spoke for about 10 minutes and did so reluctantly. He even joked about praying that God would let the cup pass from him, but said that when his friend… Read More

Emerging/Emergent San Diego

[ San Diego, CA, 2007] Some readers of this blog post are waiting for me to pronounce judgment on emerging/emergent after listening to one two-and-a-half hour panel discussion. So let me get this out of the way: I came away from the… Read More

Atmospherics

San Diego is unique among cities I’ve visited; the air is soft rather than kinetic. Nothing jars (at least in daylight), save perhaps the thick homeless population downtown. These aren’t the cleaned-up homeless of Mustard Seed Ranch, but gritty… Read More

Bella

When I read Stephen Holden’s New York Times review of Bella, I assumed it was reflexively negative because of the movie’s POV. He dismissed it as “a saccharine trifle,” “a mediocre cup of mush,” and, more generously wrote, “nothing —… Read More

Pigtail Ordinances at Doheny

I didn’t know the following bit of history when I attended a lecture this week at USC’s Doheny Library: “In 1892, Edward Laurence Doheny Sr. struck oil in Los Angeles, setting off a major land boom. The Dohenys… Read More

Kate and Me on Immigration

Kathryn Jean Lopez: http://www.nationalreview.com/lopez/lopez200603211638.asp Christine A. Scheller: [Orange County Register, April 2006] Responding to my Christianity Today article, “A Delicate Hospitality,” Kathryn Jean Lopez wrote that the attitude I encountered at a meeting of Hispanic evangelical pastors in… Read More

A Delicate Hospitality

How Hispanic Churches in Southern California negotiate the dilemmas of ministry with undocumented immigrants.  When he was 19, an associate pastor of one Southern California church came to the United States illegally from El Salvador. Although he has been… Read More