Links Roundup …

Jay Bakker is a good friend, one of the biggest-hearted people you’ll ever meet. Here’s a wonderful profile on Jay and Revolution NYC.
David Gushee talks about the denialosphere regarding global climate change in a worthwhile article here.
Another friend, Logan Laituri, offers a good summary of our time at the Peace Among the Peoples conference. Here’s the hosts’ – AMBS – report. Here’s a picture showing my better side with Jarrod McKenna at the conference …
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Romal Tune gets it right on scapegoating teachers … here.
For anyone who thinks that politics is dirty and good or “spiritual” people should avoid it, see this from CPJ
An interesting blog on agnosticism …
A blogger writes:

I read your comments about Anne Rice and couldn’t agree more. I have been on a worshipful journey now for 30 weeks, attending a different faith group every week and writing about it on my blog. I have come to the same conclusion. We are all flawed, and while it might discourage me to see all the various and unending variations of defects I am developing a deep love for Jesus Christ and how much he loves me with all my own imperfections. Thanks for your good words!

If you want to read his blog about 30 churches in 30 weeks – here it is:
www.neverenoughsundays.blogspot.com
Finally, I’ve already spoken up on behalf of the mosque in Manhattan. Here are some additional responses I think are worth reading:
This one from Will Bunch …

In 2010, a large swath of the American public — led by ratings-mad media mavens and immoral politicians like Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin — had declared out all-out war on “the Other” in America in all its alleged forms, from immigrants to Muslims to non-white aides working in the West Wing of the White House and of course the president himself.
And it is threatening to rip America apart in a way that we have not seen in 145 years. Over the last year, I traveled across the country seeking the sources of right-wing outrage and anger in the Obama era as I researched my new book that will be published at the end of the month. What I discovered was fear — some of it innate and much of it whipped up by high-def hucksters on TV and in talk radio and even in the corridors of political power in America. Much of that fear centered on one simple fact: That America is increasingly becoming a non-white-dominated country. While many Americans take no issue with that, the prospect of an America with an increasingly non-Caucasian face is a deeply disturbing one to millions of people — people for whom a unified and traditional culture is a source of solidarity and comfort, even — according to some sociologists — a bulkhead of immortality.

And this one from Eboo Patel …

President Obama caused a stir with his speech at a White House iftar stating that Muslims had the same religious freedom as every other community in America. President Bush used to host White House iftars too. I believe, if he were President today, Bush would have given the same speech. I wish he would emerge from his ranch in Texas to give it now.