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What's Tony Thinking
August 11, 2025 —
I recently read, and enjoyed, This Is Happiness, the 2019 novel by the Irish writer, Niall Williams. My guess is that many of you have discovered his work. But if not, consider this a recommendation. This Is Happiness is set in mid-twentieth century, rural Ireland and the small rainy town of Faha. It is a moment of... Read More
August 8, 2025 —
We went to visit Gail Hammack the other day. Gail runs a cattle ranch near the Wallowa County town of Lostine. You might say she is in the cattle business, but that wouldn’t be quite right. Hammack’s real business is stewardship of the land. In the 1980’s Hammack’s husband, Doug McDaniel, began his efforts to... Read More
August 4, 2025 —
In my most recent blog I noted that progressive’s stock-in-trade has been a “liberationist” agenda, which in an odd way mirrors the “freedom to do whatever I damn well please” of the right-wing. Parts of the left tell us, for example, that gender is but a social construct to be deconstructed, while the right insists... Read More
August 1, 2025 —
In my recent piece on National Public Radio’s loss of federal funding (which when run at the Post Alley site attracted a record number of comments), one of my points was that what became, over time, the left-leaning and relatively affluent audience of NPR had gotten out of touch. The left most often sees the... Read More
July 28, 2025 —
Mockingbird site editor, Todd Brewer, calls our attention to a recent essay by Heather Havrilesky entitled, “Retire Your Inner Lawyer: Relationships Don’t Thrive in a Courtroom.” It’s a great piece, which I say even as I feel convicted by it. Havrilesky is writing about relationships with friends, family, spouse, adult children, neighbors — those kind... Read More
July 22, 2025 —
Recently the IRS decided that it was okay, after all, for churches and their leaders to endorse particular candidates for political office. This goes against the so-called “Johnson Amendment,” which ruled out ecclesiastical endorsement of political candidates lest they risk their tax-exempt status. Trump has inveighed against the Johnson Amendment. You could also wonder if... Read More
July 19, 2025 —
I wonder if I as a Minister/ Pastor I was perceived as a sign and presence of judgment or of grace? Or to put it in the terms of my friends at Mockingbird Ministries, law or gospel? The other evening a new, temporary, neighbor who is staying with his family in a nearby cabin came... Read More
July 17, 2025 —
I am imagining that perhaps a fair number of you my readers and many more in the general liberal/ progressive world are saying something like this — “They’ve defunded NPR (National Public Radio)! How dare they! It’s an outrage!” I find myself more inclined to agree with Uri Berliner, longtime NPR journalist who wrote that... Read More
July 13, 2025 —
This is the second in my “maybe summer” reading list. First was Dave Zahl’s The Big Relief: The Urgency of Grace for a Worn-Out World. Third up will be Rowan Williams, Discovering Christianity: A Guide for the Curious. This week it is the recent book by the NYT columnist, Ross Douthat, Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious. As noted in... Read More
July 11, 2025 —
Occasionally, I do a blog that mostly draws from things I have read or listened to that week and which I found noteworthy. As another week draws to a close, here’s one of those. I hope the headline “The Death of the Public Library” is hyperbole, but the issue it discusses is real, and real... Read More
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