In the July 14 issue of Time, Amanda Ripley puts into words something I have been feeling. This is that the recent increase in gasoline prices in the United States is not all bad. In an article titled "Ten Things You Can Like About $4 Gas," she points out some of the good results. These are that higher gas prices:

1. Cause globalized jobs to return home;

2. Stall urban and suburban sprawls;

3. Encourage four-day workweeks;

4. Produce less pollution;

5. Encourage more fuel frugality;

6. Cause fewer traffic deaths;

This week I read a sermon in The Princeton Seminary Bulletin by Stanley Hauerwas, one of the most provocative Christian theologians in the United States today. Here is part of what he preached:

How many of you worship in a church with an American flag? I am sorry to tell you that your salvation is in doubt.

How many of you worship in a church in which the Fourth of July is celebrated? I am sorry to tell you that your salvation is in doubt.

More than twenty years following the publication of his book “The Openness of God,” which named and launched a new school of Christian thought, Richard Rice profiled its primary themes for several dozen bright and lively university students.  They were the guests on Sabbath Eve, November 9, of Julius and Iris Nam, and their sons Sherwin and Ansel, in Loma Linda, California. Trisha Famisaran moderated the discussion.