the Web Editors

"Unless we do change our whole way of thought about work, I do not think we shall ever escape from the appalling squirrel-cage of economic confusion in which we have been madly turning for the last three centuries or so, the cage in which we landed ourselves by acquiescing in a social system based upon envy and avarice." - Dorothy L. Sayers

God, we pray for the health of all those who are homeless. Place care and support around them during this season so that they may be filled with hope for the future. Amen.

"What is the 'impossible'? It is liberation. To liberate people from the demons of fear, of loneliness, of hatred and of egoism that shackle them. To liberate people so that they also can love, heal, and liberate others. But in order to do that, you must go in poverty and experience the life of God flowing within your own flesh." - Jean Vanier

Minister Decries FFA’s Attack on Muslim Show; Blessed Are the Christmas-Makers; Alabama Churches Ask for Repeal of Tough Immigration Law; Rob Bell’s Parting Epistle to Mars Hill; Luke 2:1-20: The “Real” War on Christmas?; How to Think about Social Networking in Churches; Romney, Gingrich Tied in New National Polls; Obama, Boehner Square Off in Payroll Tax Fight; What’s Behind Obama’s Rising Poll Numbers?; The Anti-Gingrich Ground Game; Paul in Top Spot in Iowa GOP Battle.

Merciful God, as the United States brings its soldiers home from Iraq, we take today to pray for them as they are reunited with their families. Help them to love when they don’t feel they can, and place people in their lives to comfort them as they readjust to life. Amen.

You won't want to miss the great profile of our friend Shane Claiborne and the New Monastics in Huffington Post's Religion section. HuffPo's religion editor Paul Raushenbush tells the story of Shane and his brothers and sisters in The Simple Way spiritual community in Philly.

Raushenbush writes:

"I often say I was drafted by injustice," explains Shane Claiborne, one of the founders of The Simple Way, a Christian community located in North Philadelphia. Tall, thin, with dreadlocks and a ready smile, Shane shares with me the religious experience that changed his life.

In the late 1990s, a group of homeless families squatting in an abandoned cathedral in Philadelphia were threatened with eviction when the local diocese decided to sell the property. The homeless community hung a banner outside the cathedral that asked: "How can you worship a homeless man on Sunday and evict him on Monday?"

"What we do is very little. But it is like the little boy with a few loaves and fishes. Christ took that little and increased it. [Christ] will do the rest. What we do is so little that we may seem to be constantly failing. But so did [Christ] fail. [Christ] met with apparent failure on the Cross. But unless the seeds fall into the earth and die, there is no harvest." - Dorothy Day

Our friends at the Huffington Post have had some fun with video sound bites from yesterday's GOP debate.

Favorite line comes from Texas Gov. Rick Perry who said, "I am the Tim Tebow of the Iowas caucuses."

So, for your Friday afternoon viewing pleasure, we give you "Last Republican Debate of 2011: Out of Context":

God, may this weekend be one of rest and recentering, refreshment and rejuvenation, and most importantly, a time to refocus on you. Give us eyes to see where you are leading, ears to hear what you are saying, and a heart that follows wherever you may go. Amen.