The Christian Carnival 193 is hosted today at Ligamesh.  Highlights of the Carnival are Pseudo-Polymath's Patriotism: Eschatological or Immediate and I Timothy 2 and the Artemis Cult by Theology for the Masses.

Mark Olsen of Pseudo-Polymath does a great job of comparing the Zwinglian politics of the American Left (didn't think those two would go together, did you?) against the more immediate outlook of the American right. An excerpt:

...one of the four ''irreducible'' elements of worldview is symbol. People holding to different worldviews treat and hold dear different symbols. There are a few reasons why the left has decided the flag and any veneration of that is not be avoided in praxis and as symbol.

Theology for the Masses, a tip-top quality blog I have somehow never stumbled upon, does a socio-cultural critique of Paul's peculiar gender issues in I Timothy 2. An excerpt:

...the problem in the church did not lie in the fact that the women were preaching or having authority, but rather, they were enacting violence (probably through sermonic rhetoric) against the men in their congregations. Paul's remarks do not forbid a woman ''to teach or have authority,'' but rather the Gk. word usage and construction of the sentence suggests he is forbidding women to ''teach in such a way that oppresses men.
The Artemis Cult gives us the historical background to understand how this authoritative feminism might have arisen in their midst, and it gives us clear understanding of Paul's subsequent response. The Ephesian women, through their cultural assumption of female superiority derived from Artemis, oppressed the men in their congregation. Paul responds with some statements regarding Adam and Eve--statements which have been taken to mean male leadership and female subordination.

This week the featured Everyday Liturgy post was Noah's Loving Our Enemies.