Justice, too, is a virtue

In today's first reading, we are admonished by God:

Is this the manner of fasting I wish, of keeping a day of penance: That a man bow his head like a reed and lie in sackcloth and ashes? Do you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD? This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; Setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; Sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; Clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own.

-- Isaiah 58:5-7

Private piety and personal chastity do not exhaust the life to which Christian disciples are called by the Gospel.

Great grocer, unhinged political thinker

Sometimes when shopping at Whole Foods, it irks me that the store is crammed with New Age magazines about Tibetan Buddhism and Yoga instead of also carrying the occasional Christian work. After all, my local Whole Foods here in Texas no doubt has far more Christian customers than shoppers who follow the Dharmic religions, so perhaps we'd be interested in a book about the environmental stewardship of Creation, for example. However, after learning about this smugly delivered slander on NPR today, I think I'll just stick to buying my organic arugula and be very, very grateful that Christianity isn't sullied by association with Whole Foods, the CEO of which has done a lot for the natural environment, but who ought to stop releasing dangerously extremist effluent into the political environment.