William Bole, a friend and former colleague, has always demonstrated a great gift for understanding the connections among ideas and actors in the religion world and for relating those connections with a storyteller’s instinct and wit.
I worked with him for a number of years (he was Washington correspondent at the time) during my stint at Religion News Service in New York and often marveled at his ability to join a certain gentleness to a critical and unblinking approach to news.
He’s recently begun a blog, Theopol, and it is a worn description to those who know him to describe his new venture as “thoughtful,” but that’s what it is, far more thoughtful than most efforts one comes across in the ether. Take a look. He’s just posted a different take on seasonal consumerism – and don’t cringe. You won’t be preached at; you may be encouraged to think, gently, about what’s going on. Check it out: http://williambole.com/body-and-soul-in-the-checkout-line/
