God's idea of redemption is community-shaped.

We need to shed our unearthly and nonsocial and idealistic and romantic and uber-spiritual visions of kingdom and get back to what Jesus meant. By kingdom, Jesus means: God's Dream Society on earth, spreading out from the land of Israel to encompass the whole world.

God loves us and seeks our redemption, at times through angels.

Angels are spirits on mission, and that mission is God's. So, we can say that God, out of his love, sends angels to aid us in our redemption. Angels are sent for our redemption, and that redemption leads us all the way into the heights of worship.

To walk into the Jefferson memorial is to be in a temple of the pure idolatry of reason

On politics I strive as much as possible to let my passions be for God and for the Church and for others (the Jesus Creed). I place no confidence in redemption by way of politics. The political hope ebbs and flows every 8 years now; I don't get all riled up if a Republican or a Democrat wins; I don't think it matters that much to what we are called to do on a daily basis.

Angels, inasmuch as they come from the Throne Room of the Thrice-holy God, usher us into the presence of God once removed and such encounters with God are more powerful and overwhelming than ordinary moments with God.