Every time there is a mass shooting, and apparently this is the new normal, the question of prayer is raised. It has become evident that too many Republican politicians refuse to enact any meaningful legislation to combat gun violence and instead only offer “thoughts and prayers”. The phrase has been a stand in for doing […]
The season of Epiphany began January 6th and continues until Ash Wednesday. Epiphany, in the Greek, could be likened to a manifestation, a striking appearance, or a vision of God. In the Western Church, an epiphany is had by the wise men, who came bearing gifts to the infant Jesus. And so Epiphany is inaugurated […]
I have not blogged in 2017. This post will make my one and only post of 2017. In some ways, 2016 burned me out early in the year. I didn’t recover in 2017. I don’t have any lists of best movies or best books from 2017. Maybe I will keep better track of such things […]
A number of articles have come out on Bart Compolo’s embrace of atheism. As the son of Tony Compolo, a famous evangelical writer and speaker. In particular, Bart’s statement that once he started to doubt this or that doctrine, he moved quickly from progressive Christianity to atheism. Many conservative writers have been quick to embrace […]
So a discussion ensued over the meaning of Columbus Day, not just it’s meaning, but a broader discussion on our national symbols, institutions, and myths. Are there common stories left that bind us as a people? Can we develop better stories than we’ve relied on in the past? Can we re-envision the old stories? Or […]
To examine the United Church of Christ Statement of Faith is not so much to examine a creed which binds all members and determines who is in and out of the community. Rather it is to examine a testimony of faith. In that, this statement invites us to consider our own faith and gives […]
So major evangelical leaders came together to produce a statement on “biblical sexuality.” But there were Catholic and mainline Protestant signers of the Nashville Statement. So while the problems with this statement are concentrated in evangelicalism, they are in fact problems that affects a much wider swath of the church. Much of the press coverage […]
Rod Dreher has a remarkable way of both identifying the big issues of our time and then developing prescriptions that cannot hold, given his own stances. The one I wanted to focus on this line from a recent essay. The Other America: The America of a society that has lost its bindings — to […]
I want to focus on the place called Bethel, because in the story of Bethel lies a tail that weaves its way through the Bible. We first hear about Bethel in Genesis 12, where Abram, (Abraham’s original name) receives his call to leave his homeland and is promised a new land and a people. One […]
This post is written largely in response to Morgan Guyton, a UMC campus minister, who steers a path between religious liberalism and conservative evangelicalism as he responds to a piece titled 5 Marks of Theological Liberalism. His responses are well written and there’s a lot to agree with. But given that I identify as a […]
Sanders: You think your statement that you put into that publication, they do not know God because they rejected Jesus Christ, His Son, and they stand condemned, do you think that’s respectful of other religions? Vought: Senator, I wrote a post based on being a Christian and attending a Christian school that has a statement […]
A recent piece in Daily Kos writes t’s difficult to see why any believer, fundamentalist or “moderate,” should receive special treatment ― especially when even the most moderate and “progressive” Christians are nurturing the xenophobic, racist, uncharitable and decidedly “un-Christian” America we are finding ourselves in today. And make no mistake: there is no […]
