A number of people over the years have suggested that because of some doctrinal position or another that I hold, I no longer have a basis for my faith. Those who express themselves a bit less forcefully see it as a weakening of faith, a distancing from God, and a lessening of belief in God’s…
There have been a number of articles on these races because of the national issues raised, including the idea that a state court should be permitted to ignore a federal court order that it regards as unlawful. Roy Moore gained fame by refusing to remove a monument to the ten commandments, but when it came…
A Christian game company is producing a game based on the Left Behind series. Their own advertising quotes the New York Times saying that the game “Combines Tom Clancy-like suspense with touches of romance, high-tech flash and Biblical references.” The game puts players in the position of either killing or converting their opponents and includes…
Recently I wrote a couple of entries, first on diversity and liberalism, and then on the Together for the Gospel statement. The issues I discussed in those two posts raise quite a number of questions about truth, unity, and Christian fellowship. Many might decide from my comments thus far that I don’t care about truth…
The Smithsonian magazine online has an article Dinosaur Shocker, talking about the work of Mary Schweitzer who has found preserved soft tissues in fossilized dinosaur bones. The topic has been picked up by young earth creationists and used as an evidence for a young earth. This has already been discussed on the web, but if…
I found a wonderful post on the relationship to which God invites us over at connexions (via the the Methodist Blogs Weekly Roundup), titled Living in God. The author, Richard Hall, brings to us the word “perichoresis” used by early church fathers to describe the union of the human and divine in Jesus and then…
A couple of weeks ago while teaching I was asked about the title of my book Not Ashamed of the Gospel: Confessions of a Liberal Charismatic, and what I meant by “liberal charismatic.” Now this isn’t an ad for my book–no, really, it’s not!–but that title was not one I gave myself, but rather one…
One thing second or third year Greek students notice, at least those who manage to start actually reading the Greek New Testament, is that various books have different levels of Greek grammar and vocabulary, and different literary styles. There’s a reason why most early reading exercises from the New Testament are from John or Mark….
A few years ago a number of my students in an introductory Bible study class arrived very excited. There was a town coucil here in Florida (I forget precisely where), that had invited a Wiccan–a witch!–to offer a prayer opening a public ceremony. My students were discussing what they would have done about this obviously…
In a short article, ScienceNOW Daily news discusses some new research that may shed light on how life first emerged on this planet. I want to call attention to the article for a couple of reasons, but primarily because this, in my view, is how real science is done, and how it sounds when announced….