Featured Posts
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Sorrow Like My Sorrow – Lamentations 1:12
Can we really understand the suffering of another person or they ours?
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What Is Biblical Literacy?
We complain about it, write about it, claim it’s important or even critical, design programs to create it, but what is it? I don’t mean that none of us know what we mean when we say “biblically literate” or “biblically illiterate,” but do we all mean the same thing? I don’t think we do, and…
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Fences: Mending or Rending
The following is a sermon I presented at the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Pensacola on September 11,2005 and originally posted here on September 13, 2005. I’m reposting it because when I went to look for it, I found that the original post had somehow been truncated, and also because there is a one word at a…
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Experiencing the (Baptism of the) Holy Spirit
This is a topic where I tend to make just about everyone uncomfortable. Long time readers may recall a previous discussion of speaking in tongues, and my own experience of it. Those who expect me to be intellectually oriented and rational are uncomfortable with mystical experiences, and many who are comfortable with the mystical experiences…
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Review of A Reader’s Greek New Testament
GoingtoSeminary.com has a good review of A Reader’s Greek New Testament. I find the concept interesting for new Greek students or those wishing to improve their skills through quantity reading. It’s often hard for new students to move from the word-by-word mode to actually reading Greek, and this is the sort of tool that can…
My Mother Reads Hebrew
One of my disappointments as an undergraduate student was being told by my teacher, and Old Testament studies professor, that most people had learned and forgotten Hebrew many times. It’s not my intent to criticize him–he’s one of my favorite people, and an outstanding scholar and teacher–but I was disappointed with the low expectations. The…
Christian Carnival CCLVIII Posted
. . . at Fathom Deep. I forgot to submit anything, but as usual there’s lots of good stuff.
BBC Radio Program on Evolution and Faith
This excellent little program includes Alister McGrath, Alexandra Wright, and Dr. Usama Hassan, along with an interview with fellow blogger Mike Beidler. It’s well worth checking out.
Evangelism from an Atheist Perspective
I tend to talk a great deal about how we should approach those of other faiths. It’s something that interests me a great deal. Going way back to the early days of this blog, I find the post Witnessing without being a Pest. Let me note here, however, that I’m not calling on any of…
The 2009 John Webb Winter Golf Tournament
My stepson John Webb sponsors an annual golf tournament that raises money for the child life program of Sacred Heart Hospital here in Pensacola. The first tournament was held in January of 2003, and the next one will be held January 31, 2009. This year, the tournament comes under the sponsorship of John’s new foundation,…
What Can We Christians be Thinking?
There were two posts that really drew my attention while running through my Google Reader account over the last couple of days. The first was from Hannity and Colmes, with hat tip to Dispatches from the Culture Wars, via WorldNetDaily. I went and found the actual transcript: COLMES: What about what does it say…
First UMC to Launch New Worship Service
There’s a new thing coming at an old church–a worship service featuring contemporary music, embracing the arts, while also celebrating traditions of worship. It’s called ICON. Here’s the 30 second television ad: HT: First UMC.
On Being a Liberal Charismatic Believer
I found a new blog (for me) this week via John Meunier—To Him Which is Yes. I was particularly attracted by the post John linked to, Bringing back belief. Jack Burden, the blogger, tells the story of how he silenced a committee meeting, doubtless an extremely useful skill under any circumstances, but the point is…
Ken Miller v. Casey Luskin
If it were a court case, Luskin would be getting the book thrown at him when penalty time came. If any readers of this blog don’t also read The Loom, you should. But in case some of you don’t, make sure not to miss this three part series by Dr. Ken Miller, (part 2, part…
Willful, Crusading Ignorance
I took the title of this post from one of the speakers in the video embedded below. I’ve followed this IUPUI case for some time, mostly via Dispatches from the Culture Wars, but also through the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). This case is particularly egregious, but political correctness, or the idea that…
Christian Carnival #257 Posted
. . . at Ancient Hebrew Poetry. It’s short–I wonder if there’s some sort of holiday around this time of year!–but still has some interesting posts. Hopefully more people will submit their best work for the next one. It’s painless, and it gets you links!
The Difficulty of Appropriate Public Prayer
MSNBC.com reports that there is a bit of a kerfuffle over whether Rick Warren will use the name of Jesus in his prayer at Barack Obama’s inauguration. At the same time we have a group of atheist and humanist groups suing to prevent any prayer at all at this public event. I confess to mixed…
The Imagination Stopper
Carl Zimmer has a post on the Loom that discusses irreducible complexity along with some examples. I found it very interesting how we start with a bicycle as irreducibly complex, a claim of an intelligent design (ID) advocate, and then see how the irreducible is reduced through the magic of Google. There are many ways…
My Favored Translation Method
John Hobbins divided translations into two classes in a recent post. Which do you prefer: (1) a translation that makes sense on its own, without off-site explanation, or (2) a translation that is a head-scratcher until an explanation is given which clears things up, and even then leaves you wondering if you have it right?…
Interpreting the Bible II: Excursus on the Plain Sense
I want to tie up a few loose ends in my first post on this series as well as point out some things on which I will need to comment further. In particular, I read this post by John Hobbins that references a post by Wayne Leman regarding complementarianism and the “plain sense” of scripture….
Interpreting the Bible I: Obvious Exegesis
I’m starting a short (I hope) series on interpreting the Bible. This is in response to a series of posts I read recently. The first two were from EvolutionBlog, OEC vs. YEC and The “Terrible Texts” of the Bible. I then encountered A question for Christians on Positive Liberty, which discusses some poor (in the…
UMC Prejudice or Inertia
I’ve watched with some concern the posts by John the Methodist, and more recent commentary by John Meunier on the same topic. There are things I would like to say, but I’m hampered by a complete lack of knowledge of the particulars. This morning I read Shane Raynor’s report, and he has some rather interesting…
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas!
Rockets and Bombs Hamper Cease Fire!
I’m working on some web stuff and have the TV on at the same time. I saw on the scroller for MSNBC that rockets and mortars are falling on southern Israel “hampering diplomatic efforts to revive a cease fire.” I guess one could say that things that go BOOM! might “hamper diplomatic efforts.” Somehow I…
Academic Freedom and Creationism in SciAm
Glenn Branch and Eugenie Scott have an article in Scientific American titled The Latest Face of Creationism in the Classroom, detailing the latest approach to getting creationism in the classroom. Since I touched on this briefly in two previous posts, I thought I’d link to this longer article so people can get the context. I…
The Arrival of a Creationist Troll
Someone calling himself “island” has arrived to comment on my previous post (Teaching Evolution in Florida). He has descended to calling me a liar for the liberal agenda, which I will gratefully add to my other titles, and gotten there all within one day. Head over to the thread if you wish to talk. As…
Obama Regards Himself as Liberal
Terms like “bipartisan” and even “post-partisan” were employed throughout the campaign and are being used now in criticism of the Obama administration that is taking shape. The problem is that we have gotten used to the notion that bipartisanship involves people from two parties who happen to agree on an issue working together. Thus moderate…
Loving, but not Recommending, the REB
There has been a good deal of talk in the biblioblogosphere about translation theory, and in connection with that support for the REB. In particular, I would note John Hobbins post Why the REB is a Great Translation, and to his earlier posts (not directly on the REB but very relevant to this post), You…