Malpractice or Malpraxis?
Here is another interesting view on the pastoral malpractice post relating to PSA.
Spirit Lite – Recommended Reading
This blog post on seeking spirituality is excellent. Go read it! (HT: 42).
Guilty of Pastoral Malpractice
Thom Rainer posted an article on Lifeway’s Web Site claiming that pastors who did not preach penal substitutionary atonement (he didn’t use the term, he described the doctrine in very strong terms) are guilty of pastoral malpractice. He used the word “treasonous.” Will, a United Methodist pastor and blogger pleads guilty in that case. I…
UMC General Conference Endorses Clergy Letter Project
I’m a little behind the power curve on this one, but I found out about these via an e-mail from Michael Zimmerman of the Clergy Letter Project. The first resolution is #80990 (tracking) which includes the line: * endorses The Clergy Letter Project and its reconciliatory programs between religion and science, and urges United Methodist…
Pelicans Win 5-2
The Pensacola Pelicans won 5-2 against the Lincoln Salt Dogs tonight. Our son John Webb was not pitching. I understand he’ll be starting in Sioux Falls on Tuesday night, but our guest Brandon Sing hit a 2 run homer as well as a double, going 2 for 4. Following the double he reached third on…
Ken Miller on Expelled
Dr. Kenneth Miller has a review of Expelled! in the Boston Globe, and it’s a good one. It’s short and to the point. (Hat tip to Dispatches where I also commented.) Dr. Miller goes directly to the issue of associating the theory of evolution with atheism, a piece of propaganda work that the movie accomplishes…
Some Examples of Participating in the Bible
I use the term “participatory” to describe the method of Bible study that I teach. To be more precise I might say that’s the umbrella concept under which I teach any number of different methods, while urging people to also find their own. When people first hear the word “participatory” they either say “huh” or…
Science vs. ID Redux: Lampreys
One characteristic of creationist debate over the last few decades has been moving the goal posts. Every time a new fossil is discovered that fits into the evolutionary pattern for some lineage we hear the “it’s still an X” litany, followed by pointing to yet more gaps. Each new fossil, it seems, creates new gaps…
Intimidation by Divine Wrath
Some Christians resort to an argument of intimidation by divine judgment and wrath when the going gets tough. I read this most recently in a comment on YouTube, in which the writer simply quoted Bible texts implying first that people were wrong, and second that God was going to do something about it. Those texts…
Pensacola Pelicans Opening Day
Well, patient readers, you will have to put up with some baseball. My son, John Webb, was the opening day pitcher for the Pensacola Pelicans, and he looked pretty good. His mother and I were a bit concerned to see the trainer go out to the mound in the fifth, but it looks minor and…
Responding to the Evangelical Manifesto
I never refer to myself as an evangelical, but occasionally others do for reasons that are largely unfathomable to me (except a few from across the pond that make some sense), so I usually take a look at documents that come out relating to evangelicalism. I’m always interested in the potential for finding one of…
John Webb Pitching on Opening Day
There’s a nice story today in the Pensacola News Journal (and I rarely call their stories nice!) about my stepson, John Webb, who will be the opening day pitcher for the Pensacola Pelicans baseball team. John was interviewed for the article and gets to talk about his goals and his approach to playing. I’m looking…
Christian Carnival CCXXIII – Tabernacle Edition
Welcome to the Christian Carnival, tabernacle edition. Why use the tabernacle? In my teaching I have found that the tabernacle and its services are almost infinitely useful, often illustrating things that one might not assume from the text. I identify as carefully as I can when I’m being strictly exegetical, and when I’m using the…
How it Happened vs. Probabilities
I may be hopelessly naive in the matter of probability, though it is the one area of math that I have actually studied, but I am simply not terribly impressed with probability arguments. That’s probably (!) a major reason why I’m not impressed with intelligent design (ID). I’m particularly not impressed with probabilities calculated for…
Next Christian Carnival Will be Here
I’m hosting Christian Carnival CCXXIII here. It will be posted later today. I actually cut off submissions this morning, so if you had your post in any time last night, it will get in there. I’ll be posting from somewhere out of my office, so corrections will have to wait at least until evening.
Distinguishing Freedom and Ability
I have always preferred our classic statements of rights, such as the bill of rights, to such statements as Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms.” What interests me is that while our classic statements of rights indicate things that the government is not permitted to prevent you from doing, the latter two freedoms from Roosevelt’s list, and especially…
My Advice for Florida Creationists
Which, for those in doubt, includes advocates of intelligent design (ID). I know they won’t take it, but here it is: Just tell the truth. John West, over at Evolution News and Views, has written a quite disingenuous post in which he wonders about the motives of advocates in the Florida House who insisted on…
Hosting Bible Translations Wiki
Updated: I added one more topic for the wiki, and also changed the links to point to mybibleversion.com which is where I think this belongs. The old URLs are redirected. Before I discuss this, it is not a diversion from personalizing the MyBibleVersion.com site. In fact, it is now a part of that process. “This”…
Faith and Imagination
I haven’t been blogging here for the last couple of days. Even though I only do network management/maintenance work part time, every so often I end up with full days away from my computer, and thus likely to write much less. I must confess that my market value in technical work (I have my own…
Intellectual and Spiritual Independence Redux
James McGrath has posted a Challenge to Anti-Intellectual Christian Fundamentalists. I think it’s a good one. I posted on this before, though from a different angle. I want to highlight here an important question. Where in scripture or Christian tradition do we get a high value for intellectual independence? Certainly there is a value for…
HRC Panders on Oil
There is always profit for politicians in pandering to the short term interests of the voters. That’s because there are enough voters who simply don’t understand their long term interest or who don’t care enough about the future to take it into consideration. The stimulus package is one such case of pandering, and all the…
Psalm 104 Article
Since Psalm 104 is in the lectionary for Pentecost (May 11), I thought I’d take this opportunity to link again to my essay on that Psalm which dates from when I was working on my MA. I created a critical (or reconstructed) Hebrew text, provided a translation and notes, and did some analysis on the…
Question Everything, Including the Bible
James McGrath (whose comments are well worth reading) pointed me to this post, and I responded here.
Police Can’t Afford to Jump to Conclusions
. . . but reporters apparently can. I’m going to embed the fox video that set this off. I saw it on the TV while eating my lunch, and then looked it up for your viewing pleasure (or not). I’m pretty tense about any government official overstepping the bounds of their authority. Police face great…