Is Sunday my Sabbath?
As an ex-Seventh-day Adventist I get this question frequently. This fine Sunday morning while I’m playing with my computer, let me answer both yes and no! There are several ways in which ex-SDAs deal with the Sabbath. The first is to accept the Sunday as the Sabbath in accordance with the letter of the commandment,…
Dr. Peter Enns Suspended
I wrote a brief post on the suspension of Dr. Peter Enns, tenured professor of Old Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary on my Participatory Bible Study blog. I put the article there because it relates to Biblical inspiration and interpretation, but I wanted to link from here because it deals with academic freedom.
Peter Enns, Incarnational Inspiration, and Seminary Authority
In 2005 Peter Enns, a professor of Old Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary, published a book titled Inspiration and Incarnation, and it is likely going to cost him his tenured position. I’m writing about this on this blog because of the implications of his incarnational view of inspiration for Biblical interpretation. I have not yet…
Book: Evolution and Christian Faith
I’m constantly on the lookout for books on evolutionary theory aimed at the general public rather than specialized audiences, so when I saw this little book on the shelf of the local university library, I took it home to check out. My response to it is a bit mixed. There are a number of good…
The Value (and not so much) of the Anchor Bible
At this point I’m nearly half way through my study through 2 Corinthians with Victor Paul Furnish’s Anchor Bible Commentary, on which I made introductory comments earlier. This note is not so much about 2 Corinthians as about the series in general, and especially some of the newer volumes. I absolutely don’t recommend this series…
Persecution for Christians who Accept Evolution
When Troy Brittain started blogging, I knew we’d get some good stuff, and his post More Irony from the ID Creationist Crowd is a good example. It seems unlikely that the real interest of the ID crowd is academic freedom.
Church and Healthcare: Fear
Let me remind everyone that I’m really thinking on my blog, rather than providing answers that I have really thought out in discussing health care issues and the church. I have lots of pieces, but I don’t feel that I have anything like an assembled puzzle. My comments will also necessarily derive from personal experience….
Property May Stay with Breakaway Churches
According to a story on MSNBC.com, some breakaway Episcopal churches in Virginia may be able to keep their property rather than having it go to the denomination. This is a ruling on only one point, and it is based on a law from just after the civil war when there were many issues of this…
Reason is all over Bible Study
In a post on Complegalitarian, Molly Alley discusses how reasonable it is to hold a doctrine that assumes that women will never mature, as in men where once boys who needed the guidance of a parent, but eventually they become mature and are considered ready for leadership. But what about women? Of course, as an…
Health Care: My Visit to the Emergency Room
I take this detour from discussing the church and medical care to talk a bit about why it is so difficult even to discuss medical care in this country, based on a recent personal experience. I’m 50 years old, and a few weeks ago I made my first visit to the emergency room. (Just for…
Another Quick Look at the NISB
I blogged a bit before about the New Interpreter’s Study Bible [NISB], in which I noted that it was somewhat more technical than The Learning Bible and less critical than the Oxford Study Bible. Since then I have been using it quite a bit in my personal devotions and study, and I’d like to add…
2 Corinthians 3:17-18: Freedom to do What?
2 Corinthians 3:12-18 (CEV) (from BibleGateway.com). This post is less about the exegesis, which I’m only covering briefly, and more about application. I have frequently heard this passage (verses 17 and 18) cited in support of a free and unscripted style of worship. In particular, the phrase “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there…
Healthcare and the Church: But What is the Church?
[Since I have readers from a variety of viewpoints, let me note that the following is written from within the Christian tradition and to those in that tradition. It’s OK to read, of course, but it’s unlikely to be of great interest to non-Christians.] Mark at Pseudo-Polymath has started a discussion on health care and…
Curriculum Chaos Bill in Florida
The Florida legislature is considering an Academic Freedom bill. This one has been done to death, and you can find a great deal of information about it on the Florida Citizens for Science Blog, with the most recent update here. I’ll let you get the details via the many posts there. I want to add…
UC Admissions Case Update
Since it’s my day to link to Ed (not really, but he has some good posts, here’s an update on the UC admissions case.
Freedom from (not of) Expression
Ed Brayton notes that the UN Human Rights Council has endorsed an anti-religious speech code proposed by the Organization of the Islamic Conference. I could write about this with the anger and disgust I feel, but Ed already said it so well: Now I am one of those people who is careful to distinguish between…
MyBibleVersion.com – Comparison against a Base Version (Alpha)
In response to a comment, I have added a page that will allow you to choose a base Bible version (whatever you prefer) and get a list of all other available versions based on how much they differ from that. The page is http://www.mybibleversion.com/compare.php. The default version is the NRSV if you don’t specify. There…
Also Richard Colling
PZ Myers (yes, he who was expelled from Expelled!)* Pim van Meurs, has posted a couple of interesting cases on The Panda’s Thumb, and I want to make sure one name is also known: Dr. Richard Colling. I wrote about his situation in a number of posts, and also blogged through his book Random Designer….
The Major Errors of KJV-Only
Someone signing as Morgan Sorensen just left a comment on my old post (11/28/2006), and I want to promote it to its own post, because it demonstrates the core errors of the KJV-Only position in a very small space. I’m printing the entire comment but I’m interspersing it with comments on the core errors that…
Expelled! and the Atheism-Evolution Connection
There is something I want to clarify from my previous post on the topic. Nobody has mentioned this to me, but it is a common enough error that I think I need to say something explicit. I object both to the comparison of scientists supporting the theory of evolution to Nazis and the equation of…
MyBibleVersion.com – Adding a New Concept
Lingalinga, formerly going under the identity lingamish, made a suggestion about my Bible Version Selection Tool. He thought it would be nice to be able to modify the version profiles to one’s individual tastes, and use the tool against those profiles rather than the ones I supply. I agree with him, and it wouldn’t be…
Upgraded to WordPress 2.5
I have upgraded the software for this blog to WordPress 2.5. I believe with the way I did it nobody should have noticed more than a momentary (less that 30 second) glitch. If there were any other problems I apologize. Please let me know if any new difficulties emerge.
Context for Obama and Dr. Jeremiah Wright
I commented before on how we’re getting snippets out of context. Peter Kirk has done some looking regarding the God damn America comment. From another angle, my wife thinks Obama needs to say “enough!” and get on with the campaign.
Matheson on Howard van Till
He posted some good notes on a talk by van Till here. I have great respect for van Till as well, though I have only encountered him through reading.