Featured Posts
Dr TK Dunn on the Importance of the Old Testament
This is an extract from a longer interview, which I will also embed. I think Dr. Dunn has some valuable comments on the relationship of scripture and what it means for our study. And here’s the full interview from which that was extracted.
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…
All Posts
Chrysostom Quote on Suffering
Sufferings are a perfecting and a cause of salvation. Do you see that to suffer affliction is not the fate of those who are utterly forsaken, if indeed it was by leading him through sufferings that God first honored his Son? And truly his taking flesh to suffer what he suffered is a far greater…
Manly Dish-Doing
As a dish-washing, laundry-doing, floor cleaning grandfather, this ridiculous answer caught my attention. No, not the one about the frozen embryos, the second one. Well, actually I required a hat tip from Pandagon. This is the ridiculous lengths to which the view of gender roles can go, and many times Christian complementarians head right off…
Don McLeroy and his Big Creationist Tent
I’ve written a great deal recently (here, here, and here) about the use of the term “worldview” to attempt to create a level playing field, particularly for young earth creationism. I don’t have a problem with the term “worldview” in a strictly limited sense. If we exclude particular possibilities a priori, and refuse to reexamine…
Boys Being Boys Should be Treated as Boys
. . . or girls as girls. One of the things that makes me go “hmmmm” is that so many people are troubled by corporal punishment, but can somehow manage to accept the idea of a 13 year old tried and sentenced for a crime as an adult. To me that’s just weird. I do…
More Efficient Bureaucracy?
I’m shocked! It appears that the expense and displacement caused by the creation of the Department of Homeland Security has not resolved inter-agency turf wars. Well, not so much shocked, actually. According to The Aviation Nation, ICE (Immigrations and Customs Enforcement) has been avoiding working with the FBI on terrorism cases. This points to a…
Christian Carnival #185
. . . has been Parableman.
Notes on Mark 12:28-34
Translation and Notes Overview There are parallel passages in Matthew 22:34-40 and Luke 10:25-28 On the questioner, the Interpreter’s Bible comments: He is a model for the right approach both to Christ and to the scriptures. The psalmist speaks of “inquiring” in the temple (Ps. 27:4). We do so many other things there. We talk,…
Are Atheists Autistic?
Joe Carter has a post at the evangelical outpost [Note: Evangelical Outpost is showing a warning about browser exploit from McAfee Site Advisor. As I was admonished in the comments, I need to give warning. I’ve used the site for years, but that doesn’t mean I’m safe in doing so. Use the link at your…
Boot Camp Accountability
I saw this story about a 15 year old girl dragged behind a van at a Christian boot camp several places, but I don’t remember where first, so no hat tips. It should go without saying–but I’ll say it anyhow–that this type of brutal punishment, assuming that the story proves to be correct, fails the…
Sneaking God into Public Schools
I have previously written about my opposition to including specific Bible classes in public schools, and to the NCBCPS curriculum in particular, if one chose to have such a class in any case. Now in a column on WorldNetDaily Chuck Norris talks about using this curriculum as “Your first step to get God back into…
The Story in Scripture
One of the ways I believe we frequently misunderstand scripture is by trying to take elements of it outside of the story in which they are set. My view of interpretation places the story above, or perhaps better around the propositional statements. I do not intend this approach to settle disputes about propositional statements in…
How to Change Your Mind – Again
Joe Carter has reposted his entry from last November, titled How to Change Your Mind. I liked it then and I still like it now, so I’m going to link to it again. I use some similar methods from time to time. My mother taught me reading 12 times, which was often part of memorization….
Christian Carnival – Sorting Hat Edition
. . . has been posted a the Bible Archive. Rather creative, though as a non-reader of Harry Potter, I perhaps do not comprehend most of it!
Notes on Mark 12:18-27
Translation and Notes Note: These notes accompany my podcast on this passage, Angels and Marriage. 18Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him, 19“Teacher, Moses wrote for us: ‘If a man’s brother dies, and leaves a wife, but no child, then his brother must take the wife, and raise…
Methodist Blogs Weekly Roundup
Allan Bevere has again done the hard work and posted this weeks MBWR.
The Danger of Teaching the Controversy
The Florida Citizens for Science blog has a post, Best practice with an integrated curriculum?, which looks at some approaches teachers might take to including both creation and evolution in the classroom. The FCS blog does a pretty good job of pointing out the discrepancies. (I should disclose here that I am a board member…
Incarnation and Women in Ministry
I am a strong supporter of the inclusion of women in all aspects of Christian ministry. Sometimes I skip over the theology. Monastic Mumblings has a good post that covers some of the theological aspects very effectively. Check it out!
Selling Christianity
Laura has an excellent post on this. She links back to an earlier post I wrote, but that’s not why I’m calling it excellent. She also makes a number of good points, and links to a number of good posts. Some Christians make the assumption that if you’re not “in your face” about your faith,…
Biblical Studies Carnival XX Posted
. . . at Claude Mariottini – Old Testament Professor. I’m in there, for this post on the Nebo-Sarsekim Tablet. PS: I haven’t been blogging regularly here for about the last week. I have been extraordinarily busy. I have written a number of posts elsewhere, and I’ll kind of do a roundup and then get…
Notes on Mark 12:13-17
These notes accompany my podcast Caesar’s Stuff. Translation and Notes It’s important in reading any of these challenge stories to consider the challengers, the situation in which Jesus finds himself, and the goals he is trying to accomplish. For example, here he needs to respond to the questioners in such a way as to keep…
Book: Conflict Holiness and Politics in the Teachings of Jesus
This will not even be an attempt at a full review of this book by Marcus Borg. I just want to present a few notes. Such a review would take more time and more skill that I believe I can bring to bear. I generally find myself appreciating the spiritual implications that Borg finds in…
Space Industry Accident
There are a number of news areas I follow regularly but don’t comment on, and space flight is one of them. Nonetheless as both a science fiction fan, and an advocate of sound science, I have been very excited to see the development of the private space industry. Today, in catching up on news reading,…
Notes on Mark 12:1-12
These notes accompany and supplement my podcast on the same passage. This parable is normally seen as a discussion of God’s relationship with the nation of Israel. Doubtless in the original context, with Jesus talking to Jews about how they had rejected prophets, and now were rejecting him, this was the meaning. Having noticed that,…
Learning from the War
Joe Carter caught my attention again today with his post This I No Longer Believe: 5 Lessons Learned from the Iraq War. Now he’s responding to this post by Rod Dreher, but I actually found his list more interesting. I’m not going to make my own list, because I don’t think I’ve learned five things…