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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…
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Sensible Candidate Selection
I found this article on ethics and choosing candidates while preparing Christian Carnival #179 over on my Participatory Bible Study Blog. Jeremy is discussing the issue of voting for a candidate who holds a position you might regard as immoral, for example a pro-lifer voting for a pro-choice candidate such as Rudy Giuliani, because the…
Christian Carnival #179
Celebrating Independence Day, July 4 in the United States and Canada Day, July 1 in Canada (where else?). I’ve loosely grouped the posts under these quotes from the Federalist Papers. If you can’t find the connection, don’t overwork your brain on the matter. It’s just an excuse to print some of my favorite quotes on…
Smartypants Notions Like Cosmic Child Abuse
Somehow it seems as thought advocates of penal substitutionary atonement (PSA) as the key model of the atonement (I’d prefer metaphor) can’t stay kind and respectable. I wonder why it is that those of us who think that one needs to consider the character of God in terms of love, mercy, and forgiveness as well…
Adrian Warnock has a new URL
I’ve updated my blogroll, and now y’all need to know that Adrian Warnock has a new URL (adrianwarnock.com).
Libby Sentence Commuted
According to the Washington Post, President Bush has commuted former Cheney aid I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby. He left intact probation provisions and the fine. I greet this news with mixed emotions. On the one hand I’m tired of lengthy investigations in Washington that produce nothing but convictions for lying to investigators and grand juries. Consider…
Divine Child Abuse and the Use of Scripture
It has probably seemed a little odd that I, as a non-evangelical, would follow the atonement discussions as closely as I do. To the extent that I have managed to do so, it has been for two reasons. First, no matter what stream of Christianity one belongs to, the atonement comes out somewhere near the…
Notes on Mark 10:32-52
These notes accompany my podcast titled A Time to Seek Healing. Translation and Notes 32Now they were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them, and the disciples were amazed. But those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve aside again, he began to tell them again about…
Book: In Discordance with the Scriptures
Though it would be a slight exaggeration, one could call this a history of Bible translation for post-moderns. Rather than focusing heavily on the technical issues as do most books on this topic, it focuses on the political and social elements and emphasizes that Bible translation is not a purely objective and scientific process. Any…
More on the Cheri Yecke Story
Wesley Elsberry has posted some additional information on this story on The Panda’s Thumb, and on his blog in which he states he believes the story is confirmed. . . . As far as I am concerned, the Princeton Union-Eagle is vindicated in this matter; at the time that they reported, Cheri Pierson Yecke was…
Scientists Thinking about Intelligent Design
In an extraordinarily inane post over on Uncommon Descent, titled The best evolutionary biologists think about intelligent design, S. Cordova tells us that, well, as the title says, the best evolutionary biologists are thinking about intelligent design. This strikes me as rather like the child who provokes his parents into punishing him just because he…
Absolute Theology; Flexible Science
One of the interesting things I note about creationists of various stripes is that they display a tremendous flexibility in interpreting physical data, they generally take hold of one approach to Biblical interpretation and nothing can move them. One of the clearest explicit statements of this position comes in the first three chapters of Kurt…
Dinosaurs and the Bible: A Creationists Fantasy
. . . has moved here. It’s worth a look just for the header picture. The subtitle is “Dinosaurs and the Bible DONT MIX!!!”
Looking at Form and Genre
Awilum has a short post that makes a couple of good points related to literary genre, which I’ve been discussing in a couple of posts, and will discuss some more. You should go read his post, but let me highlight the points that caught my attention: Form and genre are not the same Form is…
Intelligent Design and Answer All Questions
Through this week’s Christian Carnival I found two posts on science and religion that interested me. One I agree with completely, and I just want to underline a couple of points. The other, not so much, though it is still a good article. The first is An intelligently designed universe from Sun and Shield. Now…
Notes on Mark 10:23-31
These notes supplement my podcast titled Last and First. The included translation is a working translation. Check out passages in your favorite Bible version. 23Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it is for those who have possessions to enter into the kingdom of God.” I’m sure that the disciples were…
Christian Carnival B2
. . . has been posted at Chasing the Wind. Why B2? Because Michael presented the number in various formats, and I chose that one. Nice break from Roman numerals, eh? There’s a good deal of material here I’d like to read and comment on. I wonder how much I’ll get to?
Government Regulated Media != Free Media
The following from YouTube illustrates why I simply don’t trust politicians for anything. There being a perceived imbalance in talk radio in favor of conservatives, to which I say “Who cares?”, a number of liberals are now calling for government control, obviously because we all know that the government is always fair in the way…
New Philophronos Blogroll Member
I join with Laura in welcoming Discovering the Heart of God as a new Philophronos Blogroll member. Go check out his blog. I’m going to link to a specific post from the Pacesetters Bible School Newsletter to which I’m the primary contributor.
Great Moments of (choose your label) Hypocrisy
Fellow philophronos blogger Laura has made a number of excellent points in a post titled Great Moments in Conservative Hypocrisy. Now I’m not linking back so I can crow and say, “See! Those conservatives were hypocrites all along, and finally one of them is recognizing it!” First, I would have to note that I can’t…
Notes on Mark 10:13-16
These notes accompany my podast Children and Divine Priorities. Translation and Notes 13And they brought him children so that he might touch them. But the disciples rebuked them. Notice again that the disciples are not on the same agenda as Jesus is. They haven’t gotten kingdom principles. To Jesus children are important both in themselves—they…
Being Other Worldly or Being Christian
The Evangelical Ecologist has an excellent post titled Closing Credibility Gaps. I think that I’m in a good position to underline his post, as a member of a congregation of the United Methodist Church, one of those declining mainline denominations. Just so the error seekers know that I saw it, I will quibble slightly over…
In Memory of Dr. Brevard S. Childs
For those who do not read scholarly works it may seem strange to feel bereaved when someone whom you have never actually met dies. I discovered via Levellers that Dr. Brevard S. Childs has passed away. He will be missed in Biblical scholarship, and though I never met him, I am deeply sorry that he…
Information from Minnesota Newspaper on Cheri Yecke Challenged
The blog of Florida Citizens for Science (of which I am a board member) is reporting that “Dr. Cheri Pierson Yecke, K-12 chancellor for Floridas Department of Education, has apparently hired a company called ReputationDefender to search the Internet for information about her and, on her behalf, challenge items she disputes.” You can find more…
Notes on Mark 10:1-12
This working translation and notes expand on the presentation in my Bible Pacesetter Podcast titled The Question of Divorce. Translation and Notes 1And he left there and arrived in the region across the Jordan from Judea, and again a crowd came to him, and as it was his custom, he taught them again. Jesus is…