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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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Plantinga on The God Delusion
Ben Witherington alerted me to Plantinga’s review of Dawkins’ book The God Delusion on Christianity Today. Now I must be frank (well, no, I don’t have to, but I will!) and say that I find philosophers provide the most annoying of reading. They seem to me to be the world’s best rationalizers, providing excellent reasons…
Abortion and Moral Good-An Illustration of Extremes
A post on the evangelical outpost alerted me to a minor tempest about abortion rights. It seems that Amanda Marcotte believes that abortion is a moral good, something to be celebrated. Having recently encountered the notion that one trully cannot take the position I do, that abortion in the bulk of cases is to be…
Why I Dislike Both Major Parties
One of the few things the Democrats and Republicans can agree on is measures to keep themselves in power. This includes limiting access to the ballot and making sure that the election system continues to favor the two major parties. Thus, it’s good news that the supreme court has agreed to review the appeals court…
Journalistic Duty and the Jesus Ossuary
Carl Zimmer has an excellent short post at The Loom commenting on the journalistic duties involved. Go read it–it will only take a few moments, but it makes a critical point. One of the failures of the Christian response to this is to get over-the-top about attacks on Christianity, when what we are actually dealing…
Is it a Hoax?
Rev. Rob Schenck of the National Clergy Council issued a statement attacking the forthcoming documentary on the grave of Jesus and his family. It was titled TV Special on Jesus’ Grave — a Hoax?. Though I have already commented on what I see is a completely unscientific and unscholarly hype, this is not terribly surprising…
Finding the Tomb of Jesus
A documentary to be shown on the Discovery Channel purports to have discovered the tomb and the ossuary of Jesus (CNN story here). I’m amazed that something like this would be called a “documentary” since there is next to no possibility of sufficient evidence for such a claim. The sad thing is that archeological claims,…
The Balance of Outrage
Frequently I see the challenge to outrage on blogs or even occasionally in print media. It goes something like this: Group A has been very outraged by X, the horror of which is minimized by the writer. The writer describes something that outrages him or her, surely much more horrible than X, and wonders if…
Word Study Dangers: Glosses and Definitions
In my previous entry in this series I noted the difference between a gloss and a definition. To review: First, let me distinguish between a “gloss” and a “definition.” A “gloss” is a word or phrase proposed as a translation for a word in the source language. When a Greek student is taught that “pistis”…
With Reasons Like These . . .
. . . who needs rationalizations? I refer to the article 7 Reasons Why (it’s title in the title bar) also titled “Key Issues Regarding Bible Translation.” This is on the domain genderneutralbibles.com, (yes, Virginia, there really is a genderneutralbibles.com!). A while back I blogged on Mark Driscoll’s reasons for using the ESV at his…
Welcome Seekism to the Moderate Christian Blogroll
The latest addition is Seekism, with his latest post, Does the Old Testament Accurately Describe God.
Gifts Ministry and Blaspheming the Holy Spirit
OK, that should be a sufficiently provocative title! 🙂 Peter Kirk commented on an earlier post and gave me some advice–advice which I would normally consider quite good sense. Here it is: But maybe you are going a bit too far, at least to keep yourself out of trouble, in suggesting that those who do…
MBWR
. . . is posted. I want to thank Allan Bevere for his hard work is regularly posting the roundup. I’ll be praying for him as he goes to speak outside the country. The MBWR will be missing for the next two weeks.
On the Retirement of Marcus Borg
Marcus Borg has announced his retirement. After completing his current class at Oregon State University, where he has been the Hundere Distinguished Professor of Religion and Culture, he will retire, and may even slow down a bit! He does have a few books in the works and other outlines in mind, according to this story…
Book: Identifying Your Gifts and Service
Finally, after many delays, every one of them my fault, my new edition of this book has gone to the printer. Titled uncreatively Identifying Your Gifts and Service: Small Group Edition, it fills a need, expressed by a number of people who have taken my class series of the same name, for an edition of…
Quick Note on Persecution
The other day I wrote a note about Christians feeling persecuted in the United States and how I felt that devalued the term “persecution.” This morning I got an alert from Christian Today (I subscribe to the Christianity Today Connection e-mail), which gave the story of a persecuted girl in Pakistan and led, inevitably to…
Women in Ministry: A Shock
I have long been an advocate of the full involvement of women, indeed of all people in the ministry of the church. It is the essence, I believe, of gifts based ministry. If you believe that the Holy Spirit gives gifts for service, and then you deny the use of those gifts to certain members…
Put Your Bible Down for a Day
That would be a weird thing for a Bible teacher, such as myself, to say. And indeed, I didn’t say it. Dennis Stout did, over a Christianity Today/Christian Bible Studies.com. There’s some good advice in this article, so I wanted to commend it to my readers.
Arrogant Reporters
One of the interesting things about commentary on the war is that though Laura of Pursuing Holiness and I disagree almost completely on the war in Iraq, we can agree that the press has done a miserable job of reporting it. In addition, we can agree that the press tends to combine incompetence and arrogance…
Criminal Blogging
An Egyptian court has charged a blogger for criticizing his university and the government, and now have sentenced him to four years in prison. And these guys are supposed to be our moderate friends. Even I can’t stretch the definition of “moderate” far enough to cover a government that will commit such an outrage. Hat…
Automotive and Human Evolution
One of the most dangerous types of arguments is the argument from an analogy. In fact, I think that argument is rarely used to good effect. Illustration from analogy, yes, but no additional weight of argument supplied otherwise. Ed Brayton discusses another example as Bill Dembski, always the master of spin, claims that vestigial organs…
Logos Library Resource on Ancient Israelite History
I got an e-mail yesterday from a representative of Logos Bible Software alerting me to the Origins of Ancient Israelite Religion collection which is currently at the “gathering interest” phase. He mentioned that this package is in danger of not gathering enough interest. I hope those who use the Logos Bible Software and are interested…
Christian Carnival CLXII Posted
Christian Carnival CLXII has been posted at Brain Cramps for God. I think it has an extraordinarily nice layout this time.
Extremists and Ideologues Don’t Like Moderates
. . . but they need to learn to live with them. I recommend reading the Washington Post article The Woman in the Middle about Democratic congresswoman Ellen Tauscher of California. A number of left wing bloggers and other activists are apparently targetting her. They would like to replace her with a more liberal democrat….
Memories of Robots Future
I’m not adding much to this one (on the immediate future of robots), but it brought back memories. I’ve been a science fiction fan since I first laid eyes on my first Heinlein book in my brother-in-law’s house. In our home we didn’t do fiction, though I’d read some in high school literature. It was…