Moderate Christian Blog Aggregator/Roll – Status Report
A little over a month ago (August 12, 2006) I started the Moderate Christian Blog Aggregator and the related blogroll. To get the ball rolling, I included my three blogs (three so I can segregate my areas of interest more easily) and one group blog to which I’m primary contributor. I also included my wife’s…
Criticizing Religions
I have long been an advocate of permitting criticism of Christianity, because I think allowing such criticism is good for my religion. I have friends who would regard my religion as a delusion, and I encourage them to speak directly about what they believe. This is not a matter of commitment to legal free speech,…
Psalm 104: Presenting the Message
Psalm 104 has a distinct message about God’s creation that has stuck with me strongly since I first studied the passage in graduate school. I have previously posted links to my prior study of the text and structure of this Psalm, done more than 25 years ago. I’m starting from that point now. When we…
McCain and Conscience
I have liked John McCain for a long time, and now he has taken a stand on torture and interrogation. Chip Read on MSNBC’s first read comments on this as a matter of conscience. I’m amazed, despite everything that has already happend in the war on terror, that this is entirely an issue. I’m deeply…
Psalm 104
I’m planning to do some posting on translating and transforming Hebrew poetry over the next few weeks, so I want to start with a couple of links to my existing work on Psalm 104. I did a considerable study of the structure of this Psalm in graduate school. I’m not in a position to repeat…
Muslim Protests of the Pope’s Remarks
I have not been very excited about the vatican over the last few years, and I was not overjoyed when the current pope was elected, but in general since I’m not a catholic, it’s not something I get very excited about. But the current round of protests about the Pope’s quotation of a medieval text…
Brief Thoughts on Hebrew Poetry
A few days ago Wayne Leman blogged about translating Hebrew poetry, and referred to an article by Philip C. Stine Biblical Poetry and Translation. The article is really excellent, and nothing I’m about to say here is intended to criticize that article as such. I’ve been very interested in translation of Hebrew poetry, but I…
Nation Whose God is the LORD?
Today while doing grocery shopping, I saw a T-Shirt with the slogan: My faith and my freedom are one. Underneath was the verse: Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD (Psalm 33:12). I don’t know who provides such a shirt, but that slogan troubles me deeply. I think it reflects the problem that…
Wesley Blog Back/Goodbye to Wesley Daily
Shane Raynor has returned to blogging after a summer hiatus. The Wesley Blog is back, but at the same time he announces the end of his experiment with the Wesley Daily. I’ll miss the Wesley Daily, because often Shane’s picks of a post for the day gave me good material to blog about. However, the…
Red State Rabble on Enemy Recognition
I really appreciate the post Uniting Against the Common Enemy. As I said in an earlier post, I don’t expect others to back off about their positions on various issues. But we also don’t need to have those additional disagreements prevent us from cooperating on issues about which we do agree. I particularly like the…
More on Bible in Public Schools
Ed Brayton calls attention to a Texas Freedom Network report on the teaching of the Bible in public schools. Not surprisingly, the report is not good. Bible teaching is constitutional under certain specific circumstances, largely amounting to requiring that it be taught as an academic subject in a non-sectarian way. The recommendations by the Texas…
The Impact of Context
The other day I was reading an article on the practice of prophetic ministry–I’m not going to say where; it was in print and not on the web–in which the author claimed that a prophet does not have to get it right. In fact, he said, a person with the gift of prophecy may get…
Christian Carnival #138 Posted
Christian Carnival #138 has been posted over at Thoughts of a Gyrovague. Again, it looks like some fun stuff. Last time I only managed to link to and comment on four posts, I believe, but I read and intended to comment on lots more. Does that count? 🙂
More on Religious Battle Lines
Ed Brayton has written an excellent post on this topic over at Dispatches from the Culture Wars, titled Drawing Religious Battle Lines. I’ve already said my piece on this one, so I’m just going to send you over there to read this excellent essay. My high opinion of it has nothing to do with the…
Biblical Criticism Resources
Since I’m talking so much about critical theories in my discussion of Genesis 1-11 (now on chapter 6), I wanted to call some attention to material I have already posted concerning Biblical criticism. The best starting point for this information is the following pamphlet from the Participatory Study Series: That pamphlet provides answers to some…
As Christ Loved the Church
Lingamish has a wonderful post about Ephesians 5:22ff (if you don’t know about the part that is “ff” be sure to read his post!), and what this can mean in our relationship with our wives. (I do intentionally use purely male references, referring to the Lingamish and myself. You can adjust as necessary!) This reminds…
Pro-Evolution Event at University of North Florida
The Biology Department at UNF and the First Coast Freethought Society will sponsor a panel discussion on evolution and education titled Science Under Siege: The Attack on Evolution. The discussion will take place Monday, November 13, 2006, 7:00 – 9:30 p.m. at the UNF University Center. You can find more information and directions to the…
The Church that is Always Emerging
God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. 2 Corinthians 5:19 Do you feel the depth of that statement? Can I recommend that you stop now and read 2 Corinthians 5, or at least verses 11-21 before you continue this? I often think that we Christians don’t nearly get the meaning of this passage,…
Genesis 6:1-4: Sons of God and Human Beings
These four verses provide a rather unusual interlude, coming between the genealogy of the patriarchal line in chapter five, and the story of the flood that truly begins in verse 5. I’m attributing them to the redactor who combined the J and P sources of the flood, though I think they work better with the…
I’m Much Worse than That
. . . from their point of view, that is. This is a kind of “take-2” on my Conscience of a Christian Publisher post. Centuri0n had a brief spurt of posting comments, but seems to have been silent since accusing me of deleting them at the very time I was restoring them from backups following…
The Two Flood Stories Updated
I’ve just reposted my essay The Two Flood Stories, correcting some links, improving the notes a bit, making some verse numbering a little bit clearer, and adding a section concluding the flood story. This editing was in preparation for continuing my Genesis series here by discussing the flood story. Thus far, I’ve discussed through Genesis…
Reasons for Belief
It seems that this week’s MBWR has produced an excellent crop. Bruce Alderman, whose blog is also in the Moderate Christian Blog Aggregator, wrote a post titled Why I Believe. His approach is strongly but not exclusively experiential, and in many ways resonates with my own. It also ties in with the current book discussion…
Don’t Judge Discipleship by Numbers
This post is to call your attention to a post by Beth Quick, Mark Driscoll, Mainline Churches, and The Numbers Game (Hat tip: MBWR #82, with strong second to the Best of the Methodist blogosphere! note). I’m also closing the comments here so that any additional discussion will be centered around her blog. I want…
New Florida Citizens for Science Web Site
The new Florida Citizens for Science web site is now up and running. Check it out at Florida Citizens for Science. Not too surprisingly, the blog can be found at http://www.flascience.org/wp. Check out the new format and the interesting information. Florida Citizens for Science will be watching closely as Florida begins to revise science standards.