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Sorrow Like My Sorrow – Lamentations 1:12
Can we really understand the suffering of another person or they ours?
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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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Christian Carnival CXLIX
Christian Carnival CXLIX has been posted at Touring with Virgil. As always, there are some interesting posts, this time including one of mine from Threads rather than from the Participatory Bible Study blog. Again I have good intentions about commenting on a few posts, but I rarely get beyond one or two a week.
Lingamish on “Seed-Pickers”
Lingamish has a post on a preaching peeve of his–seed pickers. You’ll have to go to his post to see all the details, but he defines a seed-picker as: A seed-picker is a preacher who grabs verses from all over the Bible and slaps them together in a puking pastiche of public preaching. A seed-picking…
Conceptual Idolatry
Paul tells us that we now “see dimly in a mrror” (1 Corinthians 13:12), but some of us are quite certain that we see clearly. While I believe we should make every effort to get closer to the truth, it’s important that we understand that God’s ways are not our ways, and thus we will…
Exceptionally Good Testimony on Women in Ministry
Scot McKnight has posted the testimony of Stan Gundry and his journey from complementarianism to egalitarianism and some of the thinking that marked it. I think this is one of the best pieces of writing on the topic I have read. I note that he also faced the challenge of the difference between the testimony…
More on Evolution Conflict
Ed Brayton has again weighed in on the framing of the conflict over science education. I agree with the way in which Ed has laid out the issues, and strongly recommend reading his piece. As an advocate of sound science education, I would like to repeat some things I’ve said before, but that are often…
I Thought this Before it Started
Henry Kissinger now says that the Iraq war is not winnable, something I thought from the start. talking to the BBS (via MSNBC), he said: “If you mean by ‘military victory’ an Iraqi government that can be established and whose writ runs across the whole country, that gets the civil war under control and sectarian…
A Consistent and Principled Approach
In a poll taken before the last election respondents indicated strong disapproval of congress (31% approve/63% disapprove) as a whole, and yet by an almost equal margin (60%/33%), they indicated approval of their own congressman (Fox Poll 10/13/06). This type of result occurs repeatedly in polls. I’m just using those numbers as an example. Similarly…
Identifying Moderate Muslims
Laura has a short post over at Pursuing Holiness on Pakistan and a move toward moderation legislatively. The particular form of moderation involved is preventing women who are raped from being charged with adultery. Personally, I’m eagerly awaiting the announcement of a moderate stoning, so that I could get some idea what that would be…
Finally Some Cover on Multiple Reading!
Joe Carter at the evangelical outpost has written a post titled How to Change Your Mind. I’m not going to steal the thunder of his post, other than to say that it deals with reading passages multiple times. I have long been recommending reading a book of the Bible, or any passage you are about…
Tolerance or Homogenization
I value tolerance. Even more, I value and celebrate diversity. But frequently I see definitions of tolerance that must be considered self-destructive. I usually encounter these in the form of straw-man arguments. Someone may ask me if I believe in tolerance. When I acknowledge that I do, they will ask me then whether I will…
Environmental Skepticism Where Appropriate
The Evangelical Ecologist has an excellent post on the value of skepticism in the appropriate place, and also touches on where it is appropriate. He says: There is an important distinction, then, between aggressively promoting environmental stewardship as a God-ordained moral ethic (which it is), and aggressively promoting a particular area of human-derived environmental science…
MBWR To End
John at Locusts and Honey, is bringing the Methodist Blogs Weekly Roundup to a close with this week’s edition. John has done a wonderful job of building up the Methodist blogosphere, and I have great sympathy for him as he lays aside this enormous task. I’ll miss the “human touch” in selecting the posts, but…
Christian Carnival CXLVIII Posted
Christian Carnival CXLVIII is now available at Crossroads for your reading pleasure. I will again try to post some links to some of the posts that catch my attention. I rarely get time to link to all of them.
Avoiding Shoot-First Apologetics
My Christianity Today Connection e-mail this morning contained a link to an excellent article, Shoot-First Apologetics. I don’t want to steal the thunder from the article itself–go read it in place, but I do want to quote from the e-mail: And while defending the core elements of our faith is imperative, we sometimes shoot too…
Hebrews 7:1-3: Reuniting Priesthood and Kingship
1Now this Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the Most High God, met Abraham when he was returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him. 2Abraham apportioned a tenth of everything to him. He is first “King of Righteousness” and then King of Salem which is “King of Peace.” 3He is without…
Just What the Bible Says – Again
By reading the new Methoblog portal, I located an entry The Use and Misuse of the Bible . Most of this is a quote of a sermon by A. Allen Brindisi at Davidson College Presbyterian Church, which you can read here, though there is a substantial quote in the blog entry. To quote from the…
Different Standards of Evidence
In a post some time ago titled The Dog DID my Homework I commented on the odd inequity of intelligent design advocates asking for detailed evolutionary histories of each structure, while expecting no more than raw assertions of themselves. Carl Zimmer on The Loom has written a National Geographic article on the evolution of complex…
Pseudo-Polymath Series on Genesis
I’ve been intending to mention this since last week’s Christian Blog Carnival came out, but I’ve been distracted. Mark Olson at Pseudo-Polymath has started a series on Genesis from a philosophical perspective. The first entry is Reflections on Gensis: Chapter 1, and he has now posted the second entry, Reflections on Genesis: Chapters 2-3 (part…
Familiarity with God’s Voice
Laura has another good post on Pursuing Holiness on hearing the voice of God. She says: It’s very convicting to realize how easily I recognize voices – even of people I’ve never met – from the world, and how I struggle to discern God’s will in my life. So what’s the difference? Exposure. Just so!…
Chocolate Cat Cake
OK, I don’t usually post this sort of thing, but it’s just too funny. This morning while driving I was listening to a morning show, and one of the folks is about to get married and was having trouble picking a groom cake. He has finally decided to have his two cats done in chocolate…
Methodist Blogroll Change
I have changed the code here to reflect the new Methodist Blogroll from the new Methodist portal. I understand (and observe, for that matter) that the older blogroll has fallen into disrepair, and this new one is being diligently maintained. Many features of the portal are also of great interest, and I intend to use…
Christian Carnival CXLVII
Rev-Ed has recovered from election day activities and posted the Christian Carnival CXLVII. Hopefully my schedule this week will allow me to link back to a few of these posts. My post is from my Participatory Bible Study Blog as usual. Thanks to Rev-Ed for a nice carnival. I divide my posting between three blogs,…
Hebrews: Exercising Confidence
I’ve been blogging about the book of Hebrews for some time, and I’ve also read and intended to link to some posts from Chasing the Wind that I found through the Christian Carnival, but as the book of Hebrews would tell you, you’ve got to follow through! 🙂 But this week’s carnival brought us a…
Christian Carnival CXLVII
Rev-Ed has recovered from election day activities and posted the Christian Carnival CXLVII. Hopefully my schedule this week will allow me to link back to a few of these posts. Thanks to Rev-Ed for a nice carnival.