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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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It’s One Thing to Lie
. . . it’s another to lie stupidly when the evidence of that stupidity is right in front of you. ID creationists William Dembski gave an account (loosely speaking) of a question and answer by Ken Miller and Francis Collins. Since then an actual transcript has been made that clearly shows the inaccuracy of the…
Christian Ministries and Politics
CNN.com has published a commentary by Bishop T. D. Jakes titled Commentary: No political party can contain us. My wife called my attention to it as a blog topic. Bishop Jakes is explicitly addressing his comments to the African-American community. To what extent should black churches use the pulpit for politics? How much should they…
A Mighty Man
My wife used one of my radio broadcasts from Running Toward the Goal (no longer on the air) for her devotional for tomorrow morning. In it, I discuss Gideon as a “mighty man.” We tend to remember Gideon for his great deeds, but his story doesn’t start out so auspiciously. I wanted to call attention…
Celebrating our Country
July 4 is a time to celebrate our country and the things that made it great. It will be a day of fireworks, parades, parties, picnics, and speeches. I believe it’s incredibly important that we learn to celebrate the values that maintain our freedom, and do so in a principled and consistent way. Too often…
Comment Moderation
I combined two errors in my moderation queue. On my Threads from Henry’s Web blog I only moderate comments that have certain indicators for spam. I have thus far only seen one valid comment sent to moderation. Unfortunately I wasn’t paying attention when setting up this blog and both turned on stronger moderation and entered…
T4G: Salvation
Articles VIII-XIII of the Together for the Gospel statement all deal with salvation, in this case with a strong focus on justification. (Note that the link above is to the final revision of the statement rather than the earlier form I have referenced in previous comments.) Those who have read my previous entries on this…
Interview with Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori
Religion and Ethics has an interview with Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, recently elected presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church. I commend this article to you for an overview of how the new presiding bishop thinks about the world and Christianity.
Neither Male nor Female in Christ
Jesus came to bring salvation, hope, and life. He crossed the gap between the infinite and the finite and gave us to call to equality and respect for all, exemplified by his treatment of the down and out in society. Paul expressed the Christian hope in community when he said that in Christ there is…
Science and Religion – Can they be Allies?
PZ Myers has responded to an interview with Ron Numbers in a post titled I’m proud to be non-human. His main point seems to be that those of us who favor evolution need to go all the way and stick totally with the scientific evidence. He says: There is a strong cultural aspect to this…
Genesis 5: Preservation of the Patriarchal Line
Introduction Genesis 5 continues the priestly account of origins. Now I don’t want us to get the idea that there are two separate messages here, because the two sources (priestly [P] and Yahwist [J]) have been brought together with their own message. Nonetheless, we can get some additional breadth and depth to this message by…
Christian Music at Skating Rink
One of the many e-mail newsletters I get is from the Traditional Values Coalition. Often it seems that the most traditional value from their point of view is overreaction. Recently I got an e-mail from them telling me of the perfidy of the New York Human Relations Commission, which has apparently decided to investigate a…
Establishment Clause Suits
Ed Brayton has an excellent post over on Dispatches from the Culture Wars on a bill currently before the U. S. House of Representives, H. R. 2679. He argues, successfully I think, that this is an attempt by the religious right to tilt the playing field in their direction. Because they have failed so often…
Progressives, Minimum Wage, and Strategies
I receive regular newsletters from the Christian Alliance for Progress, and I really appreciate that organization for its work to reclaim Christianity from the religious right. Christianity is about moral and ethical values, and about caring for our neighbor, and not about making small numbers of people rich or about right wing politics. None of…
Public Opinion and Policy
I’m fairly critical of the war in Iraq on a strategic basis, not merely on the strategy of executing the war, but the political strategy that somehow suggested that there was a good outcome to this. But Craig Crawford, in a post titled Opinion-Proof Policy on CQPolitics.com, has a different problem. George Bush, he says,…
Isaiah 24-27 – Interpretation
Now that we’ve looked at various critical issues about this passage, and I’ve discussed the dangers and difficulties involved with Biblical criticism, I’d like to summarize some of the things we can learn by examining the passage critically. We have identified a number of elements in the passage that have been strung together to form…
Episcopal Church Elects Woman as Presiding Bishop
I’d like to congratulate the Episcopal church on electing a woman as presiding bishop. While the normal complaints about declining mainline membership are brought up, I do not believe that the membership problems that the mainline churches have are due to upholding the rights, and more importantly the divine calling of women. Further, no Christian…
Genesis 4: The Two Lines
While Genesis 1:1-2:3 (or 4a) comes from the Priestly source and continues with Genesis 5, our first dose of the Yahwist begins with Genesis 2:4 and goes through the end of chapter 4. We have plenty of opportunity to see the difference between the two sources. The Yahwistic story will pick up with the description…
T4G: Interpretation and Egalitarianism
In searching around the blogosphere, or more accurately taking a quick glance, I note that many bloggers are responding to the Together for the Gospel statement as though Article XVI (about male leadership in ministry) was a single aberration in an otherwise good document. In fact, for some, the tragedy of women being excluded from…
CD: Leah Taylor, Faithful Friend
In my personal testimony I speak of returning to the church in a United Methodist congregation (Pine Forest UMC), I note that I attended an evening service first where some young people gave their testimony. One of those young people was Leah Taylor (then Leah Bridges), at that time involved in soccer, music, and the…
T4G Article II: Canon within Canon
In a previous entry I discussed the inspiration of the Bible in response to the Together for the Gospel statement, Article I. Since I disagreed almost entirely with that article, and Article II also deals with the Bible, it is no surprise that I find much to disagree with in this second statement as well….
Links to start the week
As you can see if you look back through my posts, these “links” entries are pretty irregular, and that will probably continue. Some things I link immediately, but to avoid many short posts I post collections like this one. Let me start with things I’ve collected, in categories. Bible Translations There was an excellent, dispassionate…
T4G Article I: The Bible
The first two articles of the Together for the Gospel statement relate to the Bible. I’m going to deal primarily with the first article in this short essay. The article reads: I find myself so fundamentally in disagreement with this article that practically every word requires some sort of response. Since I have written fairly…
Is this the Gospel? (Overview)
In an earlier post I responded to the Together for the Gospel statement, which I do not think represents any real “togetherness,” nor do I think it represents the gospel. Now I want to be clear that I am not suggesting that my side, whatever that may be, needs to exclude the writers of such…
Basis of Faith and Meaning
A number of people over the years have suggested that because of some doctrinal position or another that I hold, I no longer have a basis for my faith. Those who express themselves a bit less forcefully see it as a weakening of faith, a distancing from God, and a lessening of belief in God’s…