There is a major question we need to ask as a society, but the question will come after a brief listing. It is a listing of violence we Americans are both exposed to throughout culture and which we engage — engage so much companies can make lots and lots of money from us by producing [Read More…]
Archives for August 2012
Norway’s Justice System
Aug 28, 2012 @ 15:08 by 30 Comments
By Max Fisher: As an American, or maybe just as a moral human being, it’s hard not to feel appalled, even outraged, that Norwegian far-right monster Anders Breivik only received 21 years in prison for his attacks last year, including a bombing in Oslo and a cold-blooded shooting spree, which claimed 77 lives. That’s just under 100 [Read More…]
5 Myths about Successful Churches
Aug 28, 2012 @ 11:48 by 28 Comments
This set of ideas is from Joseph Mattera: Mattera thinks the very items many measure success by today are the same items Jesus opposed in Matthew 23. “In this passage Jesus speaks against people loving titles, celebrity status, and desiring prominent places in public events.” Here are his five myths: MYTH #1: The Size of [Read More…]
Evolution and the Sting of Death (RJS)
Aug 28, 2012 @ 5:50 by 26 Comments
The latest installment of the BioLogos series Southern Baptist Voices, published earlier this month, explored the troubling issue of the role death plays in evolution. John D. Laing, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology and Philosophy at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s Havard School for Theological Studies, raised the issue in his essay Evolution and Death. The [Read More…]
Tasting the Future Now
Aug 28, 2012 @ 0:04 by 6 Comments
If you were a 1st Century Jew or Roman or Greek perhaps the most incomprehensible claim of the Christians was the belief that God’s kingdom, the Eschaton, was already at work in the here and now. That claim is on the horizontal plane of time: the future is now. At times a vertical move was [Read More…]
Neil Armstrong: Humble Hero
Aug 27, 2012 @ 18:08 by 6 Comments
From Gene Seymour: What were you doing when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon? But Armstrong, a native of Wapakoneta, Ohio, so steeped in flying that his idea of winding down was piloting gliders in his spare time, wanted exactly none of those options. Having his choice of any possible future after leaving NASA in [Read More…]
Houses Underwater
Aug 27, 2012 @ 16:03 by 1 Comment
From The Atlantic: Nearly five years after the market came crashing down, America’s housing market is beginning to show signs of recovery. Sales of previously-occupied homes have been tracking upward, as have prices. And according to data released today by the by real-estate website Zillow, the share of homeowners who are “underwater” is also starting to slowly improve. [Read More…]
Hauerwas on C.S. Lewis and War
Aug 27, 2012 @ 11:34 by 14 Comments
From Religion and Ethics: Many people are Christians because of the work of C.S. Lewis. With wit and wisdom, Lewis imaginatively exploded the hollow pretensions of the secular. Moreover, he helped many see, for the first time, the world in the light of fact that “it had really happened once.” It is, therefore, not easy [Read More…]
Your Sons and Your …
Aug 27, 2012 @ 5:04 by 33 Comments
Here’s what my Bible records Peter explaining on the Day of Pentecost: ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those [Read More…]
SBNR
Aug 27, 2012 @ 0:18 by 16 Comments
Many today are taken with the “spiritual but not religious” category (SBNR). I’m not. Diana Butler Bass, in her new book, Christianity after Religion, is. Spirituality is good; religion is bad. The language is the rhetoric of combat or partisanship. It is also the language of the non-defined. What do you think “SBNR” means? What message [Read More…]
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