My Feeble Attempts at Satire Miss the Mark Occasionally I use my blog to make a stab at making a point about religion using satire. My most recent post/essay (“Totally Tongue-in-Cheek…”) was satire. Hardly anyone seems to have gotten the point. It was not about restaurants. The point was: What if restaurants did this? They don’t…and for very good reasons. Why do churches do this? They do…and possibly for reasons that are very good for them. But is the trend… Read more

Totally Tongue-in-Cheek but Hopefully Enlightening A new trend is developing in the American restaurant business. I have seen it growing everywhere I go. Recently I was in a large American city looking for a Mexican restaurant and couldn’t find one. That seemed odd as Mexican (or “Tex-Mex”) food has traditionally been popular there. I drove all over the city and looked on the web and examined the “Yellow Pages” under “Restaurants.” All I could find were restaurants with names like… Read more

Who Is the Ruler of this World? An Answer for Bible-believing Christians The answer may surprisingly surprise many contemporary American Christians—especially those profoundly influenced by Calvinism and other forms of divine determinism. *I speak here only for myself; I do not speak for any other person or any institution or organization *This blog post is intended for self-identified Bible-believing Christians. Others may ask questions for information and insight. This is not a discussion board; please address comments and/or questions to… Read more

What Is “Identity Politics” and Why Does It Matter? American academia (post-secondary education organizations and institutions and especially scholars/professors) is allegedly rife with something called “identity politics.” It’s a buzzword (or phrase). What does it mean and why does it matter? One claim being made by many American (and I’m sure other) academics is that higher education and society in general is “stacked in favor of” the dominant group—namely, white males. All (fill in the blank with the name of… Read more

My Most Important Book Over the forty years of my career as a Christian theologian I have written twenty books; all have been published by major publishers in the U.S. and then around the world (including the University of Beijing Press, China). One of my books sold 90K copies in one South American country. Sometimes people ask me which book I am proudest of and which I think is my best book. These are difficult questions; the answers shift from… Read more

Should Abused Women (or Men) Stay with Their Spouses? According to news reports a Southern Baptist seminary president, famous for leading the conservative resurgence (sometimes called the “fundamentalist takeover”) of the Southern Baptist Convention, reiterated publicly his long-held belief that wives should not divorce their husbands even if their husbands are abusing them. According to news reports this has led to a rebellion by hundreds if not thousands of Southern Baptist women and men. Many are demanding the seminary president’s… Read more

Are You Being Manipulated without Knowing It? Thoughts about “Public Relations” Recently I enjoyed a conversation with a friend who is well-read, knowledgeable, and reflective about “modernity” especially as it manifests in American culture. I entered the conversation thinking of “modernity” philosophically and in terms of science and technology. My concern has long been about how modernity, as a cultural ethos, has invaded Christian churches and how it has affected especially Christian theology—both academic and popular. My friend, who is… Read more

An Extremely Sensitive Subject Explored: Sexual Abuse of Males So why would I be interested in such an “icky” subject as sexual abuse of boys and men? Simply this: Over my many years of teaching post-secondary students (mostly eighteen to thirty year olds) and over my many years of friendships with men and over my many years of watching television and reading newspapers (mostly in the United States) I have come to be aware of this problem as much more… Read more

Was James Cone a Prophet? Some Thoughts about “Black Theology” A few years ago I had the privilege of meeting James Cone, arguably the most influential modern black theologian. It was a brief meeting and I expressed to him my appreciation for his courage as shown in his rather radical expressions of what has come to be called “Black Theology.” (Some prefer the term “African-American Theology,” but “Black Theology” has stuck and Cone himself did not abandon it.) Cone died… Read more