Roger E. Olson

What It Means If You Remember….What were you in the 1950s/1960s if you remember:1) Backyard Clubs2) Singspirations (“Stop and let me tell you…”)3) The Four Spiritual Laws4) The Sugar Creek Gang5) Flannel Graphs6) Chalk Talks7) “Tips for Teens”8) The Palermo Brothers9) Campus Life Clubs10) “Sword Drills”11) Promise Boxes12) Hoping the rapture won’t happen until…13) “Banquet” in place of “Prom”14) Thurlow Spurr and the Spurrlows15) … [Read more...]

Has Lying Become Normal and Acceptable in American Society?Let me lead here with a thesis: In contemporary American society, especially in advertising and politics, lying has become so pervasive as to be expected and normal. Put another way, most of us, Americans, have become so jaded by the pervasiveness of lying, especially in advertising and politics, that we generally expect it and consider it normal if not guiltless.Two questions: Is this true? And if so, is it a problem?I … [Read more...]

What Does It Mean to be “Catholic” If Not Belonging to the Church of Rome?Over the past many years of my career as a Protestant Christian theologian I have had many encounters with fellow Protestant Christians—including Baptists and others in the Free Church tradition—who would like Protestants to be “catholic” (with a small “c”). Most of them do not mean that Protestants should join the Catholic Church whose headquarters on earth is the Vatican; most of them do mean something else by “ca … [Read more...]

 Preface: These two essays are my admittedly feeble contribution, for now, to people who ask whether belief in God and belief in Jesus Christ as God are reasonable (justified) beliefs. No attempt is made here to prove either God or Jesus (as God) directly; my only interest is in demonstrating, in a simply language as possible and as briefly as possible, why Christians believe their beliefs are reasonable and not irrational "leaps of faith" that require sacrifice of the … [Read more...]

Is “Social Innovation” Sufficient? A Call for More Radical Social ActionRecently I have attended talks by several very bright, creative, socially concerned Christians. All that they said can be described under the umbrella concept of “imaginative social innovation for solving wicked social problems.” The speakers were Christians deeply involved in research into and creative thinking about especially urban problems in contemporary America: intergenerational poverty, racism, school droppin … [Read more...]

Crossing a Threshold: Affirming Choice in Public EducationAfter many years of increasingly uncomfortable affirmation of public schools as parents’ only option—without paying tuition in addition to taxes—I have arrived at a different position. I now believe governments should provide parents with “vouchers” (a metaphor) for payment of accredited private school education for their children. In other words, I believe parents should not have to pay both public school taxes and private school … [Read more...]

Should America Have Attacked Syria? A Christian ResponseAccording to news reports, U.S. President Donald Trump virtually unilaterally (i.e., without Congressional approval) ordered the U.S. military to attack and destroy a Syrian air base that was allegedly used by Syria to kill its own people with deadly chemical (gas) weapons banned by international agreements. The news is trickling out—in print and by broadcasts—and more information is needed. So, here I will only respond based on the … [Read more...]