First of all, it should go without saying that: 1) looting and destruction of property is not a Christian response to anything at all. It should be repudiated always; 2) It is time for statues of Confederate soldiers and leaders to be put where they belong, in history museums. They should not be in public squares, in front of public buildings as supposed positive examples of our Southern heritage. They should also not be destroyed. ‘Cancel culture’ is not a... Read more
The following is a small segment of an interview the NY Times recently conducted with Bob Dylan: (see https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/arts/music/bob-dylan-rough-and-rowdy-ways.html?action=click&module=Editors%20Picks&pgtype=Homepage) Why didn’t more people pay attention to Little Richard’s gospel music? Probably because gospel music is the music of good news and in these days there just isn’t any. Good news in today’s world is like a fugitive, treated like a hoodlum and put on the run. Castigated. All we see is good-for-nothing news. And we have to thank the media... Read more
BEN: Your discussion of unclean spirits in Chapt. 10 is fascinating. But I wonder if any of the hearers or readers of the NT could have possibly known to associate that terminology with the spirits of the dead Nephilim? Or for that matter could Mark’s audience, even the Jewish Christian ones, in Rome really be expected to know all the ANE and 2nd temple speculations about evil spirits and demons? It seems unlikely. And we have to remember there was... Read more
The picture above is of a famous icon depicting St. Paul inspiring the writings of his biggest fan, John Chrysostom. Fan is probably not too strong a word. Chrysostom even preached whole sermons on the merits and positive example of Paul. And John modeled himself after Paul in numerous ways, for example in his use of rhetoric, his deep devotion to understanding the Scriptures, his self-sacrificial conduct, his disdain for ‘all things in excess’— food, drink, clothing, etc. Margaret Mitchell’s... Read more
This is what America is really about, at it’s best, and most democratic. The speaker is James Earl Jones, with the Seattle Symphony. Read more
There are many things to say about this disturbing video, some of them good, most of them otherwise. In the first place, there is nothing genuinely Evangelical about this video. It is clearly about a certain kind of cultic low church Protestant fundamentalism, but sadly many people, including much of the media, has no idea how to distinguish orthodox Christian practice and belief from fundamentalistic cultic stuff. Sadly, the term Evangelical has also come to be tainted by and associated... Read more