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February 2019
February 06, 2019
Is Christianity a System of Belief or a Way of Life?
I have been accused frequently over the past several weeks by commenters on my blog...
January 2019
January 15, 2019
We Have Met the Nazis, and They are Us
We ought not to hide from ourselves that Nazi Germany is a mirror for all...
January 12, 2019
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Donald Trump, and Stupidity
Why do intelligent people believe lies that are easily exposed as lies? Why do intelligent...
December 2018
December 06, 2018
Does the Word of God Settle Everything?
I recently had a brief, unproductive exchange in the comment section of this blog with...
November 2018
November 21, 2018
Is My Ignorance Worth as Much as Your Knowledge?
In early 1980, Isaac Asimov wrote something in a Newsweek article that has been making the rounds on...
November 06, 2018
Are the People in the Caravan My Neighbors?
If everybody is your neighbor, then nobody is. Rod Dreher Next semester, a colleague and...
September 2018
September 18, 2018
Is it THE truth, or is it MY truth?
Ian McEwan's The Children Act is the story of Fiona Maye, an experienced and highly respected family...
September 11, 2018
Seventeen Years Ago Today
Two years ago, the fifteenth anniversary of 9/11 fell on a Sunday. The priest of...
September 06, 2018
What the Author Meant May Not Matter
At the beginning of a seminar on the books of Exodus and Job from the...
August 2018
August 26, 2018
Taking Our Country Back
One of my favorite staff writers for The New Yorker is Rebecca Mead; she’s been...
August 09, 2018
To Live In Safety and Without Fear
Every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig-tree, and there shall...
July 2018
July 17, 2018
Expecting to Find Light
We are not simply made by God—we are made of God Julian of Norwich I...
July 08, 2018
God is Just a Story (and so are we)
Although the name of this blog is “Freelance Christianity,” and it is published on Patheos’...
July 05, 2018
To Whom Do You Belong?
A couple of years ago, my college celebrated its centennial. For Jeanne and me, the...
July 04, 2018
Happy Independence Day!
On our collective natal day, I offer the following–shamelessly stolen from The Onion–for your Independence...
June 2018
June 28, 2018
Does Everything Work Together for Good?
Jeanne and I recently had the opportunity to see a local community theater’s production of...
June 23, 2018
Is America a Christian Nation? Should It Be?
A question that is almost guaranteed to start an argument in some circles goes to...
June 12, 2018
The God of History is an Atheist
Atheism is a purification Simone Weil Former President Obama loved to quote a hopeful statement from...
May 2018
May 17, 2018
Is Israel in the West? and other questions from the classroom
Swirling around the dedication of the new United States embassy in Jerusalem this week have...
May 03, 2018
One Nation, Under God?
I was invited earlier this week by an online publication that I write for occasionally...
April 2018
April 26, 2018
White Privilege and the Gospels
In my General Ethics class, my students and I have just finished a three week...
April 10, 2018
Moral Apocalypse
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say. Shakespeare, King Lear This week,...
April 05, 2018
Jesus and Karl Marx walk into a bar . . .
We should read the New Testament as saying that how we treat each other on...
April 01, 2018
An Easter Cautionary Tale: Jesus Isn’t Walking Through That Door
God is not an insurance agent. H. G. Wells During Rick Pitino’s tenure as the...
March 2018
March 22, 2018
Morality By The Skin Of Your Teeth
Any caring human being asks the question What is the right thing to do? on...
March 20, 2018
What is it Like to be You?
During the last third of the semester in my General Ethics class this semester, we...
March 17, 2018
Celebrating Saint Bridget’s Day
A little over a year ago, as I dressed after working out, I had a...
March 15, 2018
The Christian Faith In a Nutshell
Sports fans old enough to remember the 70s and 80s will recall that a regular...
February 2018
February 06, 2018
Two Plus Two Makes Four
In J. M. Coetzee’s strange and fascinating novel The Childhood of Jesus, the precocious child...
February 01, 2018
Deflategate and the Nazis
Exactly three years ago, on the morning of Super Bowl 49, I wrote a blog...
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