Almighty and everlasting God, increase in us the gifts of faith, hope, and charity; and, that we may obtain what you promise, make us love what you command; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Read more
In Grand Rapids, of all places, a female nursing student advertized space in her apartment, and was looking for a “Christian” roommate. Here’s the story. Thoughts? GRAND RAPIDS — The 31-year-old nursing student was looking to keep her expenses down when she decided to invite someone to share her home. But when she posted an advertisement for a Christian roommate on her local church’s bulletin board, the Grand Rapids woman landed in the middle of a civil rights debate that... Read more
Tim Gombis, all of a sudden, has two books on the market and this book, The Drama of Ephesians: Participating in the Triumph of God, is a wonderful exploration of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. If you are preaching on Ephesians, or teach the letter regularly, this is a must book. How to read this letter? Traditionally, the letter is read through the lens of theology (chp. 1-3) and praxis (4-6), but Gombis finds a more narratival approach, and the... Read more
The title of this post is from Karen, and she’s certified to say such things. And this clip below is where it all gets going… and if you don’t laugh go see Ms. Schiller’s psychiatrist: Juan Williams had been a popular news analyst for public radio. Popular, that is, until NPR decided otherwise and canned his butt. Vivian Schiller, NPR’s head mucky-muck, not only tossed Juan Williams overboard, she let it be known that as far as she was concerned... Read more
October’s here! This is the way to write a blog post. Good on you, Justin: “Getting back to the issue at hand then, what are the limits of science? Frankly, I don’t think that there are any. I firmly believe that science can provide answers to any question we deem fit to pose. Does that mean that I think science can provide insight into issues, areas, and questions, normally reserved to religion like belief in God, morality, and love? Absolutely.”... Read more
Jim Wallis calls Americans to examine the discourse. What do you think of his observations? The deep religious teachings of the “common good” could have guided our discussions about the role of government in an economic crisis. The scriptural priority of the poor could have led us to focus on the significance of the new and alarming poverty rate increases. Just war criteria could have been used to evaluate our nine year war in Afghanistan and even made it an... Read more
From Time.com, which wonders if 90% of medical studies are flat-out wrong. Yikes. As long as we don’t go back to the days when people thought Castoria was a good remedy for what might happen if you didn’t drink some it. [Ioannidis] zoomed in on 49 of the most highly regarded research findings in medicine over the previous 13 years, as judged by the science community’s two standard measures: the papers had appeared in the journals most widely cited in... Read more
Some weeks ago (before some eruptions at work) I began a series of stories of the spiritual gifts in action. This is the second installment. For a fuller picture of my hopes with this series, please read the first couple of paragraphs from that first post. Before this next story, I’ll reveal a personal bias: among the gifts, I share Paul’s favoritism for the prophetic, and for the same reason: it builds others up. What’s more, for purposes of this... Read more
“… if God cares for so much for all creatures, why didn’t God create a world in which there would be no natural disasters?” Terence Fretheim asks why God created a world in which bad things happen in his new book, Creation Untamed: The Bible, God, and Natural Disasters (Theological Explorations for the Church Catholic). Here is the problem: we live in a world that we believe is created by God, and we believe God is good. The good God... Read more
Judith Lichtenberg, on altruism: is pure altruism possible? Altruism is possible and altruism is real, although in healthy people it intertwines subtly with the well-being of the agent who does good. And this is crucial for seeing how to increase the amount of altruism in the world. Aristotle had it right in his “Nicomachean Ethics”: we have to raise people from their “very youth” and educate them “so as both to delight in and to be pained by the things... Read more
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