A friend passed a link to this article to me. I read it and it made me stop in my tracks and ponder what life was like, the injustice of it all, the ingenuity needed to cope with the injustice, and the need to continue to work for justice in our world … especially in the Church that claims Jesus as Lord. For almost three decades beginning in 1936, many African-American travelers relied on a booklet to help them decide... Read more
The heart of Psalm 29, after summoning the heavenly court and all beings to give honor to YHWH and to bow before YHWH, marches through reasons why YHWH ought to be praised: because of YHWH’s voice, which the NetBible translates as “YHWH’s shout.” The essence here is this: in a world of idols and idolatries, the psalmist asserts the Sovereignty and Majesty and Utter Priority of YHWH over all. He has tamed and controlled and created all living things, including... Read more
This is the final post from John F. Haught’s book Making Sense of Evolution: Darwin, God, and the Drama of Life. The last chapter of the book deals with the concept of deity – who or what is this God that imparts meaning to the underlying facts of the material world? I have been asked on a number of occasions, by e-mail, in comments, and in person, how my view of evolutionary creation avoids deism. Several have suggested that a... Read more
The parables of Jesus summon us to the edge of the world in order to imagine a world that can only be called “kingdom.” One scholar says Luke 7:41-43 is one of the treasured religious possessions of the Western world, while I’d say it was originally Eastern! Still, he’s onto something. It’s brief enough for me to quote in full: 7:41 “A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed him five hundred silver coins, and the other fifty. 7:42 When they could not... Read more
I like to read the headlines of major newspapers from all sides of the political spectrum, and that means I poke my nob into such notables as the NYTimes, WaPo, National Review, Christian Science Monitor, Slate, and of course the Chicago Tribune. I didn’t leave my nob in the hole long enough to get it burned, but my nose did get tweaked the other day when I perused The National Review. One would think the world was falling apart, that... Read more
Psalm 29 summons “heavenly beings” (sons of gods) to acknowledge YHWH, and you can read the Psalm after the jump where we include the NetBible’s version. Some have even suggested Psalm 29 adapts poetry from the Canaanites. The essential command of vv. 1-2 is to “honor” or to “acknowledge” (Hebrew yahab), and there is a similar expression at Psalm 96:7-8. Why this command? Perhaps because humans want to honor themselves; perhaps because other beings want their own honor; or perhaps... Read more
What does the faith of America’s teenagers tell us about the faith they are being taught? What does their faith tell us about the American Church? Two very good questions, both addressed by Kenda Dean, a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary. Her book is called Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the American Church , and I will be blogging my way through it. (By the way, Tony Jones is blogging about this book and you... Read more
From CBE’s wonderful Arise Newsletter… Do you hear the argument that only males can be elders? On what basis is that argument based? Where does the Bible say an elder must be a male? Margaret Mowczko sketches a response to these questions. Margaret Mowczko, a singer-songwriter for many years, lives in Australia. She writes about biblical equality in marriage and in ministry for her website, newlife. * * * * * Some people think that the moral qualifications for church leaders... Read more
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, John Stott and others have reminded us that at the center of Christianity is Jesus Christ. But we forget. When we forget, we begin centering our faith on how salvation occurs, on great theologians, on ethics, on justice, on politics, and on church building programs. That is why Len Sweet’s and Frank Viola’s new book, Jesus Manifesto: Restoring the Supremacy and Sovereignty of Jesus Christ , comes at a good time and calls us back to the only... Read more
I’m a bit late on jotting down some ideas about our wonderful trip to (flower-filled) Korea. I was invited to speak to the Faculty and Staff of Seoul Foreign School in the Sodaemun-Gu area of Seoul. It our first trip to the East and we hope it is not our last: loved it. Steep learning curve — not only about Korea but also about international schools. We really knew very little about international education, but a one-liner is this: English-speaking... Read more
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