(Note – commenting isn’t working. We hope it is fixed soon.) Bill Clinton recently weighed in on the Tea Party and is afraid of its rhetoric. What do you think? (CNN) – Former President Bill Clinton said he sees parallels in the mood of the country now and on April 19, 1995, when the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City killed 168 people while he was in the White House. “There’s the same kind of economic and social upheaval... Read more
David’s prayer for justice in Psalm 7 implicates himself in judgment: if “I” have been unjust, he prays, judge me. If “I” have not, then vindicate me. Notice the words of Psalm 7 (after the jump), beginning especially now in v. 6. First, David prays for YHWH to rise (v. 6). Stand up, rise up, and wake up! Second, David understands God to be Judge over the whole world, and God is just and aroused by those who oppose his... Read more
Last week David Opderbeck posted some thoughts on A “Historical” Adam? on the BioLogos blog Science and the Sacred. The second paragraph of his post puts forth a concern of many: My concerns are theological. Significant parts of the Christian Tradition have always taught that human beings are incapable of not sinning; that this incapability is a form of corruption and not an inherent human weakness that can be overcome by merely human effort; and that this corruption was passed... Read more
I had a conversation the other day with Skye Jethani, at Leadership Journal, and J.R. Briggs, church planting in the Hatfield, PA, and this question was asked by J.R.: Which books in the spiritual or Christian life written these days do you think will be read in 50 years? How would you answer that question? What makes a book last? What makes a book timeless, or close to timeless? We read Mere Christianity and Pilgrim’s Progress and others, but what makes them... Read more
From CNN.com, by a 12-yr-old author: Yep, and this is one of the better ones: to call someone “childish” is an insult, and it insults the mature child too. [Added: I was thinking that “pc” is the same as “what is proper,” and I was not being sarcastic, and I agree with this 12-yr-old. To say someone is “childish” is an insult to children.] The traits the word ‘childish’ addresses are seen so often in adults that we should abolish... Read more
From the Washington Post, by Michael Birnbaum… TEMPLE, TEX. — In an era when students talk back to teachers, skip class and wear ever-more-risque clothing to school, one central Texas city has hit upon a deceptively simple solution: Bring back the paddle. Most school districts across the country banned paddling of students long ago. Texas sat that trend out. Nearly a quarter of the estimated 225,000 students who received corporal punishment nationwide in 2006, the latest figures available, were from... Read more
Readers of the Psalter know that David complains about his enemies, laments over his situation, and challenges YHWH to step in and establish justice. What is often unobserved is that David, or whoever prayed these psalms, often subjects himself to the same judgment — and this leaves us with a powerful thought: David’s commitment is to justice, even if it means that he must be judged by God. (Which he doesn’t think will happen; he thinks he’s innocent.) David also... Read more
James Davison Hunter, in his new book, and I predict perhaps one of the more influential studies of this decade (To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World ), examines the theme of how culture changes — and that leads him in Essay Two to the theme of power. Do you see this issue in the Christian Right or the Christian Left? Where do you see this today with Christians advocating in... Read more
In the Reformation, or after the Reformation, the Anabaptists said they were neither “Catholic nor Reformed” but where The Third Way. Why are there so few Anabaptists today? and yet why are so many attracted to anabaptism? So, what is the Third Way? Where are you seeing anabaptism today? Is it a genuine third way? An excellent and highly-recommended new book by Stuart Murray, The Naked Anabaptist , attempts — and succeeds in my view — to get to the... Read more
Recently I flew down to Cincinnati to Cincinnati Biblical Seminary to participate in the annual Stone-Campbell lectures. Must say this again: I contend that the Restoration Movement, or the Stone-Campbell movement, made up of the Christian Church and the Churches of Christ, is American evangelicalism’s best-kept secret and, sadly, the most overlooked resource of thinking and praxis. These are Bible people; these are pious people; and there are lots and lots of them; and they are doing excellent work in... Read more
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