What is it that leads Christians — those who say they are following Jesus — to go at one another, to being at one another’s throats, to schism and division? Here are the words of James: What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because... Read more
The news media is obsessed now with Sonia Sotomayor. The newsfolks, ever out to gain some attention, are interviewing, or trying to set up, Republicans who will be involved in the process of approving her for the Supreme Court. Many of us tire of the tediousness of nitpicking her every move and then approving her anyway. The events surrounding the Sotomayor case remind me that this politicization of Supreme Court nominations got its big media boost with Joe Biden in... Read more
If you could give someone one item to learn about poverty in Africa, what would it be? What is the best way to teach about poverty and the global crises we face? What impacted you the most in learning about global poverty? I learned most about the Holocaust through visiting Mauthausen and reading Elie Wiesel’s “Night.” How do we teach about Africa’s poverty and AIDS crises? One way is to write novels … A deep love for suffering children, especially... Read more
Tom Wright devotes no less than 70 pages to Romans in Justification: God’s Plan & Paul’s Vision, and… well … it is hard to sum up the denseness of this stuff without doing disservice to you, our readers, and to Tom, our author. Tell me, what is the hang-up over Tom Wright’s understanding of the “righteousness of God” as God’s covenant faithfulness? How does that understanding undermine Reformed views? So, let’s have some short posts that sum all the sections... Read more
I’m irritated with Thomas Nelson because they: (1) Chose to publish The Patriot’s Bible, a Bible that draws the Bible’s message and American nationalism as close as possible, and(2) Chose as the General Editor Richard Lee, a Southern Baptist pastor (nothing against him or pastors per se), instead of a specialist in Church-State relations who knows Bible, theology, and Church history — not to say the history of political theory. The use of the Bible for political relations in our... Read more
We need now to turn to the sadness of how the church appears to many, and to how the messianic community connected to James was behaving (James 4:1-3): What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask,... Read more
SMcK comments up front: This is one of the most interesting posts we’ve seen from RJS, and I hope you read it, take it in, and offer your observations. Anyone who talks about evolution needs to talk about these sorts of facts and observations. FROM RJS: Last Saturday Science and the Sacred highlighted a recent article, published in Cell and covered in the NY Times, where scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany produced a genetically... Read more
Andrew Marin’s life is devoted to ministry with and to the GLBT community, and his approach to them is one of love, and his hope is to elevate the conversation. We conclude this series on his book, Love Is an Orientation: Elevating the Conversation With the Gay Community , today with a sketch of his suggested sixteen commitments: 1. Commitment for the long haul.2. Boldness but not as in “in your face.” From our last post … 3. Apply the... Read more
I coached high school basketball during the 90s. During that time I had many conversations with high school teachers, one of them had to do with the gradual elimination of shop classes. The big reason I heard was that, by eliminating shop classes, students could choose only “academic” courses and this elevated the scores and ratings of local high schools. Some of the high school teachers were dead-set against the elimination of shop classes. This recent NY Times deserves discussion... Read more
We didn’t finish this verse last week, so let’s look at it again: Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness. A few translations, including the NASB and ESV, are wooden and clumsy, but this TNIV captures the Greek well (Greek: καρπος δε δικαιοσυνης εν ειρηνη σπειρεται τοις ποιουσιν ειρηνην). The truly wise teachers pursue peace in peaceful ways. This is how I would sum up the point of this verse. Again — the wise person, in contrast... Read more
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