Here’s my thesis, plain and simple as the truth: You cannot read 1 Timothy 2’s statements about women in a way that nullifies, diminishes, or silences the prophetic, praying, teaching, and apostle-ing voices of women in the (mostly) Pauline churches without unraveling the Bible’s consistency. The actions of women in Paul’s churches illustrate the theological beliefs of the apostle. We know (1) what Paul says in 1 Timothy 2 (and it’s near parallel in 1 Cor 14, if that text be taken as... Read more

Ben Casselman, 538: The image of the 20-something still living in his parents’ basement has become a well-worn media trope in recent years. And unlike some commonclaims about millennials, this one is true — today’s young people really are living at home longer. In 1960, according to census data,1 less than one in six 25-year-olds still lived with mom and dad; in 2014, nearly one in three did. (Separate data from the Current Population Survey, which is used in the... Read more

By Steve Cuss — read it to the end and you’ll be blessed: For the last 11 years I have owned only one suit. I bought it shortly after my phone rang in Spring 2005.  Our dear friend Kathy was riding in a car from South Dakota to Las Vegas when it slid off the road and Kathy was killed. I was to officiate the funeral. She was about my age – a few years younger. We put our skills together and honored... Read more

One of the most intense theological themes in my life was a period — of about four years — when all things eschatological were most important to me, including the Rapture: Was it pre trib, mid trib, or post trib?  As a young professor no longer interested in the rapture question I read RT France’s interpretation of Matt 24:29-31, who saw it tied into 70 AD, and then I learned its connection to folks like G.B. Caird (later to N.T.... Read more

Roger Simon, Commentary: The short form is this: What you believe, or claim to believe or say you believe — not what you do or how you act  or what the results of your actions may be — defines you as a person and makes you look “good.” It how your life will be judged by others and by yourself. In 19th Century France, the gastronome Jean Brillat-Savarin told us that “you are what you eat.” In 21st-century America, almost all of... Read more

By Joe James, education minister at SouthSide Church of Christ in Rogers Arkansas Trust the Table (3): The Parable of Bina 48 “Trusting the table” is my way of trying to say that the Christian Church in America cannot afford to sell out to either the conservative or the progressive worldviews. Eventually, I want to propose that the Table is a sort of “third way” alternative to these options. But before we get there, I want to explore the “ends... Read more

Source: On June 2, people across the country will wear orange as a sign of their commitment to diminishing the scourge of gun violence that besets the United States. The movement was born in mourning on the south side of Chicago, and Bishop Jeffrey Lee is asking members of the diocese to give it their support. “Fifteen-year-old Hadiya Pendleton was shot to death in our city just a week after marching in President Obama’s second inaugural parade,” Lee said. “Her friends decided... Read more

More than 33,000 Americans have been shot already in 2015. More than 8500 have died from these gunshots. [Source] This week the horrific murdering of Alison Parker and Adam Ward gained all the attention, or I should say, the murder of Alison Parker gained the attention. Clergy are wearing orange on 2 June to symbolize their opposition to gun violence. I stand with them. During August 40 Chicagoans have been shot and killed; about 270 have been shot and wounded.... Read more

Thoughts? Alarmist? Politics? Serious? Source: The summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro should be postponed or moved “in the name of public health” due to the widening Zika outbreak in Brazil, more than 100 prominent doctors and professors said Friday in an open letter to the World Health Organization. “We make this call despite the widespread fatalism that the Rio 2016 Games are inevitable or ‘too big to fail,’ ” the writers said in the letter addressed to WHO... Read more