Jan Hoffman’s fascinating and insightful article, and you can read more at the link: At 13, they were viewed by classmates with envy, admiration and not a little awe. The girls wore makeup, had boyfriends and went to parties held by older students. The boys boasted about sneaking beers on a Saturday night and swiping condoms from the local convenience store. They were cool. They were good-looking. They were so not you. Whatever happened to them? “The fast-track kids didn’t... Read more
From Jewish Journal, by Jared Sichel: In Rev. Drew Sams’ Sunday sermon before his congregation at Bel Air Presbyterian Church on June 22 — just two days after the national umbrella organization of the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) endorsed divestment from three companies that do business in Israel — Sams registered his firm opposition to the vote to the 1,500 people in attendance…. The vote requires PCUSA to sell the approximately $21 million worth of stock it owns in three... Read more
From my friend Jim Martin: Most parents I know love their children and want to do a good job with them. Many of these people will do most anything to give their children a head start in life. Some will go to extraordinary lengths to give their children an advantage. Yet, it is possible to parent in such a way as to make it difficult for them to grow up, mature, and live as Christ-followers. The following are some ways... Read more
“It’s time to be skeptical of our own skepticism.” –N.T. Wright “No matter how cynical you get, it’s never enough to keep up.” —Lily Tomlin One of my favorite stories in the Hebrew Scriptures is also one that haunts me. It is the story at the beginning of 1 Samuel, where Hannah comes to the Temple to pray for a child. She is childless in a world where that means she’s worthless and so she goes to the one place... Read more
What if we take this sentence in its full force: “Jesus is the Savior of the world”? Yes, some balk because “Savior” conjures up some goofy experiences, manipulative to be accurate, with salvation messages and gospel invitations and talking Savior means not talking Lord, and talking Savior means no kingdom but heaven-when-we-die. OK, I get that, and so does Brian Zahnd in his book Farewell to Mars. Brian is an intelligent, creative man — together they merge into this splendid book.... Read more
NY Times, by Adam Davidson: One in five people in their 20s and early 30s is currently living with his or her parents. And 60 percent of all young adults receive financial support from them. That’s a significant increase from a generation ago, when only one in 10 young adults moved back home and few received financial support. The common explanation for the shift is that people born in the late 1980s and early 1990s came of age amid several... Read more
In the final chapter of his book The Liberating Image: The Imago Dei in Genesis 1 J. Richard Middleton suggests a new interpretive framework for Genesis 1. This is not new as in totally innovative, or dismissing tradition altogether, but it is new in focus. Middleton made the case that God is portrayed as both artisan and ruler. He brought “into being a wisely crafted world through the exercise of royal power.” The world he created is not characterized by... Read more
When Joe Stowell sent me his manuscript on leadership to read for an endorsement, I was not but a few pages in when I realized “this is my kind of book.” Why? Some of you will know I have balked at the constant discussion of leadership in Christian circles, and I’m not the first to observe that often enough the definitions of leadership are taken from the business world and then those definitions are then used to find biblical examples.... Read more
Great news. Continuing its unrelenting march toward a renewable-powered future, Germany now can producemore than half of its energy from solar. The official word of this milestone comes from the Fraunhofer ISE research institute, which showed that the country produced a record 24.24 GW of solar energy during the first week of June. Thanks to better weather in Germany compared to last year, the production of solar power has increased 34 percent in the first part of 2014. Germany’s expansion of... Read more
The traditional view of the church, which is not to say that everyone has always believed this everywhere but that this has been the historic view in standard theologies, is that the wicked will be endlessly punished (often called, eternal conscious torment/punishment, hence ECT or ECP). That view has now and then had its detractors and critics, but in the last quarter of the 20th Century and now into the 21st Century that view has been criticized more and more.... Read more
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