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Let it snow! Drew Dixon on pre-game prayer: “Nowhere does the Bible call Christians to pray at government sponsored events. The Bible calls us to proclaim the gospel on street corners and in center of towns and every where we go, but it never requires that we force the government or anyone else to publically honor our religion. I believe Christ’s kingdom is “not of this world” (John 18:36). The New Testament envisions a kingdom that resides in the hearts... Read more
For about 2-3 weeks we have struggled with the “timestamp” device in Word Press at Patheos. Which means posts are not appearing at the right time… we’ve had them “Miss Schedule” and that meant we had to post them manually; we’ve had some appear as many as six hours early, which seems to be happening tonight with Weekly Meanderings. We are working on this, but I know it is not just this blog but others at Patheos are having the... Read more
According to the AP, the new constitution is undergirded and contained by sharia: CAIRO (AP) – One of Egypt’s most prominent ultraconservative Muslim clerics had high praise for the country’s draft constitution. Speaking to fellow clerics, he said this was the charter they had long wanted, ensuring that laws and rights would be strictly subordinated to Islamic law. “This constitution has more complete restraints on rights than ever existed before in any Egyptian constitution,” Sheik Yasser Borhami assured the clerics.... Read more
Are near death experiences an indicator of heaven? Kyle Hill: And these takedowns have company. Paul Raeburn in the Huffington Post, speaking of Alexander’s deathbed vision being promoted as a scientific account, wrote, “We are all demeaned, and our national conversation is demeaned, by people who promote this kind of thing as science. This is religious belief; nothing else.” We might expect this tone from skeptics, but even the faithful chime in. Greg Stierwrites in the Christian post that while he fully... Read more
Well, this is good news: the Bristol Christian Union has changed minds on the women speakers issue. (See the post below this one.) My thanks to RJS for finding this. A university Christian union that came under attack for not allowing women to teach at its main meetings has now said it will allow both sexes to preach at all events. Bristol University Christian Union (BUCU) is being investigated after a memo emerged revealing women could not teach at its weekly meetings,... Read more
What I’d like to know is what happens if Junia shows up? Or Phoebe? or Deborah? or Huldah? Any exceptions to the policy? The Christian Union at Bristol University decides women cannot teach unless their husbands are present. There is both nothing all that new here, but this illustrates selectivity in deciding which texts will play the major part. Bristol University Christian Union have forbidden women from speaking at their weekly meetings. The ban reflects the recent decision by the... Read more
Advent season provokes a question: why didn’t Jesus stay in Bethlehem after he was born? It would have been smarter for him to be raised there. Bethlehem had some proud history. Bethlehem could boast of Boaz, Ruth, and Jesse. David was anointed king by the prophet Samuel in Bethlehem. Bethlehem looked good on the resume. Yet, Jesus grew up in the hill country, in Nazareth of Galilee. Not only does the town of Nazareth not get good marks in the... Read more
For decades now Bible scholars and theologians have raised the red flag of warning about individualism. The ironies of the warning, and I confess to part of the red-flag-raising crowd, are ignored: raised often enough by those who are themselves very individualistic, raised by those who are at the same time contending for a gospel and a theology in tune with our own time (which happens to be very individualistic), and raised by folks who are the first to gripe when... Read more
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