An article in today’s New York Times caught my eye: “Cellphone Radiation May Cause Cancer, Advisory Panel Says.” Now that’s not what I needed to start my day, but it certainly did get my interest. According to this story by Tara Parker-Pope and Felicity Barringer, several things seems to be true: 1. The Advisory Panel was composed of well-regarded scholars who do not appear to have an axe to grind in this issue. The panel was from the International Agency... Read more
Part 14 of series: What Was the Message of Jesus? In my last post, I outlined some of the ways Jews in the time of Jesus answered the question: How is the kingdom of God coming? Though there were a variety of answers to that question, almost all Jews in the first century agreed that the coming of God’s kingdom would include the expulsion of Rome from Judea. The Zealots and others of revolutionary ilk were convinced that this would... Read more
A couple of months ago I signed up with Groupon. Now I get an email “coupon” each day, offering me some deal within a reasonable drive from my house. None of this is especially interesting. But what I have found interesting is the written copy that entices me to use my daily coupon. For example, a couple of days ago I received a half-off deal for Billy T’s Burger Shoppe in Alamo Heights (about 40 minutes away). Here’s what Groupon... Read more
Digital technology helps us stay in touch with our loved ones. It gives us new ways to communicate with our family members and closest friends. So it supports and expands our ways of loving, right? Jonathan Franzen, an award-winning author, says “No.” A couple of weeks ago he delivered the commencement address at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. (You can listen to it here.) An adaptation of that speech appeared in the New York Times on May 28, 2011. When... Read more
Today is Memorial Day in the United States, a day when we remember with gratitude those who have died in military service. It has been my tradition for many years to offer a prayer on the occasion of Memorial Day. ——————————- Gracious, Sovereign God, Lord of all nations, On this Memorial Day, we pause to reflect upon our blessings as a nation and the high cost of those blessings for many. Thank you for the freedom we enjoy in this... Read more
Psalm 60:1-12 Oh, please help us against our enemies, for all human help is useless. Psalm 60:11 American culture prizes self-reliance. We admire those people who pull themselves up by their bootstraps and forge ahead with determination. We want to control our lives and our destinies. When we get in trouble, we expect to help ourselves out of it. To quote a line from a classic Anacin commercial, we’re culturally wired to say, “Mother, please, I’d rather do it myself!”... Read more
For the past several years, I have put up a version of this post. The response from people has been quite enthusiastic. So, given that we’re entering the buggy summer months, I thought it would be good to redo and repost this information. First of all, though, let me be clear that I am not a doctor. (Well, okay, I have a Ph.D. But I’m not a medical doctor.) One should never take my medical advice too seriously. Second, let... Read more
Part 13 of series: What Was the Message of Jesus? So far in this series, What Was the Message of Jesus?, we’ve seen that the core of Jesus’ proclamation was “the kingdom of God has come near” (Mark 1:15). In my most recent posts in this series, I focused on the question of when the kingdom of God is coming. In fact, Jesus proclaimed the kingdom as something both present and future, as something “already and not yet” here on... Read more
Do you find yourself forgetting things that you should remember? Are you wishing that you could somehow improve your memory? Gretchen Reynolds of the New York Times has a suggestion. In “A Memory Tonic for the Aging Brain,” she reports that physical exercise has a positive effect on memory. The article begins by chronicling what many of us over-50 folk have experienced: memory weakens with age. Yet the news is not all bad: But there is hope, Dr. Yassa said.... Read more
Part 13 of series: What Was the Message of Jesus? In recent posts I have shown that Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of God as something both present and future. Like the mustard seed, the kingdom is small in the moment, yet will be great in the future. The more we study Jesus’ ministry without chopping it into disconnected bits, the more we realize that he proclaimed the reign of God as something that was “already and not yet” present. It... Read more
Mark D. Roberts
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