There’s an interesting article in the Atlantic Monthly about why the rich are less charitable than those with more modest incomes. Over the years I’ve heard this statistic used many times and it’s usually pretty consistent. The rich – although they give more in actual dollars – give far less of a percentage of their income to social causes than the poor. The top 20% in income give around 1.3 percent of their income to social causes, while the bottom 20%... Read more
I confess that I was a lousy blogger last week because I was out of town with my family. I confess that instead of reading the news and trying to post interesting thoughts and ideas at Paperback Theology, I went snow skiing with my family instead, and it was about as good as it gets. I confess that I think snow skiing was the perfect vacation in this busy time of year for a couple of reasons. First, it isolated... Read more
There’s an interesting article in the New York Times about the trend of Christians giving their coming of age sons a bar mitzvah. It’s worth reading. I think that the evangelical tradition – perhaps above any other contingent of Christians – lack any sort of initiation rites at the key ages. What do you think of this? Of all the surprises promised by the recent TLC reality show “The Sisterhood,” which followed the lives of five Atlanta preachers’ wives, the... Read more
Thirty Seconds that will lift your spirits. A little Friday Funny! Read more
William J. (Billy) Abraham has a new book out called Shaking Hands With the Devil: The Intersection of Terrorism and Theology. It was recently featured in the American Spectator, and I’m fascinated by this article & book. I recommend you read it. I once saw Billy Abraham and Stephen Long (Marquette), go at each other on a panel discussion at the Wesley Theological Society annual meeting. It was pretty entertaining. I confess that I do not have the kind of... Read more
For the first time in ages it is a Sunday morning and I’m not in church. My family will have our own church service en route to a much needed holiday. But as we read the word and talk about it, as we pray and share communion together we will all have a sense that something is missing. Although we are gathered, we are not gathered as the church. I have a friend who routinely leads his family to skip... Read more
Mental Floss is healthy for your brain – John Green blows 50 misconceptions out of the water in about 5 minutes. As I watched this, I realized how many sermons I’ve heard where misconceptions in need of mental floss were trotted out as amazing facts. I’ve heard at least a half-dozen of these in church including numbers 1,2,3,5,7, and 9 below. Here are the top 10 myths he busted for me: Marie Antoinette never said “let them eat cake,” when... Read more
Stanley Hauerwas says that the choice of a Jesuit to be the new Bishop of Rome tells us a lot about where the Roman Catholic Church is headed in the near future. That Jorge Mario Bergoglio chose the name Francis tells us perhaps even more. Saint Francis – born into wealth – divested himself of everything not simply to minister to the poor, but to become poor himself. I hope that Hauerwas is right. Everything I’ve read so far about Bergoglio’s... Read more
In the typical suburban evangelical church, being single is treated like a problem which needs to be solved, as though a single person must need a spouse in order to image God. I could not disagree more. Often the church tries to create and manage matchmaking environments for those who are unmarried under the guise of “singles” ministries. Not that all singles groups live-action versions of Christianmingle.com. I’m not saying that. In fact I think it is actually pretty amazing... Read more
The kingdom of God is like a normal everyday car salesman who shows up to work, tries to do his job well and feed his family. It’s not the most highly respected profession in the world. In fact a lot of people look down on him. He doesn’t make a ton of money, but he puts food on the table and does his business. Until one day Jeff Gordon shows up in disguise and takes him on the test drive... Read more
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