Transcript From the Second Presidential Debate: Obama v. Romney at Hofstra University

Last updated on: October 16, 2012 at 9:15 pm By Tim Suttle

CANDY CROWLEY, MODERATOR: Good evening from Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. I’m Candy Crowley from CNN’s “State of the Union.” We are here for the second presidential debate, a town hall, sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates. CROWLEY: The Gallup organization chose 82 uncommitted voters from the New York area. Their questions will drive the night. My goal is to give the conversation direction and to ensure questions get answered. The questions are known to me and my... Read more

Carrying Christianity Beyond Left and Right: Does A Candidates Faith Matter?

Last updated on: October 16, 2012 at 10:19 am By Tim Suttle

Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith is an awkward issue for some evangelicals who are uncomfortable with the thought of a Mormon candidate. In response to questions about his involvement in the Mormon Church, Romney famously stated, “I’m not a spokesman for my church.” No doubt the Democrats have been puzzled as the Christian Right offers Romney their full support, despite the evangelical belief that Mormonism is heretical at best, and at worst a religious cult. It has seemed like... Read more

Monday Morning Confessional

Last updated on: October 15, 2012 at 1:47 pm By Tim Suttle

I confess that I started The Instructions by Adam Levin but never finished it. I loved every bit of it for the first fifty pages, but was put off by its length (1019 pages). I’m not sure I want to invest that kind of time in the book right now. I confess that money cannot buy happiness, but it can buy vacations to fun places, and those are pretty cool. I confess that I think limited atonement is a complete... Read more

What Did We Learn from the Vice Presidential Debate?

Last updated on: October 12, 2012 at 7:52 am By Tim Suttle

Vice-presidential debates rarely move the race at the top of the ticket in any significant way. When the dust settles after last night’s debate I suspect this will be the case. I thought both participants did an excellent job of articulating their position. I was not put off by Biden’s reactions to Ryan. I was a bit annoyed by Paul Ryan’s “I’m the smartest kid in the class” routine, but I admit a bias in this case. Polls show that... Read more

2012 Vice Presidential Debate Transcript

Last updated on: October 11, 2012 at 8:59 pm By Tim Suttle

Vice President Joe Biden – D Representative Paul Ryan – R Martha Raddatz – Moderator RADDATZ: Good evening, and welcome to the first and only vice presidential debate of 2012, sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates. I’m Martha Raddatz of ABC News, and I am honored to moderate this debate between two men who have dedicated much of their lives to public service. Tonight’s debate is divided between domestic and foreign policy issues. And I’m going to move back... Read more

Meeting the Demands of a New Generation of Christian Leaders

Last updated on: October 11, 2012 at 8:10 am By Tim Suttle

I’ve got a new article up at The Huffington Post called, Meeting the Demands of a New Generation of Christian Leaders. I hope you’ll give it a quick read & help me put the word out about it by sharing it on Facebook, etc. It’s about some of the work friend Chris Jehle is doing. Chris is the founder and CEO of an urban KCMO ministry called The Hope Center. Chris and his wife Tammy have poured their lives into this wonderful ministry and... Read more

Tuesdays With Walter Part 05 – Church Leaders are Masters of Implementation Without Imagination

Last updated on: October 10, 2012 at 10:46 am By Tim Suttle

This is Part 05 of a series on Walter Brueggemann’s The Prophetic Imagination. It is an attempt to show how theological works are great sources for leadership reflection. If you want to catch up here are links to: Part 01, Part 02, Part 03, Part 04 Part 05: What Walter Brueggemann envisions for a prophetic ministry is a new “consciousness” formed by 1) the rejection of the Royal Consciousness, and 2) an embracing of the prophetic narrative. The Royal Consciousness is... Read more

What Religion are You? The Growing “none” Category

Last updated on: October 9, 2012 at 1:50 pm By Tim Suttle

Slate had an interesting article up today, One-Fifth of Americans Now Religiously Unaffiliated. The data It is based on Pew Research data: “…tracking the so-called religious “nones,” a group that’s increased by 5 percentage points in the past five years—and roughly 10 points in the past two decades—to 19.6 percent of all Americans, or about 46 million people. Indicating that the increase owes something to generational shifts in the general population, the number of younger “nones” is even bigger: A... Read more

Where is Heaven?

Last updated on: October 9, 2012 at 8:50 am By Tim Suttle

In the faith section of our Kansas City Star this weekend was an interesting article asking local pastors to weigh in on their thoughts about heaven. The results were quite interesting. Surveys tell us that somewhere around 80% of Americans believe in a real place called heaven. Where is Heaven? The pastors from KC weighed in (you can see their answers at the bottom). Perhaps the most interesting commonality was that none of them were willing to give its location.... Read more

Monday Morning Confessional – Birthday Edition

Last updated on: October 8, 2012 at 8:35 am By Tim Suttle

I confess today is my birthday – I was born in 1969 which makes me 43. I confess that 43 doesn’t feel as old as it sounded when I was young. I confess that I am attempting to reduce the number of exclamation points I use while writing. When I’m writing books, articles, or for journals I rarely ever use one, but on the blog, Facebook, and Twitter the writing style is a little more colloquial and so I’m tempted…... Read more