Editor’s Note: As I was traveling this week, I’m especially grateful for a few guest posts. The below is from Rev. Samuel Atchison, who supervised my work in prison chaplaincy for about three years (first as a seminary internship, and then in a volunteer capacity). He wrote a piece appropriate for MLK Day, so I apologize for publishing this late. * “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to... Read more
Editor’s Note: Erik Campano has been conducting a series of interviews for Patheos around the issue of human trafficking. I’ll publish more of those soon. One particularly provocative interview was published over at the News and Politics Channel, of Yvonne Zimmerman. Zimmerman is quite critical of evangelical anti-trafficking efforts, in part because they focus on those who are trafficked for sex instead of those who are trafficked for labor, and in part because they apparently assume a (presumably oppressive) evangelical... Read more
I wasn’t planning to publish another post today, because I wanted to let the guest post from Rick Santorum have the day. But I could think of no better way to complement Senator Santorum’s challenging message on forced abortions than to point to people who are making radical sacrifices to care for children whom the rest of the world discarded: While the video doesn’t go into this, the Dennehy’s are a Christian family who adopted through Bethany Christian Services. Read more
I cannot think of any political figure who has stood more staunchly and more effectively for the rights of the unborn than Rick Santorum. In the guest post below, Senator Santorum speaks to a global policy issue of great importance. Whether people are too intimidated by the Chinese government, whether they value their economic cooperation over the interests of justice for the Chinese people, or whether they are too afraid to speak up against any kind of abortion whatsoever, the... Read more
Imagine three people in a windowless prison cell. The first is a torturer, the second a prisoner, and the third an observer. The torturer is with the prisoner, doing what torturers do. He puts the prisoner in the most extraordinary agony a human being can experience. Horrendous pain. The prisoner is screaming, writhing, begging for relief — but the torturer keeps going. At the same time, the observer sits on a wooden chair in the corner of the room and... Read more
Lance Armstrong soared into the stratosphere of global sports superheroes, attracted almost universal (outside of France) love and praise, and became one of the wealthiest athletes on the planet — on a wings of what was, arguably, the most sophisticated cheating operation ever perpetrated by an individual or team in modern sports. The only comparison would be the infamous systemic abuses of former Soviet Bloc nations like East Germany. There’s no minimizing this story. It’s the magnitude of Lance’s celebrity,... Read more
Editor’s Note: Below is the third post from contributing writer, John Mark Reynolds, founder of the Torrey Honors Institute at Biola, now a trailblazing provost at Houston Baptist University, and a frequent social commentator in places like The Washington Post: If government were good, only God would have guns. Yet humans abuse God’s gift of human freedom, and so guns abound. What can we do about it? Christians want peace, but perfect peace is not possible in our present condition... Read more
My own training is in the world of discourse, rules and rhetoric known as philosophy. I entitled this blog Philosophical Fragments because I wanted to bring something more akin to philosophical rigor to bear on the religious, social and cultural issues of the day. My friend Mark Goldblatt reflects here on an issue more eternal than timely — but that is really to say that it is always timely, that today is always the day for questions such as these. So... Read more
In case you were wondering, those who defend traditional marriage and oppose same-sex marriage are continuing the tradition of those who slaughtered the Jews and the Native Americans. They’re also perverts who are trying to theocratize America. According, at least, to Wendell Berry. And no, I’m neither making this up nor exaggerating. I write this post with deep disappointment. I appreciate Wendell Berry’s literary artistry, and I appreciate his spiritual insights. But he indulged in an epic rant against gay... Read more
Last night I dreamt that I was reading The New York Times and stumbled upon this open letter from the President to evangelical pastor Louie Giglio: To my friend, Pastor Louie Giglio, We share the essence of a common religious heritage. We both profess a faith in Jesus Christ, both call on God for direction and strength, and both believe that God calls us to care for the least of these. Yet we do not agree on all things, and you... Read more
Philosophical Fragments
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