When the public theologian attempts to diagnose the disease now plaguing Washington DC, Dr. Roger Olson's analysis is two ideologies: Neoliberalism and Social Darwinism. Instead, I believe a more precise diagnosis is simple: it's sin. How might the concept of sin better illuminate the shameless corruption and brinkmanship? Read more
Public Sin Might the concept of public sin aid the public theologian in illuminating the White House shouting match? The White House Shouting Match So, what’s the problem? The US president and vice president simply told Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy: “no deal.” Because America could not extort tribute from Ukraine without providing that country with military security, Washington said “no.” Certainly, there’s nothing wrong with this. Right? Let’s look a bit closer. The White House placed the visiting Zelenskyy in... Read more
In a Christian Century editorial, Peter W Marty asks a challenging question: how can Christians counter the politics of revenge? Should we take revenge against those in Washington taking revenge? No, that won't help. Remembering how Jesus told us to love and forgive our enemies, finding an antidote to Washington's cultural poison is difficult. Perhaps we need to sin boldly and resist the new government policy that normalizes personal revenge right along with party retribution. Read more
DOGE and the House GOP budget cuts are a smokescreen hiding an elephant sized theft. By dramatically cutting pennies from civil service paychecks, the billionaires who paid to elect the 47th US president will plunder budget dollars through tax cuts. Where will the dollars for the tax cuts come from? From the future. From the $4 trillion debt ceiling raise. The promise of a balanced budget is a lie. And the $5000 dividend offer to taxpayers is a bribe to quiet public objection. Read more
Are the Bible and Big Bang cosmology consonant? Hyung-Joo Lee proposes the principle of "intra-physics emergence" to demonstrate how emergent properties require multiple theories to explain the physical world. Nature changes over time. Everything was not pre-determined at the point of origin, at the Big Bang. This provides hope for the Christian theologian who looks forward to God's transformation and redemption in the future. Read more
Since 2017credentialed scientists have set up progressive research programns to identify UAP (Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena) and test ETH (the extraterrestrial hypothesis). Robert Powell's new book on UFOs sets the standard for the scientist. Even so, certain dimentions of the phenomenon -- subjective meaning, paranormal claims, abduction experiences, religious revelation, and such -- lie outside the fence of scientific research. Can we stretch science? Or must we embrace extra-scientific methods to study it all? Read more
Chris Barrigar's Trinitarian Big History agrees with evolutionary theorists that religion has predisposed us to "neural transcendence-positing dispositions. Yet, evolution does not account for our knowledge of the divine Trinity. Special revelation in Jesus of Nazareth accounts for this. Read more
Paula White and Christian Nationalism? Are they connected? No. But some self-rightous progressive Chrstians are ready to sling mud at Paula White and hope that some of the mud rubs off on the president. Why bother with slinging mud at other Christians? Why not sling all of it directly at the right target? Read more
The White House has turned its guns on everyone domestic who sedulously spends money on helping the poor, the homeless, and the sojourner. A new blast of groundfire is shooting at, of all people, the Lutherans. For decades Lutherans have deftly and efficiently distributed both private donations and public contributions to desparately needed social services. Under the marching orders of Michael Flynn and Elon Musk, the Lutherans will be starved out of Washington's largess. What should those faithful to Jesus' teachings about compassion do? Read more
Fraser Watts at ISSR offers an update on those Working on Science and Religion. Let's add to Watts' list an update on theologians attending to the ecological crisis, genetic engineering, Artificial Intelligence, astrobiology, and post-colonial critique. Read more
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