The Opposite of Faith

Last updated on: July 7, 2015 at 6:09 am By James F. McGrath

Kim Fabricius considers a number of possible and oft-proposed identifications for the opposite of faith, and proposes that the real opposite of faith is fear. He writes: There is a lot of fear around in the church today. Fundamentalists are afraid of scholarship and science. Traditionalists are afraid of change and newness. Many of us are anxious about secularism or alarmed by militant Islam. And a lot of Christians are seeking safety by demanding our rights, defending our territory, acting like victims,... Read more

What’s In Your Flour?

Last updated on: July 6, 2015 at 8:40 pm By James F. McGrath

We had an interesting experience yesterday when my wife opened a newly-purchased sack of Bakers Roses flour (formerly labeled Bakers Five Roses flour), produced by ADM. It has been the best flour for baking bread and much else. But this time, we had a surprise in store for us. Chunks of something that looked rather like drywall, with strange green and orange spots on the outside, took up a good proportion of the bag’s contents: I would really love to figure out... Read more

News Flash: Right-Wing Fundamentalists Don’t Understand Islam

Last updated on: July 6, 2015 at 10:39 am By James F. McGrath

Hemant Mehta drew attention to angry outbursts on Twitter, from conservatives who are upset that president Obama did not mention God in his 4th of July address. These two particularly baffle me: @BlissTabitha He’s an atheist with Muslim tendencies. — Troy Ellison (@blayne_troy) July 4, 2015 [ Military ] Open Question : Obama removes God from 4th of July address. What is wrong with him? This proves he is muslim. what do you… — Zprávy (@zpravycz) July 5, 2015 Why are... Read more

Church of the Marginalized

Last updated on: July 6, 2015 at 6:33 am By James F. McGrath

Dianna Anderson writes, Being part of the Church is, by definition, to embrace and work from and with the margins. It is to understand that the margins – those prized and created and beloved by God, those we are called to care for – are so significant to the church as to become the face of the church.Jesus was an itinerant preacher who spoke from the margins, embracing those society would not, a man hated by many. If you, as a... Read more

The Pope, the God, and the GOP

Last updated on: July 5, 2015 at 3:26 pm By James F. McGrath

The cartoon above by Mike Lukovich offers an amusing take on a famous painting. It nicely situates Big Oil as thinking of itself as God. One way of understanding it is that Big Oil as God is taking a bribe from the GOP (the Republican Party) to ignore the Pope. But that would represent a reversal of what really happens – the money passes from Big Oil to the politicians, and then they ignore the Pope in favor of their vested interests. So is... Read more

Jesus in Indiana

Last updated on: July 5, 2015 at 7:39 am By James F. McGrath

I felt like I should make some memes specifically for the new Facebook page I created, Progressive Christians of Indiana. And so here is my first. It hopefully works on its own, but since it tries to allude to a lot of things in a short space, let me comment on it at least a little. The background is the instance of a pizzeria in Indiana saying it would not serve gay people, and then president Obama making a joke... Read more

Jubilee Capitalism

Last updated on: July 4, 2015 at 9:59 am By James F. McGrath

PZ Myers shared the cartoon above. It struck me as reflecting on it that there is an interesting convergence between the radical egalitarian meritocracy talked about in the comic, and the vision of the Jubilee law in the Bible. The Jubilee law required that once a generation, land would revert to its original owner. The possibility of accumulating wealth infinitely and indefinitely was eliminated, and the recuperation of land meant that the children or grandchildren those who had fallen into poverty had... Read more

Happy Independence Day!

Last updated on: July 4, 2015 at 6:03 am By James F. McGrath

For this 4th of July, I thought I would repost something I wrote on this occasion in 2008: It is the 4th of July, and in the United States, we often find people mixing Christianity and nationalism in ways that are at best ironic, and at times downright contradictory. The 4th of July is thus an appropriate day for reflection on Christianity, nationalism, and what might have been different had the colonies in the New World not fought for their... Read more

Hundreds of Answers and Eighty-One Questions

Last updated on: July 3, 2015 at 6:00 pm By James F. McGrath

Kevin DeYoung posted 40 questions on the Gospel Coalition website, aimed at Christians who support marriage equality. They are all the sort of thing you would expect from a conservative Christian website like The Gospel Coalition – and thus are things which most Christians who’ve thought about this issue will have already considered. A lot of people have responded. Here is a round-up of the ones I am aware of: Susan Cottrell Buzz Dixon Kimberly Knight Ben Irwin R. L. Stollar Aaron... Read more

No Adam, No Christ?

Last updated on: July 3, 2015 at 1:27 pm By James F. McGrath

I was asked a question on Facebook, and thought I would share the answer I gave. Here’s the question: I was hoping for a little clarification on how one might reconcile a non literal first Adam with Paul’s gospel. In Paul’s mind Christ is the “second Adam,” having succeeded where the “first Adam” failed. According to Paul, it is precisely because of the failure of the first that the second was required. Can anyone point me in the right direction... Read more