Jesus the Exception?

Last updated on: July 27, 2014 at 12:24 pm By James F. McGrath

While I was traveling recently, lots more appeared in the blogosphere related to the historical Jesus in general, and Bart Ehrman’s book on Christology in particular. Larry Hurtado had a review of the latter published. Jonathan Burke blogged about whether Jesus existed. Cassandra Farrin discussed Jesus’ unique voiceprint. Bart Ehrman has had a series of posts on his blog related to Craig Evans’ objections to Ehrman’s view that Jesus’ corpse was probably never buried. The posts about crucifixion nails and Josephus deal with what... Read more

Fools for Christ

Last updated on: July 27, 2014 at 10:11 am By James F. McGrath

Believing in inerrancy doesn’t make you a fool for Christ anymore than believing the world was flat contra Galileo made the Catholic church fools for Christ. Resisting injustice, sacrificing your life for others, showing solidarity with the oppressed, selling your goods and embracing poverty – these are the sorts of actions that make one a fool for Christ. — Aric Clark Read more

Parables, by Robert Aldridge

Last updated on: July 27, 2014 at 8:25 am By James F. McGrath

This modern oratorio by Robert Livingston Aldridge, “Parables,” uses texts from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, originally setting out with the intent to highlight similarities between the three traditions, but ending up highlighting differences as well in very striking ways. See the composer’s interview with Ronnie Reich and a piece by Minnesota Public Radio for more information, as well as this document with notes by librettist Herschel Garfein as well as the composer. Read more

Ray Comfort Hates Science and the Bible Equally

Last updated on: July 26, 2014 at 4:54 pm By James F. McGrath

I am pretty certain at this stage that Ray Comfort is someone who is intentionally trying to make Christianity look bad. Just look at this Facebook post of his, which P. Z. Myers shared on his blog: Ancient people often thought that the dry earth is situated above the chaotic waters from which they were caused to emerge in creation. That is what ancient readers understood Job 26:7 to mean. But Comfort is not happy to merely twist the meaning... Read more

Define Dialect

Last updated on: January 31, 2017 at 11:14 am By James F. McGrath

I came across the book F this Test: Even More of the Very Best Totally Wrong Test Answers in Butler University’s bookstore yesterday. It includes this gem: Read more

Fact Checking What the Minister Says

Last updated on: July 26, 2014 at 10:25 am By James F. McGrath

I came across the image above on Facebook, not long after sharing an article about what you should use your cell phone for at church. And so I found myself envisaging the above family as doing something very devout: looking further into what they were hearing from the pulpit. Anyone who says that you should accept what they say – including what they say that the Bible says – “on faith” is clearly afraid of what you will find if you... Read more

A Saloon with High Standards

Last updated on: July 26, 2014 at 8:25 am By James F. McGrath

The cartoon above was shared on the Internet Monk blog. It got me thinking. A church having an informal, conversational atmosphere, beverages, and even opportunities for karaoke seem to me to potentially be good things. Why can’t we combine that with high standards, not in the sense that we become rigid and dogmatic, but that we have a common commitment to personal integrity and social justice? Would one good model for at least some churches be “a saloon with high... Read more

Were You There (When They Crucified My Lord)?

Last updated on: July 25, 2014 at 5:41 pm By James F. McGrath

I saw the image above on Facebook, and thought that playing on the similarity was a cheap shot. But then someone added the “Were you there…?” quip, and that made it even funnier. Read more

Not Persecution

Last updated on: July 25, 2014 at 4:18 pm By James F. McGrath

The quote comes from Benjamin Corey’s recent post on his blog Formerly Fundie. Read more

Temple Mount Flyover

Last updated on: July 25, 2014 at 2:26 pm By James F. McGrath

From SourceFlix. Since the area is a no-fly zone even when there isn’t war going on, this is a rather rare perspective. Sharing this video also gives me the chance to see whether issues I’ve had in the past have been resolved, now that the Patheos upgrade has finished. And so let me try embedding a YouTube video as well – here’s one I’ve shared before, the trailer from the IMAX movie Jerusalem: Read more

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